This is an extremely sensitive matter, particularly in the context of the numerous “Place Nette XXL” anti-drug operations praised by the Ministry of the Interior and the bickering between Marseille magistrates and the Minister of Justice over the inequality of the war against drugs in Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône).
According to our information, confirmed by corroborating sources, investigators from the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN), the “police of police”, carried out a search on Thursday April 4 in the premises of the Ofast branch ( Anti-narcotics Office) of Marseille as part of an investigation opened by the city's public prosecutor's office following a denunciation. Or the cutting-edge judicial police service in the Marseille city, responsible for dismantling the biggest drug trafficking cases.
An investigation group is the target of this unprecedented operation, targeting a renowned and respected police service which works in a region particularly affected by the cannabis and cocaine trade and deadly score-settling.
The “carrot oxen”, a nickname given to these police officers responsible for tracking down the turpitudes of their corrupt colleagues, are investigating multiple offenses, including suspicions of corruption in the Marseille police. No details have been provided concerning the substance of this judicial investigation, led by the DNE, the national investigations division of the IGPN responsible for the fight against corruption in the police, but, according to a source close to the matter, the case turns out to be particularly “thorny” and resembles a new scandal in the police.
Telephones as well as computers were seized by IGPN investigators in the premises of Ofast Marseille. No police custody has yet been ordered.
Magistrates reframed by the minister
The week was particularly trying for the police officers at Ofast Marseille. During the night from Sunday to Monday, a new assassination took place in the Marseille city. The victim, a man in his twenties, was shot dead in the 2nd arrondissement of Marseille, not far from the Joliette tram stop. And it turns out that the man was a target of Ofast Marseille, which was to arrest him on Monday morning.
For several weeks, magistrates have been sounding the alarm on the rise of a phenomenon of “low intensity” corruption in the police and justice. An alert issued by Marseille magistrates during a parliamentary commission of inquiry which earned them a refocusing from the Minister of Justice, Éric Dupond-Moretti, who criticized them for this free speech.
The minister also criticized them for having declared that the war against drugs in Marseille was being lost. A reframing that the Superior Council of the Judiciary (CSM) described as an attack on the separation of powers. This case of alleged corruption in the Marseille police is unlikely to ease tensions.