We meet them near the subway entrances, or directly in the corridors of connections: fruit and vegetable vendors on the run.
A scourge for the early vegetables who are well established, who pay rents, salaries, charges and taxes.
A few months ago, a group of traders battered by the health crisis knocked on the door of the Paris police headquarters, to complain about this unfair competition, a few meters from their stalls.
To read also "We must type very quickly, very hard and all the time": in immersion with the anti-salvage brigade of Paris
In March, the Sauvettes et contrefaçons (BSC) brigade of the 18th arrondissement police station, supported by the local reception and investigation service (SAIP), dismantled a street-selling network of fruit and vegetables.
And contrary to popular belief, street vendors were not supplied by small, underpaid hands to collect unsold goods ... from the Rungis market.
“Upon closer inspection, we found that the products were generally in good condition.
It piqued our curiosity.
So we unrolled the ball of yarn.
And on this file, it went back to… a Rungis wholesaler, who sold his merchandise in black, ”rewinds the central commissioner of the 18th arrondissement, Emmanuelle Oster.
"Not all Rungis traders are thugs"
BSC police investigated this network like dismantling a drug trafficking network. “We started from the street vendor near the metro station. And little by little, we went up the whole chain, by monitoring and traditional spinning, ”says Bruno, the head of the unit specializing in the fight against street selling. Quickly, the police observed interactions between several street vendors. And find that their merchandise is strangely the same. “The surveillance enabled us to establish that there were deliveries. Always the same delivery man, aboard the same van, ”unrolls the sergeant-in-chief.
Following the van, the police are taken to the Rungis international market.
And discover that in reality, several vans are supplied in the dark, from the same wholesaler.
“Each van supplied around forty street vendors located in the 13th, 17th and 18th arrondissements of Paris.
The circuit was quite important.
The traffic generated tens of thousands of euros per week, ”explains Bruno.
Read also Paris: the street vendor sold ... puppies
Once delivered, the goods were taken to an intermediate storage location, which allowed five to six points of sale to be supplied. “These stocks supplied temporary relay points, in halls or courtyards of buildings, cellars and even public toilets. The goods are transported on foot, in shopping carts, by small hands. In March, four people were arrested in flagrante delicto at a delivery point. Several hundred kilograms of fruit and accounting books are seized. “Not all Rungis traders are thugs,” emphasizes Emmanuelle Oster. “But we can easily imagine, when we see the number of street vendors between Paris and the inner suburbs, that there should not be just one branch and one branch. "
