At the Paris Criminal Court,
It all starts with an anonymous call. One day, at the end of last June, the agents of the Paris narcotics brigade are contacted by a person who chooses to conceal his identity. This is content to point to a place, the surroundings of a metro station, and to indicate a number, that of a man who “sells crack”. Revenge of a disgruntled customer? Attempt to harm a member of a rival traffic? The trial does not tell us more about the motivations of the appeal. But, immediately, the alert is taken seriously. The police services place the man indicated under wiretapping. His calls are geolocated, his directory peeled in detail.
Four days after the first anniversary of the installation of crack users on the Forceval site, on the edge of the Porte de la Villette, this cocaine derivative remains a major concern in the capital. This Wednesday afternoon, four men of Guyanese origin were heard by the Paris Criminal Court for acquisition, possession and transport of cocaine and crack. Three of them are also charged with selling crack.
Two “mules” arrested in a hotel
It was only two months after the call, on August 29, that the agents began their arrests. Two “mules”, Barnett and Jérémy, disembark at Orly airport, after a flight from Guyana. As soon as they arrive, the agents of the narcotics squad find them suspicious. “They pretend not to know each other but seem to have identified each other with their eyes,” says the deputy prosecutor. As soon as one leaves, the other watches his suitcases, then they take the same bus. »
A few hours later, the agents spotted the two men in a hotel near the Gare du Nord, and known to be a favorite haunt of “mules”. Josué, denounced by an anonymous call, would have called this same hotel a little earlier in the day, according to the analyzes of the police services. “I wanted to know if I hadn’t forgotten my ring on the spot”, he justifies. However, no reservation in the establishment in his name has been found. An index, for the authorities, of his involvement in the traffic of August 29.
53 cocaine eggs in the body
Around 6 p.m., almost twelve hours after the arrival of the “mules” at the airport, the agents questioned them. They enter a hotel room smelling of excrement, and find them in flagrante delicto. Placed in police custody, Jérémy and Barnett reject respectively 8 and 16 grams of cocaine. The first admitted to having transported 53 cocaine eggs during the trip he made, at the end of August, between Guyana and Paris.
“Why did you wait so long before arresting them? Asks Maître Laporte, lawyer for Marvin, the fourth defendant. Because the agents of the brigade were convinced that Marvin and Josué were going to join them at the hotel. Only they never came. For the public prosecutor, the whole issue of the trial is to establish the link between the four defendants, and to prove their involvement in the same traffic.
A mysterious sponsor
The “cornerstone” of the case is Barnett, say the police. Arrested as a “mule” in the hotel room with Jérémy, he also seems linked to the two other defendants. The agents find traces of regular transfers, for a total sum estimated at 2,500 euros, from Marvin to him. Searching his phone, they also find mentions of Joshua’s name and exact address in his photos.
Yet Barnett and Marvin evoke a third party. A mysterious person who would have contacted them to tell them what to do. Martin calls him “Big Ma”, Barnett speaks of a certain “Blacko”. “Maybe he misunderstood and wanted to call him ‘Big Man,'” Barnett said during the hearing. These nicknames “Blacko” and “Big Man” mean the same thing. “But for the deputy prosecutor, there is no doubt: Barnett” pulls all this a little “. This third person would only be an “imaginary identity”, invented by the latter to protect himself.
“Apart from the August 29 event, these are only presumptions,” argues Jérémy’s lawyer. The four defense lawyers agree to plead the lack of tangible evidence. “Two of the four defendants have never been seen in possession of narcotics,” said Master Simon, Josué’s lawyer.
“The Crack Import Chain”
“In reality, the searches yielded nothing,” said Maître Laporte. “Especially since the whitish traces found in the homes of two of the defendants have not been analyzed,” she adds. Same story during the argument of Joshua’s lawyer. “The bicarbonate that the agents found at his home is food bicarbonate. You can’t make crack out of it, he says. The agents of the narcotics squad are aware that they are telling cracks. »
This trial “offers a panorama of the crack importation chain, underlines the deputy prosecutor. It helps to understand that between the one who imports crack from Guyana and the consumer of crack in Paris, there is only one intermediary. According to the public prosecutor, Josué, Marvin, Jérémy and Barnett are respectively salesman, “cook”, “mule” or importer, and organizer of the traffic. Insinuations that displease their lawyers. “In this trial, the public prosecutor assigned roles to the defendants at random,” they denounce.
After more than an hour of deliberation, the criminal court found the four defendants guilty. Jérémy is sentenced to one year in prison, with adjustment of sentence and wearing of the electronic bracelet, Marvin to 18 months in prison, and Josué to 20 months in prison. Barnett, who was already sentenced in 2017 to four years in prison, including one year for similar acts, is sentenced to five years in prison. These sentences are part of the security policy adopted by the new prefect of police, Laurent Nuñez, to eradicate the phenomenon of crack in Paris within a year.