Suspected of aggravated pimping, a couple from Montalbanais aged 49 and 57 have been arrested and placed in police custody since Tuesday, May 23. At the end of their prolonged police custody, the defendants should be brought before the public prosecutor of Montauban, Friday, May 25.
In Montauban, a couple who have built up a nice property portfolio with around twenty apartments, had been in the crosshairs of the police officers of the Unit against Narcotics and the Underground Economy (USES) of the police station for several months, and investigators from the Toulouse interministerial research group (GIR).
Tuesday, May 23 at the time of the milkman, the notably known respondents in the prefecture city – the 57-year-old respondent being a retired army non-commissioned officer – were arrested by the police, and taken to the police station to be taken into custody.
The Montauban public prosecutor’s office, which has not wished to communicate on this file for the time being, has nevertheless confirmed that the couple is suspected of aggravated pimping in the context of their apartment rental activity. The custody of the defendants which, in such cases, can last up to 96 hours, has been extended until Friday morning when the couple should be brought to the Montauban courthouse.
Wiretapped and monitored for months
Suspected of hotel pimping, the couple was thus placed on telephone tapping for long weeks. According to our information, the sleuths of the USES would also have set up devices in front of several apartments rented by the couple in the district around the roundabout of the Rond (place de la Liberation) and the city center of Montauban in order to monitor the aisles. and arrivals of tenants.
In the Rond district, several apartments were under surveillance by the Montalbanaise police
Among them, women from Spain and Latin America confirmed their suspicions: those of sex workers renting furnished accommodation for a fortnight to a month in Montauban.
Discreet, these prostitutes use websites such as Vivastreet or dating sites to find their clients in the department before disappearing to other towns in the country.
These customers like no other had the notable advantage for the couple of paying their ruby rental on the nail, and all in cash.
Specialized in the fight against organized crime, the investigators of the Toulouse GIR thus supported the Montalban police with their know-how and their resources. This unit is also composed of police officers and gendarmes trained in complex financial files, customs, tax, URSSAF and labor inspection officers.
The couple would thus have benefited, according to a judicial source, from this windfall to build up a wealthy real estate heritage.
Joined by The Midi DispatchMe Thierry Deville, lawyer for the army retiree targeted by this investigation, wanted to say without going into the details of the case launched two years ago that his “client acted in good faith, not knowing that this activity of renting lodgings (to prostitutes) was illegal”.
For her part, Me Nathalie Marques, counsel for the 49-year-old spouse, did not respond to our requests.
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