an elected PS in custody, weapons seized
Nineteen people were arrested and taken into police custody on Friday, including the socialist mayor of Canteleu (Seine-Maritime), during an anti-narcotics crackdown during the weapons were seized, we learned from corroborating sources.
Mélanie Boulanger, the PS mayor of Canteleu, near Rouen, was arrested and placed in police custody, a judicial source was informed which reported 11 arrests at first.
According to a police source, Ms. Boulanger was taken into custody as part of this investigation for drug trafficking and criminal association.
In a statement in the evening, the public prosecutor of Bobigny Éric Mathais said that a total of 19 people were arrested, fifteen in Seine-Maritime and four in Seine-Saint-Denis.
The Bobigny prosecutor did not confirm or deny the arrest of Mélanie Boulanger, but that searches carried out on Friday “made it possible to seize 15 kg of heroin, 25 kg of cutting product, firearms and the sum of 375,000 euros “.
A source close to the matter, interviewed by AFP, spoke of “weapons of war”, mini Uzi submachine guns.
According to the Bobigny prosecutor, the people were arrested and placed in police custody “on the rogatory commission of an investigating judge from Bobigny, seized of a judicial investigation opened since September 2019 of the heads of drug trafficking and association of criminals “.
The investigations allowed “to identify several people in connection with this traffic” and led to “schedule a simultaneous operation”, detailed the magistrate.
The arrests were carried out by the departmental service of the judicial police of Seine-Saint-Denis (SDPJ 93), seized of the investigations, as well as by the departmental security service of the DDSP of Seine-Maritime, according to Éric Mathais.
The prosecutor underlines that “the police custody still in progress and being able to go up to 96 hours, are likely to be prolonged”. “The investigator will decide at the end of the follow-up to be given for each person”, recalled Éric Mathais.
Mélanie Boulanger, 44, was head of the PS-EELV list in the last regional elections, won by Hervé Morin. Vice-president of the metropolis in charge of youth, higher education and research, the city councilor is close to the socialist mayor of Rouen, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol.
Contacted by AFP, the cabinet of the mayor of Canteleu did not wish to react.
cor-mas-clc-lg / db / gvy