The image looks like a postcard. Under the radiant sun of early autumn, a retiree slowly walks up the cobbled streets of May-sur-Evre, a fresh baguette under his arm. Further down, a few rare onlookers cross the town’s main square, rushing to the butcher’s before lunchtime or to the post office before it closes, at 12:15 p.m. sharp. At first glance, this rural town of 3,800 souls located in the heart of Mauges, in Maine-et-Loire, resembles hundreds of others across France: a well-maintained town hall, a small war memorial, a church dating from the 15th century and a PMU bistro tirelessly welcoming a handful of regulars. On April 9, at 6 a.m., this reassuring tranquility was shaken by the unexpected visit of several police vans, as part of a major operation launched by the Cholet research brigade.
After a long investigation, more than 120 gendarmes carried out a simultaneous raid in May-sur-Evre and neighboring departments, in order to arrest 16 people suspected of participating in international drug trafficking. For months, the heart of this network had been established in the small Angevin town, and operated like a “classic” import-export company – except that its stock consisted mainly of cocaine and cannabis. These narcotic products, imported to May-sur-Evre from the Paris region, the Netherlands, Spain or Morocco, were then resold on social networks or via encrypted messaging, before being delivered to your home by a team of couriers for “local” consumers, and by postal packages to international customers, living in Lithuania, Belgium, Italy, or even Mexico.
To the point that the Angers public prosecutor, Eric Bouillard, spoke at the time of “a real drug company”, with its offers, its promotions, its delivery conditions… and its name, “Zanzi shop”. Within this “virtual deal point”, everyone plays a very specific role, some taking care of accounting, storage or supply, while others specialize in advertising on social networks to attract potential customers. customers. “In this case as in others, we find arguments and marketing codes which revolve around the notions of pleasure and celebration. These traffickers are above all traders, hunters of easy money. There was a business to be done, and they jumped at the opportunity,” the prosecutor told L’Express.
A vast drug trafficking network was dismantled by the police.
© / Céline Delbecque / L’Express
“10,000 euros per week”
Between Nantes, Angers and Cholet, this “business” quickly flourished, and the small business experienced dazzling success. During the first searches by the gendarmerie, 41 kilos of cannabis, 760 grams of cocaine and 160,000 euros in cash were seized from the various suspects, as well as five vehicles and several weapons, including a rifle, a pistol, and 150 cartridges of different calibers. But the total loot estimated by the gendarmes and customs is much greater: “A tour could bring in 10,000 euros. It is estimated that a quantity of 60 kilos of drugs could be sold in a week”, specified last spring the former deputy prosecutor of the Republic of Angers, Sandrine Rousseau. The surveys carried out also made it possible to estimate the weight of products sold since the creation of Zanzi shop at 1.5 tonnes, for a profit of more than 1.2 million euros.
Above all, the case is sprawling: while ten people belonging to the Zanzi shop network were sentenced in July 2024 to sentences ranging from twelve months suspended to six years in prison and a customs fine of 1.2 million euros, new suspects involved in the network were arrested this Tuesday, October 22, in Vendée and in the Cholet area. According to our colleagues at West Francethis “branch” of the network is said to have sold “185 kilos of cannabis and four kilos of cocaine” since last May, delivering narcotics in Maine-et-Loire, but also in Vendée, in Loire-Atlantique, in Bordeaux or in Poitiers.
In May-sur-Evre, the affair and its twists and turns left a lasting impression. The main “network heads” of Zanzi shop mostly grew up in the town, attended the local school and college, “come from local families, until then without problem”, summarizes the mayor Alain Picard, elected since 2008. “No one could have assumed that they would get out of control to this extent. We are in an area where life is good, very calm, with a low unemployment rate, a strong associative network, a thousand and one activities on offer to our young people… We are not at all in what we can see in certain districts of Grenoble or Marseille”, he underlines.
“It chattered for weeks”
For several months, the councilor had been keeping a close eye on some of his constituents, particularly at the request of the local gendarmerie. An additional surveillance camera had been installed at a “strategic location” in the town, and Alain Picard “expected something to happen, without knowing that the affair would take such a turn”. At the same time, some residents confirm “suspicious” comings and goings of the main people concerned, and strange external signs of wealth, far from going unnoticed in the little-used streets of May-sur-Evre.
“Without ever having worked, one of them drove around with very nice cars, while we saw another delivering packages on an electric scooter, almost every day,” says an administrator we met in a bar in the city center. “In fact, we knew without knowing”, confirms a trader, aware that “small deals” had been concluded for a long time “near the church”, without thinking “that weapons, a banknote counting machine or kilos of drugs” would one day be found a few meters from his shop.
“Obviously, it was talked about for weeks. Everyone asked questions: for example, it convinced me to never install TikTok on my 11-year-old daughter’s cell phone!” she exclaims. If the majority of Maytais met this weekend say they are “relieved” that the network has finally been dismantled, some are worried about a possible “resumption” of traffic in the town or in the surrounding villages. “These young people have a fine to pay, surely debts to repay… We wonder how it will all end,” comments a sixty-year-old, shrugging his shoulders.
“Explosion” of traffic in rural areas
The Angers public prosecutor, for his part, does not underestimate the extent of this type of trafficking in small and medium-sized municipalities. Over the past ten years, he says he has seen the phenomenon “explode” in rural areas, at the same time as the consumption of hard drugs and increasingly simplified access to large quantities of narcotics on the Internet. “Twenty-five years ago, small traffickers went to the Netherlands on mopeds to obtain supplies, then resell around their homes. Now, in three clicks on the dark Web, they can launch their own dealing point and create a network in a few days”, regrets Eric Bouillard.
In such a context, the frantic pace of traffickers remains difficult to follow for justice and law enforcement. “We are talking about sites hosted by countries which do not respond to our requests, bank accounts created abroad, financial flows almost impossible to trace, traffickers with almost unlimited means,” explains the prosecutor, calling for more training specialist investigators on the subject. In the Zanzi shop affair, the careful analysis of the lifestyle of the main accused, the movements of their bank accounts and their financial assets proved decisive for the success of the investigation.
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