He had been wanted for months.
High-level drug trafficker Sofiane Hambli, indicted in November 2020 in a narcotics case, was arrested on Monday in a clinic in Tangier (Morocco), where he was being treated for injuries.
He would have been admitted there after being assaulted in the streets of the city, we learned Monday from a source close to the file.
Sofiane Hambli, key figure in the scandal of the importation into France of 7 tonnes of cannabis in 2015, which resulted in the ousting of the former boss of the fight against drugs François Thierry, was wanted in the context of a another case of importation of narcotics, the same source said, confirming information from the Obs.
Arrested in November in Bordeaux, he was remanded in early December in this procedure, a placement broken in mid-March by the Court of Cassation.
He was then released under judicial supervision, which the Bobigny public prosecutor's office contested in view of the risk of flight.
A few days later, on March 22, "the investigative chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal issued a committal warrant" so that he could be imprisoned again.
In this new case, French justice suspects him of having received 2.5 million euros to organize the logistics of importing four tonnes of cannabis, accusations that he denies according to his lawyer Hugues Vigier.
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At the request of the French authorities, Interpol has issued a red notice against this 45-year-old man nicknamed "La Chimère", with a criminal record charged with heavy convictions for trafficking in cannabis.
Born in Mulhouse, the trafficker is customary on the run.
He was notably arrested in 2004 in Spain after his escape the previous year from Metz prison.
In 2009, it was still in Spain that he was arrested when a French court sentenced him by default to 18 years in prison.
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