The network received hundreds of kilos of cocaine in the port of Le Havre, with the help of corrupt dockers, to deliver them to the mafias: the trial of six men suspected of being the protagonists of this lucrative traffic has opened, Wednesday, February 1, at the Assizes of the North in the absence of one of the accused.
Absent ” without valid excuse “, Aziz Sallami, 29, suspected of having punctually allied with the team, will be” judged by default “, decided the court. A warrant for his arrest had been issued against him after he was absent during an interrogation in December, but he has not been found. The Advocate General requested that his case not be severed.
Aged 31 to 56, the other defendants must appear until February 16 before the special assize court in the North. All are tried for importing and trafficking narcotics in an organized gang and association of criminals. In the room, the five men have their eyes closed, their arms crossed. Four of them, already convicted of drug trafficking, face life imprisonment.
Among them, three delinquents from the working-class neighborhoods of Le Havre are suspected of being the ” contractors Associates of this local network, which operated for international organizations: Mohamed Mellal, 31, Youssef Boukhari Sardi, 40, and Karim Djemel, 42. All three in pre-trial detention, they admitted their participation in certain operations for sponsors whom they refuse to name, but they disputed any leading role.
Bribed dockers
All lived or gravitated in the historic district of dockers, “Les Neiges”, landlocked in the port area. They frequented the same bars, left messages and parcels there.
The investigation began in January 2017, when the police were put on the trail of international drug trafficking from South America. The installation of microphones in the homes of the targeted team allows them to hear the suspects detail their criminal activities: modi operandi, accomplices and future operations. From the conversations alone, 1.3 tonnes of cocaine and 445 kilos of cannabis resin were seized on several boats.
The system is very well run. We approach them (the dockers, editor’s note) by offering them money. There are usually one or two guys who come and say: we know that you work at the port, at the Normandy terminal or elsewhere, we have an outing, are you interested, we offer you – I tell you something stupid – 20,000 or 30,000 euros.
Valérie Giard, lawyer for Karim Djemel
These listenings are the base of the file “Said the president of the court on Wednesday. It appears that the group was responsible ” to extract the cocaine from the containers “, by securing the services of dockers or truck drivers, he explains. With a price per kilo between 2,500 and 4,000 euros, high-ranking port employees could receive up to 150,000 euros, drivers of “riders” (trolleys lifting containers), 50,000.
Eight people, including port personnel, have already been convicted and three released. This traffic was not without risk “, Underlines the president of the court: an indicted docker was found dead in 2020 after a kidnapping from his home. The instruction is in progress.