A vast operation against illegal migrant smugglers was carried out this weekend by PAF agents from the illegal immigration investigation group headed by Captain Benoit Cassiere. Five people were arrested. Two were released for lack of evidence of financial transactions, while legal proceedings were initiated against the other three. Two smugglers were sentenced by the Bayonne court as part of the immediate appearance procedure. The hearing chaired by Anne Chaussier-Mackowiak took place this Monday afternoon, January 24.
The third smuggler is an Ivorian residing in Spain, checked at the Biriatou border post with five passengers on board, two of whom were hidden in the trunk of his vehicle. The alleged smuggler is summoned in May 2022 to the Bayonne court. In the car, the police found three telephones, six GSM chips and the sum of 600 euros.
Two convictions pronounced by the Bayonne court
Before the Bayonne court, the two defendants were presented under good escort. The opportunity to come back to the facts. Saturday, January 22, one o’clock in the morning in Urrugne. A 47-year-old Spaniard from Hondarribia was arrested in his Peugeot 306 Break with three illegal immigrants on board: one from Ghana, the other from Senegal and the third from Eritrea. “I thought it wasn’t that bad,” explains to the court this bankrupt merchant who is awash in debt. Except it’s the third time he’s been caught red-handed. Already last October, he had been arrested, with migrants in his vehicle. He should also be tried for these facts next March. The Spaniard was also arrested in August, but the procedure was abandoned “lack of an available interpreter”, deplores the public prosecutor Amélie Djaoudo. He was sentenced to eight months in prison. Immediate incarceration.
The other smuggler, a 26-year-old Pakistani was arrested at the Col d’Ibardin on Saturday at four o’clock in the morning with eight illegal migrants in a Mercedes Vito rented by an accomplice. “We were going to go sightseeing and see the Eiffel Tower in Paris” explained, without laughing, a defendant who was not very talkative. He was given a 10-month suspended prison sentence.