The event had created a stir after the murder of a 26-year-old man in the Empalot district of Toulouse. Monday evening around 10 p.m., a young man was shot several times in the Empalot district, near 18, rue de Menton, a place known for illicit drug trafficking. The shooter(s) arrived in a Renault Clio RS, before firing on a group of people chatting on the public highway. One member of this group succumbed to his injuries in hospital.
The autopsy which will be performed the following day at theIML of Toulouse confirms a fatal shot entered from the rear, having crossed the thorax and hit the back of the head of the victim, who was also very unfavorably known to justice for acts of drug and arms trafficking. The investigation carried out in flagrance by the territorial direction of the judicial police of Toulouse very quickly made it possible to find the vehicle having been used for the murder and to identify four people, two men and two women, who could have had a link with the facts and to question them.
After their hearing, the police custody of the two women (aged 19 and 34) was lifted on Wednesday during the day. The police custody of the two men (aged 24 and 32) has been extended. Both are judicially known and already convicted of drug trafficking in 2020 and 2021, for the first, and for theft for the second.
An organized gang murder
The weapon used in the incident has yet to be identified, but cases that were discovered inside the Renault Clio RS vehicle and at the scene are 5.56 mm caliber, that is to say the type of cartridge used for armed forces assault rifles. Although small in size, it is an ammunition that has a high destructive capacity.
In all likelihood, this murder occurs in a very tense climate between criminals to appropriate the places of resale of drugs in the Empalot district.
The two defendants were brought before the investigating judge today, in connection with this case. The prosecution took requisitions with a view to their indictment for acts qualified as murder in an organized gang, association of criminals, transport and possession of a category A weapon, as well as their placement in detention by the judge of freedoms and detention.
The investigation is continuing under the direction of the investigating judge with a view to identifying the other authors, co-authors or accomplices of the facts.
A very tense climate in Empalot
This case follows other attempted murders or violence with a weapon that have occurred in recent weeks in the Empalot district. Although down from 2020 (7 deaths by firearm), in 2021, Toulouse experienced 19 acts of violence with weapons related to narcotics, including two fatalities and in 2022, 21 acts of the same type, including one mortal. “Indeed, the considerable profits that are drawn from drug trafficking, push those who engage in it to perpetrate violence, sometimes fatal, as was the case on Monday evening, in order to ensure considerable income”, explains the floor.
This reality will certainly be confirmed by a case on Tuesday around 6 p.m., when the DDSP31 anti-crime brigade arrested two Venezuelan nationals in possession of suitcases containing more than two million euros. The couple were about to take a bus to Spain at the Matabiau bus station when they were arrested. The specialized interregional jurisdiction of Bordeaux (JIRS) is seized of the consequences of the case.