It's a big fish that the police managed to stop.
Kamel Meziani, figure of Marseille narco-banditry, was arrested at the end of August in Seine-et-Marne, we learned this Friday from sources close to the investigation.
He was the subject of two arrest warrants, a red card from Interpol and was arrested by the BRI on Tuesday at the Fleury-en-Bière toll (Seine-et-Marne), at the end of evening, while he took the direction of the Paris region.
He was taken into custody for "organized murder, destruction by fire, and criminal conspiracy," said Friday
the prosecutor of the Republic of Marseille, Dominique Laurens, as reported by France 3. Kamel Meziani is a "eminent member of Marseille narco-banditism" underlined the prosecutor.
He is suspected of being one of the bosses of the drug trafficking network of the Cité des Oliviers in Marseille.
The man was sentenced in January, while on the run, to 30 years of criminal imprisonment for the death of young men in a settling of scores in 2016. He was suspected of having supplied the weapons to two of his lieutenants.
The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, welcomed his arrest on Twitter.
“One of the most wanted fugitives in France, suspected of being involved in settling scores this summer in Marseille and in drug trafficking, has been arrested by our police forces.
No impunity vis-à-vis drug traffickers who sow death and violence, ”he said.
One of the most wanted fugitives in France, suspected of being involved in settling scores this summer in Marseille and in drug trafficking, has been arrested by our police forces.
No impunity for drug traffickers who sow death and violence.
- Gérald DARMANIN (@GDarmanin) September 3, 2021
France 3 also explains that this arrest "is the result of the investigations of investigators carried out on the double settlement of accounts of the city of the Blue Navy" in Marseille, on August 22, where three men were found executed in two shootings.
They were riddled with bullets or charred for one of them.
Facts that occurred four days after the death of a 14-year-old teenager, which had moved the whole city.
A crackdown after the August shootings
Following this arrest, investigators from the Marseille judicial police "have arrested several people suspected of being involved in one of the deadly events which have been opposing for several weeks several teams of drug traffickers", added the floor.
Three were arrested in the Paris region, and two in Marseille.
To read alsoThree dead in two new shootings in Marseille: "It's sad, but we are not even shocked when it happens"
Prosecutor Laurens explains that “the two suspects arrested in Marseille had been seen in the company of Kamel Meziani. On one of them, the investigators recovered a key which led them to a box. Inside, they seized a stolen vehicle, two handguns, an assault rifle, ammunition and two cans of gasoline. In a second box, the police discovered packaging for narcotics, but no drugs ”.
According to the count of the prosecution, in Marseille, there have been 25 intentional or attempted homicides since the beginning of the year and 22 deaths. However, this figure is lower at this stage than in 2016, when 29 people were killed. Marseille has been particularly affected over the past two months by these assassinations. Drug trafficking generates considerable sums, up to 80,000 euros per day in the City of Olives, fueling greed and turf wars.