Seine-Saint-Denis. He is sent by a vendor from the Barbès market to steal a pharmacy in Pantin

By Dorine Goth
Published on 6 Jan 21 at 7:02

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He’s a street kid, just over 18. Tuesday January 5, 2021, a young Moroccan adult was tried before the court of Bobigny (Seine-Saint-Denis) for a theft that occurred on February 23, 2020 at Pantin. Born in October 2001, he was just 18 years old at the time of the incident.

6,000 euros in cash

That night, accompanied by two other accomplices, he robs the Metro pharmacy, located at the exit of Hoche station. Amount of damage: 6,000 euros in cash, drugs and gift cards.

Filmed by video surveillance cameras, he was finally arrested on the night of 1^is January 2021, during another burglary. That of a Léon de Bruxelles restaurant in the 6^th district of Paris.

Sponsored by a seller of Barbès

During his hearing, the defendant acknowledges the facts. At least, he admits to having been present during the theft of Pantin’s pharmacy. He then explains that the burglary was sponsored by a vendor from the Barbès market at Paris.

Arrived in Spain at the age of 15, he has been making frequent trips back and forth between France and the Iberian Peninsula. Like unaccompanied Moroccan minors, he settled in the Goutte-d’Or district in Paris.

Medication consumption

But as for the nature of the flights, his memory seems to play tricks on him. “I don’t remember if I took things,” he explains in court. “Yet you are young, these memory problems, have they lasted a long time?” “Asks the surprised president. ” I takes drugs because I don’t have a home, ”he replies. Opiates are traded at one euro per tablet in Barbes.

Often their substance addiction is maintained by networks to then encourage them to theft. “It is known all these networks in Barbès, with heads of networks, who send young people to rob pharmacies to nab drugs and recover money”, pleads the lawyer of the accused.

Eight months suspended

After several months in Spain where he obtained an electrician diploma, he claims to have returned to Paris in recent weeks to “give advice to his little brother”, 9 years old and also isolated and now living in a hostel. . “Your 9-year-old little brother came to France by himself from Morocco? “Asks the dumbfounded court. “No, he came with his friends,” the accused naturally replies.

During her requisitions, the prosecutor insisted on the damage linked to the burglary. “Behind a pharmacy, there are traders and sick and vulnerable people,” she pleaded. It requires a one-year suspended sentence. “Even if I have little hope that it will be of any use,” she said.

More lenient, the court condemns him to eight months suspended sentence. “Go back to Spain and make electricity,” the president recommended.

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