a corruption network involving a clerk dismantled at the Meaux penitentiary center

In total, six people, including two prison officers, were indicted.

It is a case which illustrates “the risk of corruption within our own institutions”, in the words of the public prosecutor Laure Beccuau in a press release, published Thursday December 21. A network involving two agents from the Meaux-Chauconin penitentiary center (Seine-et-Marne), including a clerk, was dismantled after surrenders or attempts to release drug traffickers, she announced. The investigation concerns facts that began in 2021.

An investigation was opened in May 2022.following the discovery of several suspicious file consultations and modifications within the Meaux penitentiary center, as well as surrenders or attempted releases attributable to the non-transmission of requests within procedural deadlines”said the prosecution.

In total, six people were indicted on Wednesday for “active and passive corruption”, “organized gang fraud”, “misappropriation of the purpose of files” and “criminal association”, the Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed on Thursday . All were placed in pre-trial detention.

Modified criminal records

At the center of the investigations, a prison administration clerk stationed in Meaux, aged around thirty, is suspected of having modified criminal files and of not having transmitted certain requests, which would have resulted in to bring down committal warrants.

One of the challenges of the investigations will be to establish whether the errors entered in the criminal files and the deadlines for transmitting files not respected are all voluntary and sponsored, or if they are simple errors due to a lack of training. or at too fast a pace of work. “Persons indicted or already convicted for serious crimes had and would have benefited from these interventions”underlines the magistrate.