The Uberization of drug trafficking is leading more and more women to embark on illicit careers, often as conveyor belts, but sometimes also at the head of their own business.
Safiatou, a young, uneventful 27-year-old woman, was arrested in November at a toll near Angers (Maine-et-Loire), while she was transporting 4.5 kg of heroin in her vehicle. The investigation established that she had made no less than 31 trips between the north of France, where she lives, and the surroundings of Nantes, transporting a total of nearly 150 kg of this opioid.
Mother of a 4-year-old boy, this car mechanic is by no means an experienced drug trafficker. This is undoubtedly what interested the men who recruited her: all-purpose, she was the ideal conveyor belt. Safiatou was sentenced on March 11 to 18 months in prison, with the same suspended sentence. Her son was placed in child welfare (ASE) during his incarceration.
“It was the first time I saw a woman convicted in a drug case”, confides his lawyer, Olivier Rolland. Historically, they were confined to the roles of “nurses”: these women, in often precarious situations, who are offered or forced to hide drugs, cash or weapons in their home, all in exchange of remuneration.
Traditionally, the women whose names appear in the proceedings are also companions of traffickers, “who are aware that their boyfriend has drugs at home or that he deals when they are there”observes Olivier Rolland. “They sometimes participate in hiding the goods, but are not involved in the maneuver”. But this situation is tending to change, and women are taking an increasingly active part in trafficking.
“Dealers trust them more and more”
“For five or ten years, we have seen a generational change: women are entering networks as juniors,” notes Eddy Sid, spokesperson for the SGP Police-FO Marseille Unit union, who has noted their presence at deal points in the Marseille city for several years. “In the northern districts, some serve as chouf [personne chargée de prévenir les dealers de l’arrivée de la police]. On the La Paternelle deal point, we also saw beaters [chargées d’orienter les consommateurs] elderly 14 or 15 years old“details the unionist.
Rudy Manna, spokesperson for the Alliance Police union, assures that girls are also recruited as “charcoals”responsible for selling the drugs to the customer. “We put them in direct contact with money and merchandise. This shows that dealers are making more and more money from them trust”, he analyzes. Same observation in Grenoble (Isère), where we “begins to recruit foreign girls in an irregular situation, minors or very young adults”, slips the vice-prosecutor, Mariette Auguste.
However, the deal “remains an environment of men, who do not want to involve women in their affairs, and even less treat them as equals”, underlines a judicial police officer based in Metz (Moselle).
“The traffickers are far from being feminists. The woman, for them, is either the one who stays at home and looks after the children, or a whore or a mistress.”
A judicial police officer from Metzat franceinfo
An observation shared by Sarah Perrin, sociologist, who spoke with dozens of drug users and sellers for her work Women and drugs: trajectories of socially integrated user-dealers in Bordeaux and Montreal. “From the moment we are a woman and we want to buy or sell alone, we are necessarily confronted with virilist values, stereotypes, discrimination, threats of violence or concrete violence”, she explains to France 3 Nouvelle-Aquitaine. For the moment, the actors interviewed by franceinfo also certify that there are only men at the head of the deal points.
The “Uber shit” is recruiting conveyor belt workers
It is therefore through the rise of “Uber shit” that women are investing in drug trafficking. A growing proportion of traffickers – and now traffickers – use encrypted messaging such as Telegram, WhatsApp or Signal, or the social network Snapchat to sell and deliver their goods directly to consumers’ homes.
“If girls no longer hesitate to get started, it is mainly because of the Uberization of traffic, which can be done without the dangers of deal points“, confirms Samuel Vuelta-Simon, the public prosecutor of Toulouse. “Women no longer need to have the protection of a man in the field: they can go it alone, with a phone, and by being a little smart.”adds Toulouse lawyer Sarah Nabet-Claverie.
Added to these facilitated entry conditions is a certain trivialization of the sale of narcotics, and in particular cocainewhich became the second most widespread illicit drug in France. “Many, including girls, have the impression that it’s a business like any other.” underlines Samuel Vuelta-Simon. However, the transport, possession, supply, sale or purchase of narcotics carries a risk of ten years in prison and a fine of 7,500,000 euros, according to article 222-37 of the Penal Code.
Most of those who start out see traffic as an opportunity to obtain additional income. Some have difficult ends of the month, but not all are necessarily in great precariousness. “I see a lot of cases happening involving well-established young women, who have family ties, are in a relationship, who work or go to class…”, testifies Gaëlle Heux-Tammen, lawyer in Lorient (Morbihan).
Traffic, “a little job” like any other
She recently defended Noëmie (the first name has been changed), 20 years old, a work-study BTS business student, with a clean record, who did not use any drugs. Overnight, this Rennes woman began delivering heroin and cocaine on behalf of a trafficker who had approached her. The young woman lives in Blosne, a district of Ile-et-Vilaine eaten up by trafficOr a shooting broke out on the night of March 10 to 11. At the time of his arrest, nearly 80,000 euros were seized from the home of Noëmie, who was also a “nanny”. During his trial, the magistrates also wondered if the shooting did not have a link with the confiscation of this sum, which occurred a few days before.
At the hearing, the student “understood the seriousness of her actions. But before, she talked about trafficking like we talk about a small job, which is the most normal”, wonders Gaëlle Heux-Tammen. The young woman had, however, studied a year in law school before her BTS and dreamed of becoming a lawyer. She was sentenced to twenty-four months in prison, including six months in prison. “She went directly to detention and will have to leave the region, because she runs a high risk of reprisals,” worries Gaëlle Heux-Tammen, who notes that we have seen “kidnappings, sequestrations and torture for much less than 80,000 euros“.
Like Noëmie, Safiatou expected to receive a suspended prison sentence for her heroin convoys. This is to underestimate the severity of justice. Imprisonment is, in fact, not uncommon in this type of case. “On cocaine, MDMA and heroin, it hits hard, confirms Angevin lawyer Olivier Rolland. The magistrates are particularly intractable on the heroine : it is the drug that kills the most by overdose.”
Justice less and less fooled
Recruiters do not target their escorts at random: they know that these women need money, and promise them attractive sums, even if, “200 to 300 euros per trip to Safiatou is frankly ridiculous”breathes Olivier Rolland. “It’s all good for the networks, which play on the trust they inspire”, observes Gaëlle Heux-Tammen. A “drug” police officer in Villeurbanne admits to having “less the reflex to control a woman behind the wheel”.
Recently, during a random check, one of his colleagues found “a significant quantity of product” in the vehicle of a middle school after-school leader. “She lives in a neighborhood where traffic is in full swing: traffickers promised her easy money and she fell in, even though she is far from having a delinquent streak”describes the police officer, stunned.
“In recent months in Marseille, we have arrested several conveyors with unexpected profiles: students, from nice neighborhoods… The seemingly perfect daughters-in-law.”
Eddy Sid, spokesperson for the SGP Police-FO Unit unionat franceinfo
These new drug trafficking recruits are forcing the police, but also the justice system, to reconsider the place of women in drug cases. “We always tend to believe that they are fragile little things, without free will, manipulated by their ex or their boyfriend,” remarks Sarah Nabet-Claverie. The lawyer admits to having sometimes played on this cliché to reduce the sentences of her clients.
After five years in charge of cases linked to drug trafficking in Grenoble, it is only “for two or three years” that Mariette Auguste has changed her outlook on women whose names appear in files relating to trafficking. “Before, companions and mothers were left out of the procedures”recognizes the vice-prosecutor.
A network of five women who could earn “up to 15,000 euros per day”
Beyond the conveyor belts, the magistrate says she is finding more and more women in cases of laundering dirty money. During a recent wave of arrests within a large trafficking family, investigators discovered that the mother of the clan was responsible for concealing the origin of the funds that passed through her hands. She “paid for the work in cash, made real estate investments, and sent his sons to fine the bad payers”, relates Mariette Auguste. The magistrate cites another recent case: a young woman ran a small cocaine trade for around fifteen clients. Her partner was known to the courts for other crimes. “The investigators initially thought it was him who was in charge”comments the magistrate.
Lawyer Sarah Nabet-Claverie has followed several recent cases involving women running their own businesses. The lawyer notably defended the head of a network of five women, childhood friends who grew up together at the ASE, “and who could make up to 15,000 euros per day”.
Women who are starting out “don’t want to depend on anyone. Like guys, they want to be able to make a lot of money at once and have a taste for luxury clothes and bagssummarizes Sarah Nabet-Claverie. In theory, social determinism prevents them from almost certain access to beautiful things and beautiful places. notes the lawyer. But even in drug trafficking, women also want their share of the pie.