It is an unprecedented descent into the troubled waters of one of the major French intelligence services that we have been experiencing for almost a month at the Paris court. Six former customs chiefs and their adviser, an extraordinary informant: “Mr. Z”, are judged there.
“Monsieur Z” fell in 2016 with his agents from the DNRED (National Directorate of Intelligence and Customs Investigations) after a dubious seizure a year earlier of 43 tonnes of coffee and a suitcase of cash. They are accused of organized fraud, embezzlement of public funds, importing counterfeit goods and for having provided false administrative documents
When the “Aurore” operation turns into a scandal
It was the judicial customs of Ile-de-France who recovered the processing of the unprecedented seizure in France of their colleagues from the DOD (Direction des Opérations Douanières, armed wing of the DNRED) of 43 tons of counterfeit coffee, in 2015 This low-quality robusta coffee, distributed in thousands of packets from a major French brand, was seized from a warehouse near Paris. The case is neither simple nor classic. Because the gabelous from the Ile-de-France quickly expressed doubts about this miraculous catch of their colleagues: Of course we are dealing with trafficking, but is coffee really the object?
They know that the American services and a customs attaché in Dubai have launched an alert on a shipment of contraband cigarettes bound for Le Havre, precisely in part of the containers targeted by the DOD services for this counterfeit coffee from the Vietnam. The operation is called “Aurore”. But the tax collectors of the Ile-de-France realize that the eight containers reported were not really checked: they found no administrative trace.
800,000 euros in cash in an office
The judicial customs unit then reports this suspicion of rigging to the courts: this fraudulent importation, the seizure of coffee, could have been fabricated from scratch and could have actually sheltered the arrival of several tons of smuggled cigarettes, passed without incident. In the summer of 2016, the gendarmes searched not only the headquarters of the customs intelligence service in Ivry-sur-Seine and the regional headquarters in Rouen at the regional level, but also the home of the main informant and following, the homes and the offices of the heads of customs operations in Le Havre.
They first discover 93,000 euros in small denominations at the home of the adviser, the essential customs informant at that time, Zoran Petrovic. Then nearly 800,000 euros in cash, in a suitcase, are flushed out in the office of the head of the customs intelligence service in Le Havre., Pascal Schmidt. Two luxury watches and several thousand euros were also seized from the home of the chief of post as well as from his deputy, who committed suicide a few weeks after the scandal broke.
“Monsieur Z”, king of logistics for the public service… and for organized crime
At the trial, in the courtroom for nearly four weeks, “Mr. Z” is Zoran Petrovic. An imposing stature of a former Serbian soldier. He listens intently, often sitting in the second row in the courtroom. “Z” goes back and forth at the bar to explain himself on such and such questionable customs operation in the eyes of justice. He often remains evasive, him the deposed king of clandestine logistics who has since converted to public works.
“Z” nevertheless readily admits that he received large sums from traffickers for his ability to bring in containers and transport them to the right destination, in France and in neighboring countries. And that he also received handsome sums from customs officers when he offered to intercept certain loads : nearly 300,000 euros pocketed in four years, between 2011 and 2015, more than 30 deals completed. Unheard of in customs memory. And at the time, no one within the powerful DNRED saw anything wrong with it.
So, for nearly a month, “Mr. Z” often fumes when he hears the testimonies of customs chiefs of the time, whose versions differ from his. A former deputy head, for example, reports, with sobs in her voice, her doubts about the real content of certain containers which passed through Le Havre without substantial control. And especially during the “Aurore” operation. Zoran Petrovic, he swears at the bar that there have never been cigarettes in the containers in addition to the coffee hidden in metal cabinets. Please take his word for it.
A staggering showdown between the former customs strategist and the president of the court
Among the defendants, six former heads of the DNRED, Vincent Sauvalère is the most vehement to denounce an instruction “totally dependent”, while “coffee trafficking did exist”. Former head of special customs operations, he was promoted in 2014 to the European anti-fraud office in Brussels. It was he, Vincent Sauvalère, who presented “Monsieur Z” to the head of the antenna in Le Havre in 2011. It is also he who is at the origin of the multiple identities and registrations of Zoran Petrovic, which he explains were given as “aliases” to prevent him from being spotted by “competing” services (Customs, Police, Gendarmerie), which share the same central informant file. His attitude at the bar ended up exceeding the president of the court, Bénédicte de Perthuis. Last Monday, May 23, 2022, we witnessed a contest that stunned even the oldest lawyers present.
Vincent Sauvalère, tried to explain that the trafficking of counterfeit coffee (the 43 tons seized) which was dismantled in 2015 was very real, that there were other cases in the neighboring countries of France which related to counterfeits from other major brands. It justifies the interest of having an advisor at the heart of the logistics chain of mafia organizationsexplaining that it is even very exactly what was asked of him at the time, and that this is how many of his counterparts around the planet proceed.
Obviously, the president was not really convinced by this argument, Bénédicte de Perthuis cutting it off with almost every sentence: “Answer my questions precisely […] yes I know, you are very strong, the best, but this is me asking the questions […] And you answer it otherwise we won’t be able to continue like this”. Vincent Sauvalère nevertheless returns to the charge: this story would come from of a revenge of the judicial customs officers who “hated us“, he said. “I was accused of corruption for four years, my life was scrutinized, my accounts, I lived in a small apartment in Belgium, I drive an old car, it’s shameful“, he hammers.
The bulky cash suitcase of “Z” and the blindness of his Norman agent
Called in turn to the bar, the former head of the Le Havre customs post, Pascal Schmidt, spent this Wednesday, May 24, 2022 nearly an hour trying to explain why he didn’t believe the story of the contraband cigarettes reported by the Americans which would have passed through the containers with the counterfeit coffee.
Seated in the second row, one of the defendants whispers that “reports like that, we actually had them every week. Very few reports turned out to be profitable. Buthe acknowledges, from the moment the cargo has not really been checked and monitored by us in Le Havre, it’s complicated“. The investigation showed that the containers did not even pass the gantry, officially broken down, and landed in the warehouse of a freight forwarder who ensured the customs clearance of the goods. A freight forwarder also an occasional customs adviser … And it was then “Z” who took care of transferring the goods and transporting them to Ile-de-France.
Pascal Schmidt, the head of customs operations in Le Havre was much more expeditious when it came to explaining how the gendarmes were able to seize a suitcase with more than 700,000 euros in small bills in his office, and more than 20,000 euros at home, in addition to a luxury Rolex watch and a Chopard watch. For watches,I took them as a gift“by Zoran.”There was one, the Chopard, it was for a colleague. I thought for a quarter of a second“. And, he continues, visibly without fear of sinking a little deeper into what the investigators considered to be a pact of corruption: “After five years spent with Zoran, calling each other day and night sometimes, I had… we’re not talking about friendship but about empathy. Yes, that’s it, empathy. So I accepted. When I was introduced to “Z”, my new “friend”, I took it as a gift, it was actually a poisoned gift. I was totally out of the ordinary, totally out of the nails.”
And for the suitcase, the former customs officer uses the same version as when he was in police custody. “She was in Zoran Petrovic“! Empathy no doubt, again. At the helm, Zoran Pétrovic confirms.
- The president : “But why did you hide it in your handler’s office?”
- ZP : “Because I had already been seized 93,000 euros at my house during a search. It was, madam, customs money, legal [somme cachée dans son jardin]. It is not normal. So I was scared for the rest.”
- The president : “But where did you put that money?”
- ZP : “it…secret”.
- The president : “But then, if it was secret and well hidden, why did you hide them at your agent’s house?”
- ZP: (looks at his translator). No answer. Nor in Serbo-Croatian. Nor in French.
At the suspension of the hearing, “Mr. Z” assures aside that this cash is what he received from criminal organizations for his services.
“Only Coffee”
“Everyone knew. The customs officers wanted seizures. That’s all, only seizures. I gave seizures”. But for cigarettes, “there was not, no, only coffee“. Zoran Pétrovic will not specify the ratio between smuggled goods passed and those intercepted thanks to his golden pipes. “You don’t have to take an advisor’s word for it either.“will explain a little later at the bar one of the defendants who had listened with a half smile, half annoyed.
We may never know what these 800,000 euros seized in a customs office at the port of Le Havre were to be used for. Except for making “poisoned gifts”. The investigation stopped there. The trial of the six former heads of the DNRED and “Z”, their former star adviser, must be held before the 11th chamber of the Paris court.
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