The record customs seizure masked an unprecedented scandal: five years after the discovery of 43 tonnes of counterfeit coffee imported via Le Havre, six former senior customs officials are sent to correctional, involved in a corruption case that shook the institution. “ Total disloyalty to the judiciary “ : in incisive terms, already used by the Paris public prosecutor’s office in its indictment in November, the anti-corruption judge Aude Buresi ordered the holding of this trial against the former boss of the National Directorate of Intelligence and Customs Investigations (DNRED), five of his subordinates, as well as two informants and a logistics entrepreneur from Le Havre.
At the heart of the investigation, a problem common to other scandals that have rocked customs or the drug police in recent years: the troubled relations between the powerful Customs Operations Directorate (DOD), the armed wing of the DNRED, and the one of his informants – or “advisers” in the jargon: Zoran Petrovic.
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€ 800,000
in cash at
the customs
from Le Havre …
On July 3, 2015, tons of fraudulent coffee had been discovered in the Paris region, officially on the basis of information collected by customs. “ A first on the national territory “, Bercy then congratulated himself in a press release. Quickly, however, doubts appeared: the poor quality of the 174,000 packets of counterfeit coffee, supposed to imitate the brand “L’Or” of “Maison du café”, made it difficult, if not impossible, to dispose of such goods. Another oddity: the 43 tonnes of coffee had arrived in a 120-ton container. What was in the remaining 77 tonnes returned to port without being checked? Investigators suspected a lure to conceal an operation for the benefit of the Serbian suspect, unsuccessfully exploring the trail of a smuggling of 15 tonnes of contraband cigarettes.
In December 2016, however, they found 800,000 euros in cash at the DOD in Le Havre, including 50,000 hidden in an armchair. Four months later, twelve people are taken into police custody, including the head of the DOD of Le Havre, Pascal Schmidt, and several hierarchical superiors. A few weeks after the search, an assistant to Mr. Schmidt committed suicide at his workplace. Did DNRED turn a blind eye to incoming goods in exchange for “tips” from Petrovic, this “uncle”, however, who has been on the “black list” since 2009? Did she pilot the operation in order to inflate her statistics? This is the conviction of Judge Buresi and the prosecution for whom these high ranking officers “ broke the law for the sole purpose of carrying out seizures beneficial for the media image of the DNRED but without any concrete results in the fight against smuggling “.
At trial, Zoran Petrovic and Pascal Schmidt, accused of being the linchpin of these fraudulent imports, will also be tried for “corruption” and “money laundering”. The hierarchy will also be on the bench: the former boss of the DNRED, Jean-Paul Garcia, who left office in 2017, will face charges of “negligence” that allowed these hijackings. When contacted, his lawyer Me Patrick Tabet was not available to react. Next to Mr. Garcia will appear Vincent Sauvalère, ex-number 2 of customs intelligence, Erwan Guilmin, his successor, and Magalie Noël, his assistant, as well as a regional manager of the DOD, dismissed in particular for “complicity” in these imports , “Organized gang scam” and “embezzlement of public funds”.
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“Factual inconsistencies
and legal »
For Mr. Sauvalère’s lawyer, “ It’s a first victory since the accusations of corruption and the organized gang importation of 15 tonnes of tobacco are finally dropped. “. “ For the rest, the fight continues “, added Me Matthias Pujos, denouncing a decision “ riddled with factual and legal inconsistencies, signed in addition by a single investigating magistrate when two had been initially designated. “ “ The very dependent manner in which the investigation was conducted gives a meaningless order and we will plead for release “, said Mr. Laurent-Franck Liénard, lawyer for Mr. Guilmin. The date of the trial is not yet known.
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