When a lost phone helps dismantle a drug ring. On Monday, November 15, twelve people were arrested in Haut-Rhin and Île-de-France in connection with the dismantling of a “major drug trafficking”, said Friday, November 19 the specialized interregional jurisdiction (Jirs) of Nancy in a press release. The investigation was opened in the summer of 2020 after “the discovery of a cell phone by a passer-by on the public highway, where images and videos related to this traffic were discovered”.
This survey “made it possible to identify a large-scale criminal structure led by a particularly seasoned criminal”, welcomes the Jirs de Nancy. Thus, among the twelve arrested, ten were indicted, eight of which are placed in pre-trial detention. The other two are under judicial control.
The man at the head of this traffic was “considered as a ‘priority target of interest’ involved in narco-trafficking for fifteen years without having ever been detected”, explains the specialized interregional jurisdiction. He organized traffic by compartmentalizing his organization and using encrypted messaging. Almost every month, he imported parcels into the Mulhouse region “cocaine, resin and herbal cannabis from Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg”. These imports were then used “to supply local sub-networks”, specifies Jirs de Nancy.
A team of 160 soldiers from the national gendarmerie were mobilized for this judicial operation. During the searches, they seized a very large quantity of drugs: a little over 6 kilos of cocaine, nearly 23 tons of cannabis resin, almost 5 kilos of herbal cannabis and more than a kilogram of cutting products. . The “wholesale” purchase price of these products is estimated by Jirs at nearly 300,000 euros and the resale value at nearly 1.17 million euros.
Investigators also found five firearms, including two automatic pistols and two revolvers with their ammunition, and six vehicles estimated at 236,000 euros. There was also hi-fi equipment, watches, jewelry, shoes … In addition, 340,000 euros were seized during these searches, “to which are added 67,000 euros on bank accounts”.