a PS mayor in police custody after an anti-narcotics crackdown

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 which weapons were seized, we learned from corroborating sources. Mélanie Boulanger, the PS mayor of Canteleu, near Rouen, was arrested and placed in police custody, we learned from a judicial source which reported 11 arrests at first. According to a police source, Mélanie 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 has not confirmed or denied the arrest of Mélanie Boulanger, but specifies 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 familiar with the matter referred to “weapons of war”, mini Uzi submachine guns.

Police custody likely to be extended

According to the Bobigny prosecutor, the people were arrested and placed in police custody “on rogatory commission from an investigating judge in 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 prosecutor underlines that “the police custody still in progress and being able to go up to ninety-six hours, are likely to be prolonged”. “The examining magistrate 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 councilor is close to the socialist mayor of Rouen, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol. The cabinet of the mayor of Canteleu did not wish to react.

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