Incarcerated in 2016, Joël Soudron took advantage of an exit permit in 2018 to escape. He’s still on the loose.
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Europol, the European criminal police agency, is launching its “Most Wanted” campaign on Friday 3 December to find drug lord Joël Soudron. Aged 42, Joël Soudron is suspected of having been at the head of a major cocaine import network in France.
This very large-scale traffic was put in place ten years ago. Hundreds of kilos of cocaine left the West Indies towards the port of Le Havre, then inundated all of France. Incarcerated in 2016, Joël Soudron took advantage of a leave of absence in 2018 to go on the run. He is suspected of having laundered millions of euros in real estate in Africa.
Known under several identities, Joël Soudron has become one of the priority targets of the National Fugitive Search Brigade. “He is someone who wants to be very discreet”, explains to franceinfo Jacques Croly, the commissioner who heads the brigade. “He is not at all in ostentation. He does not have the will to establish his place, his importance, by exhibiting his violence, his wealth”. According to Jacques Croly, Joël Soudron “has chosen discretion to make its business prosper as well as possible”. The “Most Wanted” campaign should enable information to be gathered from the public “which can help us to better define its activities, its location and thus contribute to its questioning”, adds Jacques Croly.
Joël Soudron’s portrait is published on Europol’s Most Wanted site, where it is possible to provide information to the police. Last year, testimonies led to the arrest of a fugitive who was wanted for rape.