They all worked for the same unscrupulous company. They are lookouts, launderers, nannies, suppliers or at the head of the network. After the dismantling of their deal point, one of the biggest in Seine-Saint-Denis, the trial of 32 defendants opened this Wednesday morning in Bobigny.
Avenue de Michelet, in Saint-Ouen, the lucrative cannabis and cocaine traffic even had a turnover of only 1.4 million euros over a short period of one month from December 2020 to January 2021. D ‘according to the investigators, this amounts to an estimated daily income of between 15,000 and 28,000 euros, on good days.
As for an ordinary trade, the affluence depended on the time slot. Between 9:30 a.m. and noon, there were 50 customers and 300 transactions for the 2 to 4 p.m. slot.
Defendants from different walks of life
Initially scheduled for Monday, the trial was postponed to Wednesday because several lawyers had not received the final indictment in time. This extraordinary trial for drug trafficking will last a month and is being held in a room normally reserved for assize trials to allow the 32 defendants, 11 of whom are incarcerated, and as many lawyers to sit there.
The indicted, aged between 18 and 58, come from different backgrounds: business manager, computer scientist, social worker, driver-deliveryman, security officer at the SNCF, collector of donations in an NGO. They were arrested in two stages: in June 2020 then in January 2021. Between these two periods, the point deal was very quickly restructured to start operating again with a new organization, indicates a police source.
The police are “cleaning up”
The survey highlighted an organized structure such as an SME where everyone has a role and defined tasks: keeping accounts, restocking drugs at the deal point or promoting on social networks.
For a year, the Michelet point of sale, located opposite the future premises of the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI), has been “dried up”, according to a police source. The police officers were instructed to “clean up” the surrounding area.
In this trial, a tenant of the HLM building at the point of deal and Semiso, the social landlord of the city of Saint-Ouen, have joined as civil parties.