From the point of deal in the region’s large cities, to China or Dubai, the money generated by drug trafficking brings in several million euros per day.
The last record seizure dates back ten days: 2.3 tonnes of cocaine intercepted on September 21 on a fishing boat by the national navy, off the coast of Brest, in collaboration with the Brazilian police.
In France, 2023 should beat the 27.7 t of white powder recovered last year, a figure already multiplied by five in ten years. And what about Antwerp or Amsterdam, gateways to Europe, where the tons are counted in the dozens…
Several million turnover
Before flooding, in particular, the market in the South of France, generating disproportionate turnover which led to a territorial war and “narchomicides” in Marseille, but also Nîmes and Béziers, in August, with three deaths in one week. What does this white gold weigh?
“The territory is dotted with points of sale for narcotics,” explains a specialist investigator from Occitanie. Around forty “fours” in Gard (Nîmes, Alès) or Aude, a little more in the PO and around fifty in Hérault (Montpellier, Béziers, Sète).
“Each point can generate €6,000 to €40,000 per day, imagine what that represents” continues the specialist. Several million daily for the former Languedoc-Roussillon…
Cocaine is the drug that makes the most money for drug traffickers. DR – PN
What happens to the money? You have to pay for the goods – a kilo of coke is worth €2 to €3,000 in the producing countries of South America and it is resold for €60,000 – and the salaries of the “oven” employees.
“We have to see the number of families who make a living from it”
In mid-September, in an extremely rare occurrence, Ilias B., a “repentant” described (read below) the operation of a deal point in Sète. He talks about the salaries of the many little hands who work 24 hours a day (lookouts, coal miners, drug and money carriers, security, managers). First traces of the laundering of dirty money: “They all dress in Nike pants, Lacoste t-shirts, Vuitton bags, etc. Do we really want to fight against this?” squeaks an investigating police officer.
“We rarely see people walking around with a wheelbarrow full of money! Yes, it generates millions and where does it go? In Morocco and Dubai, but not only that” adds Jean-Marie Beney, Attorney General at the Court of call from Montpellier, (PO, Aude, Hérault and Aveyron).
“They are also redistributed on site: there is a considerable underground economy. You have to see the number of families who make a living from it, we are lower than what we can imagine.”
Each deal point generates thousands of euros every day. DR/ML/SRPJ
And then, at the upper level, that of the bosses, there is luxury, always, the big cars rented in Eastern Europe which are not traceable, the Rolexes or the VIP tables for several thousand euros in nightclubs where bottles of champagne accumulate.
A parliamentary mission on illicit businesses
This is accompanied by commercial investments, to wash whiter, with crooked accountants. By buying, as recently, on the outskirts of Montpellier, a restaurant for €300,000 in cash…
In cash. Night grocery stores and shisha bars are also in the crosshairs of Hérault MP Patrick Vignal who has just launched a parliamentary mission “on illicit businesses” to try to control their establishment. Many elected officials are exasperated.
“How can the grocery store reopen and survive after three closures?”
In Montpellier, 18 grocery stores which challenged the limitation of opening hours in the administrative court “had non-existent or artisanal accounting” deplores Sébastien Cot, security assistant. His counterpart in Agde, Jérôme Bonnafous, talks about a grocery store which has already closed three times in a few weeks: “how can it still reopen if there is not a parallel activity?”
But Patrick Vignal also cites kebabs, barbers – €5 per cut, €25 declared – as well as training centers or sports clubs – by inventing members and their annual contribution. There are also casinos, obviously, where the drug trafficker can gamble or buy winning tickets at a higher price, “as was done with the PMU before” reports a gendarme.
Or private poker games “with open tables at €10,000” says a police officer, are also “laundry”.
An important legal case, currently under investigation, implicates Mourad D. and his Hérault family for vast trafficking in cannabis and cocaine between Spain, Montpellier and Toulouse.
“Pharaonic works” €48,000 for tiling
The investigation by the judicial police showed that he wanted to pay a tobacco shop €350,000 in cash, carried out “pharaonic work” in his house including €48,000 in tiling, and, with his family, he “invested large sums of money in luxury real estate in Dubai”, the money being brought by plane, via Spain” so as not to leave a trace in France”. He swears everything is legal.
“In a few years, they will be in town halls”
Finally, others buy reputation, like the designated godfather of a neighborhood in Montpellier, who bought an entire street in a small neighboring town.
They stand out, with societies “less and less dirty through whitewashing”, with this risk, which is plaguing South America, Northern Europe and Italy, of investing in the political sphere: ” In a few years, they will be in town halls,” predicts a specialist investigator.
“I have the record at €15,000 per day”: This “repentant” who describes how a deal point works
“I have nothing more to say” he brushes off when we try to approach him.
And for good reason, Ilias B., nicknamed “Grincheux”, went, after climbing the ranks of drug trafficking, from manager of an “oven”, Place de la Seincholle in Sète, to that of “repentant”.
The twenty-year-old found himself on trial with sixteen associates before the Montpellier judicial court in mid-September after a vast dragnet following a shooting for control of the “oven”.
He explained, in front of the police, how the deal point worked. The bottom of the ladder, first, with the lookouts responsible for alerting if the police arrive.
“Every morning, young people from Nîmes and Béziers mainly ask if they can work and I give permission or not,” he describes.
There are up to six of them, paid €120 per day, plus taxi and hotel paid, “and one meal per day at €10”. Above, the four or five coal miners – the resellers – receive €170 per day. Ditto for the person carrying the bag containing drugs and money and a little more for the manager.
12 years in prison for boss on the run in Morocco
“I collect between €6 and €10,000 depending on the day of the week, I am the one who holds the record, I made €15,000 in one day” continues Grincheux.
“When I arrive in the apartment in the morning, there are already all the products to get started and during the day, I collect some to replenish the deal point.” Which is supervised by the big boss, “Fockfock”, from Morocco where he is on the run despite his sentence to 12 years in prison.
Ilias B. did not return to prison, his sentence covering pre-trial detention, but he went into exile far from Sète.
A fair outcome for his lawyer Mr. Dalimonte: “the status of the repentant has been reformed but it is little and poorly used. My client put himself in danger by speaking, he took this risk. It is a message sent in the cities, repentants exist, it’s more of a deterrent than years in prison.”
#CASE #Luxury #shisha #Dubai #millions #dirty #money #drug #trafficking #killing #people #region
