Par
Nicolas Claich
Published on Oct 26, 2024 at 9:01 a.m.
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The order service was impressive, Friday October 25, 2024, at the hearing of the criminal court of Caen (Calvados). Excessive, according to the lawyer of the man who was on trial. Three men from the police intervention sectionweapon in hand, hooded face and helmet on his head, monitored the room. The 23-year-old man who was in the defendant’s box had been escorted by three vehicles from the Le Havre Remand Prison.
Arrested following a traffic stop, he had been wanted for more than a year
Tried for having participated in drug traffickingbetween April 2021 and January 2023 at Hérouville Saint-Clairhe was arrested on September 17, 2024, after 18 months on the run which had led him…in Australia. Back in France, the man was arrested completely by chance, in Gagny (Seine-Saint-Denis). He was the subject of a traffic stop becausehe was driving with an underinflated tire. Without a license, he had given the identity of his brother but the police confused him using his fingerprints and found that he was wanted by the police.
During his custody at the Moult gendarmerie, two individuals attempted to enter the brigade on several occasions, including once using a grinder. To make him escape? This is what investigators suspect even if they have not been able to get their hands on the intruders.
And, during a first immediate appearance hearing, in mid-September, a member of the defendant’s entourage was said to have threatened a member of the court. An investigation is underway concerning these facts but, following this, the court ordered, at the request of the prosecution, that the hearing this Friday, October 25 take place in camera. Only the press was allowed to attend the debates. These therefore took place in an empty room, protected from any intrusion by three men from the police intervention section.
200 kilos of cannabis in six months?
In July 2021, five men were convicted and incarcerated for drug trafficking in Hérouville Saint-Clair. But, during their investigation, the gendarmes discovered that four other young people, also from Hérouville, had allegedly took up the torch. Among them, Nabil*, the man tried three and a half years later. With his three friends, he would have regularly gone to the Paris region, near Nanterre, to stock up on cannabis, before visiting Calvados, Manche and Orne. Nicknamed “Boubou”, “Bibi” or even “DBZ” on the social networks they used to sell hash, they were notably spotted on numerous occasions at Saint-Pierre-en-Auge, Isigny-sur-Mer or Urvilleamong men known to the courts to be drug users. These would have served as nannies and resellers in the context of traffic. 200 kilos would have been stored in Urville, within six months, according to an accounting notebook found on site by investigators.
He took refuge in Australia for a year
The gang was finally arrested on January 6, 2023 and convicted in April 2023. All except Nabil, who was absent during the searches. He took refuge in Australia. In the Antipodes, he would have, according to his statements, worked as a deliveryman, mason or swimming pool cleaner. He finally returned to France in July 2024 when his one-year visa expired before being arrested while driving an under-inflated car.
In court, this Friday, October 25, Nabil denied any involvement in this trafficking of drugs. Despite the elements put forward by the representative of the prosecution, Nicolas Dejoué. The phone, in the name of his mother, geolocated at the scene of the trafficking; testimonials from dealers who recognized it on upholstery; the accounting book. “It is no longer a bundle, it is a torrent of clues,” said the public prosecutor.
He requested a sentence of three years in prisonincluding 18 months with a probationary suspension during which he will have theban on appearing in Hérouville Saint-Clairto come into contact with other members of trafficking and to engage in sports betting, “a means of laundering trafficking money”. The prosecution also requested the continued detention of Nabil.
*Nabil, assumed first name.
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