Camembert of heroin and sachets of “shitos”: eight men suspected of “providing multiple trading points in the Meurthe-et-Moselle and the Vosges” have been indicted and jailed for drug trafficking, the specialized interregional jurisdiction (JIRS) announced on Tuesday of Nancy.
Aged between 22 and 39, the respondents are from Toul. During their custody, all remained silent or disputed the facts, the Jirs said in a press release.
Thirteen people had been arrested in this town of Meurthe-et-Moselle in the night between December 8 and 9, an operation which had mobilized “a hundred investigators”, according to Nancy magistrates.
Organized traffic through an encrypted network
During the searches of three apartments and a garage, the police seized cash as well as small quantities of heroin, cocaine and cannabis. They also found cut-out products and “lots of little packing bags,” some of which were stamped “Shitos,” inspired by a popular potato chip brand, and even going so far as to reproduce its famous cheetah.
Investigators also got their hands on seven vehicles, “including several large cars,” worth an estimated €262,000, Jirs said.
The Nancy magistrates had been brought before the investigation in November 2020 concerning “a large-scale drug trafficking between the Benelux and Lorraine”, organized via the “Encrochat” encrypted communication network, a network frequented by traffickers.
The suspects arrested in Toul “operated very carefully, in a closed circle” and “always at night”, which made the investigation “complex”, the Jirs also indicated.
But thanks to “special investigative techniques” that the Jirs did not detail, the police were able to identify “three organisers” residing in Toul and establish that the various drugs were imported from Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany or Turkey.
