The fugitive was roughly arrested by the Spanish police.
As the latter showed in a video broadcast on its social networks, Jean-Anthony Blas, 34 years old, “one of the most wanted fugitives in France”, was apprehended on February 15 among customers of a bar in Salou, near Tarragona, Spain.
The Marseille prosecutor's office confirmed the information to Le Parisien, adding that Blas should soon be handed over to French justice to be presented to an investigating magistrate.
It is therefore in Salou, a town on the Costa Daurada, in the south of Barcelona, that the fugitive, known for drug trafficking in Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône), would have taken refuge after having escaped a vast operation of police carried out in France last March.
It is also in this seaside town that, according to the Catalan daily La Vanguardia, he has since received members of his family and friends who came to visit him.
According to the Spanish police, Jean-Anthony Blas used no fewer than four false identities and relied on a large network, allowing him to escape the authorities who had issued a European Arrest Warrant (EAW) to find him.
🚩 Detained one of the #fugitives most caught by the French authorities
🔹 Se infrenta a condena de 10 años de prison in this country
🔹 Se trata de la mimbro principal de un clan dedicated to the sale of #estupefacientes en los principals points de #Marsella pic.twitter.com/4zeuXwGFvx
— National Police (@policia) February 25, 2024
Already sentenced to ten years in prison in France for drug trafficking, illegal possession of weapons and membership in an organized criminal gang, the man is considered a major drug trafficker in Marseille.
He would have regularly exported cannabis from Spain with the help of a “large arsenal of weapons of war”, according to the Spanish police.
According to the Marseille prosecutor's office, he is suspected of being "involved in an active drug trafficking network" in the Campagne Lévêque city in Marseille (15th century).
He is accused in the context of a judicial investigation for "drug trafficking, participation in a criminal association, unauthorized acquisition and possession of war materials and weapons of categories A and B, money laundering and failure to justify resources ".
In the press archives, Jean-Anthony Blas appears in 2015 for a funny affair.
In June of that year, as reported by La Provence in a court report, the man who already had 10 entries in his criminal record was summoned to the Aix-en-Provence court for an incident with his electronic bracelet. while he must negotiate his parole, which he claims to have cheerfully celebrated.
“The day before going to see the judge, I was a little hungover, Gentlemen of the jurors… er, Gentlemen of the courts.
So the police came to my house, asking what was happening with the bracelet, but nothing happened!
I still had it, the bracelet!
“, he then explains to the criminal court.
Electronic bracelet cut and rodeo in 2015
Except that in the court parking lot, having barely left the office of the sentencing judge (JAP) Jean-Anthony, with the help of his brother Richard (14 mentions in the record), tries to escape the escort who holds him by the handcuffs.
A police officer will be swept and then hit on the ground.
The siblings flee on a motorcycle: Richard on the handlebars, Jean-Anthony behind, hands handcuffed behind his back.
The duo then fled via the A51 motorway towards Marseille.
But he will be found a few minutes later on an area by the anti-crime brigade (BAC): the two men have just stolen a dump truck from workers.
They continue to flee, rushing towards the BAC crew, hitting cars, blowing off mirrors.
When leaving the highway, finally, when they had just taken a lane in the wrong direction, the tipper hit a motorist.
The rodeo ends.
Jean-Anthony and Richard try to continue their escape on foot, but are caught by the BAC.
For these facts, the first was sentenced by the Aix-en-Provence criminal court to four years in prison, as well as three months for trying to escape his electronic bracelet.
His brother will be sentenced to five years.