Free lunch info. The entire legal procedure which had allowed the arrest of three suspects after this record seizure, on August 14, 2018 at the rest area of Fabrègues (Hérault) is reduced to nothing, the customs officers having not respected the rules during the truck search.
More than four years after what was almost a record seizure of cannabis, made by Montpellier customs officers at the rest area of the A9 motorway in Fabrègues, the Montpellier Court of Appeal has just rendered a decision that resonates like a thunderclap in the world of the fight against drug trafficking.
Because the judges, in a judgment rendered on March 2, 2023 by the investigating chamber, purely canceled almost all of the legal proceedings, and even dismissed the investigating judge from this investigation who, after lengthy investigations and European arrest warrants, had nevertheless succeeded in identifying and arresting three suspects. A fiasco, caused by the behavior of the customs officers that day, who have just been sharply called to order.
Hidden under 14 ceramic pallets
This August 14, 2018, however, the case seems well underway for Montpellier tax collectors who are interested, by chance or for other reasons, in a Spanish semi-trailer, parked with all windows down on the Fabrègues rest area. After two hours of surveillance, and without seeing anyone return, the customs officers bring in a trained dog, which smells the smell of cannabis. Driven to Montpellier, the truck reveals its secret, hidden under 14 ceramic pallets. Under the floor of the trailer, opening “with the help of hydraulic cylinders in two identical parts like a Chinese hat” hides in twenty compartments more than a ton of drugs: 1210 kilos of cannabis, in 684 packets heat sealed.
Three arrests three years later
Three years later, the investigation led by a Montpellier investigating judge led to the arrest of the driver in Romania, and in Spain, the owner of the truck as well as an individual whose DNA was found on the one of the cannabis packets. In the meantime, by order of the judge, the cargo but also the truck and its trailer were destroyed.
Problem: the driver’s two lawyers, Me Ronald Gallo and Grégoire De Petiville, from the Grenoble bar, found an unstoppable flaw. Customs officers searched the vehicle without the driver or any witnesses. However, this way of proceeding, which article 60 of the customs code granted them so far, was clearly censored by the Court of Cassation, then by the Constitutional Council, on September 22, 2022.
One OPJ or two witnesses
“This practice allowed them to search anyone, anywhere and anyhow. Customs officers have a culture of investigation which is a culture without rules” esteem Me De Petiville “This article was declared unconstitutional, because there was no guarantee for the litigant. It was clearly derogatory to common law. To search, you need an OPJ, the driver or otherwise two neutral witnesses” says the lawyer.
Contacted, the customs administration did not wish to react. The three suspects had already been released, after four months of pre-trial detention: they will never have to appear before any court, for this colossal traffic.
