The PS mayor of Canteleu, near Rouen, Mélanie Boulanger, was indicted for complicity in drug trafficking and placed under judicial control, we learned Monday, April 25 from the Bobigny prosecutor’s office.
The chosen one had been placed in police custody in October 2021 during an anti-narcotics net, then released. One of his assistants was also indicted, said the Bobigny prosecution, confirming information from the daily Paris Normandy and the Norman media Octopus.
“The mayor and his deputy were indicted on counts of complicity, transport, acquisition, possession, unauthorized offer or transfer of narcotics. They were placed under judicial control”said the deputy prosecutor of Bobigny Anne-Laure Mestrallet.
Arnaud de Saint-Rémy, lawyer for Mélanie Boulanger explained to AFP that “if we want to have full rights to act, identify the origin of this police custody, request acts of instruction, hearings, delivery of documents, we must be indicted”. “This procedural choice was that of the investigating judge and that suits us very well,” he added. “We want to use all the rights that will be available to Mélanie Boulanger to demonstrate her innocence”he added.
On October 8, during a raid, nineteen people were taken into custody. The police custody of the PS mayor of this city in the Rouen agglomeration had been lifted the next day, like that of the deputy. And on October 13, the Bobigny prosecutor’s office announced the indictment of eleven people.
During a press conference after her police custody, Mélanie Boulanger had affirmed that she had “no link” with the drug traffickers of his commune. “I know that I am beyond reproach”she had said.