The 43-year-old trafficker’s run ended during a routine customs check on the A36 motorway.
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A drug trafficker wanted for 20 years was arrested on an area of the A36 motorway near Besançon on January 1, France Bleu Besançon learned on Friday January 14 from a source familiar with the matter. This is Hakim Hambli, the brother of another drug trafficker, Sofiane Hambli, who was also arrested last October after seven months on the run. A judicial investigation is opened and the suspect has been remanded in custody.
The run of this 43-year-old trafficker therefore ended during a banal routine customs check on the A36 motorway. The man was in possession of 10,700 euros in cash, not declared in transport of funds, which is however mandatory for any sum greater than or equal to 10,000 euros. He then presented a Swiss identity document which turned out to be false.
Placed in police custody for 48 hours, he did not explain his identity, nor the source of this sum or his journey, explains France Bleu Besançon. The investigators did not find his trace in the files either, but it was by distributing his photo in the ranks of the police and the gendarmerie that some ended up recognizing Hakim Habli. Wanted for 20 years, he was sentenced to eight years in prison by default in 2002 in Mulhouse for “importing narcotics”. Hakim Hambli is now domiciled in Andalusia. He is therefore suspected of having been arrested coming from Spain.
His brother is none other than the French drug baron Sofiane Hambli, 46 years old. After seven months on the run, he was arrested last October in a clinic in Tangier, Morocco, where he was admitted after being attacked in the streets of the city.
Originally from Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin), Sofiane Hambli is notably the central figure in the scandal of the import of seven tonnes of cannabis into France in 2015 which had resulted in the ousting of the former boss of the fight against drugs François Thierry . Nicknamed the “chimera”, he was this time wanted for another case of importing narcotics, four tons of cannabis for which he is suspected of having received 2.5 million euros.