Fifteen people, including a police officer from Val-de-Marne suspected of providing information to drug traffickers, have been charged following the dismantling this week of a major cannabis importation and resale network, the Paris prosecutor’s office said on Saturday.
Among the fifteen suspects, four, including the police officer, were placed under judicial supervision by a magistrate at the Paris judicial court. The other eleven people have been placed in provisional detention, the prosecutor’s office added, noting that incarceration had been requested for all those involved.
They were arrested earlier this week in the Paris region, mainly in Essonne, as part of an investigation entrusted in early 2023 to gendarmes from the research sections of Paris and Versailles, under the authority of Junalco (National Jurisdiction responsible for combating organized crime).
More than a hundred kilos of cannabis were found during the searches, a source close to the investigation had said. The investigation into this network began with the accidental discovery of 300 kilos of cannabis resin in a car after a refusal to stop in a town in Essonne.
Possible trafficking facilitated by police files
During their investigation, the gendarmes identified a significant network importing resin and marijuana from Spain, with its base in Essonne. They also found that the traffickers were in contact with a police officer stationed at a police station in Val-de-Marne.
The officer is suspected of illegally consulting police files, including the Vehicle Registration System (SIV), and passing on information to the network. The investigations will determine whether the officer simply illegally accessed the files or if he worked “directly with the traffickers,” the source said.
The judicial investigation led by a magistrate of Junalco focuses in particular on charges of organized drug importation, criminal association, money laundering, corruption, and misuse of personal data.
Louis de Kergorlay with AFP
