They thought they had found the scheme by communicating with the “Tatoo”, these beepers used in the 1990s. Sentences of up to 12 years in prison were pronounced Wednesday in Marseille against the actors of an international cocaine traffic using the complicity airport baggage handlers in South America and Paris.
Twenty-seven defendants had appeared from November 2 to December 7 before the Marseille Criminal Court, where the investigation of several cases had been grouped together, for this case involving Colombian suppliers, members of the Italian mafias Camorra and N’Dranghetta as well as the Marseille environment.
International ramifications
The case was dubbed “Tatoo”, named after the small untraceable electronic messaging devices with which the main members had equipped themselves to communicate discreetly. Between 2012 and 2014, suitcases stuffed with 24 to 36 kilos of extremely pure cocaine were shipped in Venezuela or the Dominican Republic and, once landed in Orly or Roissy, discreetly exfiltrated by accomplice baggage handlers. Eight transfers were identified and nearly 85 kilos of drugs seized.
Qualified as “a true general of this imported army”, the Parisian Kamel Seraf was sentenced to twelve years in prison and a fine of 200,000 euros. With his brothers Abdelnasser and Abdelkrim, both sentenced to seven years in prison and a fine of 50,000 euros, they formed, according to the prosecutor, “one of the most important teams in the capital, involved in international trafficking”.
Never arrested and tried by default, the Colombian James Cardenas Guisado was sentenced to ten years in prison for his role as a supplier to the sector. Colombian emissary to the Parisian team, Francisco Jimenez Galvan, 66, was the only defendant to indirectly recognize his role and was sentenced to eight years in prison and a fine of 50,000 euros. Most of the defendants will also have to pay a customs fine of 2,527,500 euros, the price of the cocaine seized, valued at 30,000 euros per kilo on resale.
Eleven arrest warrants issued
At the head of a disposal network in the south of France, Vincent Saccomano, 57, a figure of the “Alpine gang” already convicted in the past, was sentenced to nine years in prison, a 60,000 euro fine and the confiscation of an Audemars Piguet luxury watch. According to his lawyer, he wanted to register as of Wednesday with a prison in the region. In the absence of the most heavily sentenced defendants, released given the age of the facts, the court issued 11 arrest warrants.
A single baggage handler, Baba Wague, had been identified, seen dropping off a trolley loaded with a suitcase at Orly. It had been picked up by a member of the network. He was sentenced to three years in prison. Two of the 27 defendants were released.