Caught with 104 kg of cannabis near Toulouse, a Parisian sentenced to 5 years in prison
At the end of September in Granada near Toulouse, customs officers intercepted a vehicle. Inside, hidden in caches, 104 kg of cannabis. The driver has just been sentenced by the Toulouse Criminal Court.
“I was recruited for € 8,000. I was in a complicated situation after being fired because of the health crisis. The lure of profit was stronger than reason, ”a 29-year-old man explained to the Toulouse Criminal Court. In front of his judges, he will not say much more.
His arrest dates back to the evening of Sunday, September 26, in Grenada, north-east of Toulouse. That evening, away from the highway or the Nationals, this driver is moving north at the wheel of a vehicle. No luck, the customs officers of the Montauban interception brigade are also distributed in the area. They then carried out a thorough check, encouraged by the apparent nervousness of the driver. And it didn’t take long for them to find several fitted out caches. Inside, a total of 104 kg of cannabis resin.
An untraceable accomplice
At the end of the customs withholding, the investigations by the police officers of the antenna triggered the territorial direction of the judicial police of Toulouse made it possible to understand that that evening, this man was not circulating alone. Regular contacts have been identified with a phone number, probably the “opener” car. But the police failed to identify this accomplice.
Before his judges, the man who lived in the Paris region before his arrest, and his imprisonment, does not give more detail and he clearly evokes “the fear of reprisals”. “You have already been sentenced 27 times. In the situation you are in, we almost have the impression that accepting this transport is almost suicide, ”notes the President. The transporter remains silent.
Not the prosecutor. “He was carrying 104 kg. We do not entrust this kind of transport to just anyone. This is what makes me say that he is a high-ranking person in this drug trade. He has already been sentenced 27 times. If he continues, it is because he derives a greater benefit than the risks! », Asserts the prosecutor. It requires five years’ imprisonment with continued detention.
Coming from Paris, Me Sarah Mauger-Poliak denounces “the requisitions of network manager”. “We position it at the top of a fictitious pyramid. In reality, it is he who takes all the risks. The sanction must leave him a little light and hope. “
After deliberation, this transporter was sentenced to five years in prison, two of which were accompanied by a probationary suspension. He is held in detention and will first have to pay a customs fine set at € 40,000.