A crackdown in the midst of a war to control drug retail outlets. The police arrested late Tuesday night Kamel Meziani, 37, “a prominent member of Marseille narco-banditism”, in the words of Eric Arella, director of the judicial police of Marseille., And suspected of being one leaders of the network of Olives, one of the most successful in the city.
He was arrested at the Fleury-en-Bière tollgate, in the Paris region, while he was under an arrest warrant for convictions, in his absence, in 2020 to 14 years in prison by the Marseille Criminal Court for drug trafficking and 30 years imprisonment by the Aix-en-Provence Assize Court, for the double murder of the KFC de Plombières in 2016 in Marseille.
Suspected of double homicide in the Blue Navy
Two other people were arrested and taken into police custody Thursday and Friday in Marseille, the police suspect them of being part of the same team as Kamel Meziani. The work of the police after the double homicide at the Blue Navy in August, which claimed the lives of two 25-year-olds, seems to have borne fruit. “The investigations carried out in flagrante delicto by the criminal brigade in connection with a magistrate of the JIRS, made it possible to identify several members of the same team, attached by the vehicle used by the killers of the Blue Navy, found set on fire in the Corot park . Two targets being according to the observations of the PJ at the heart of this series of settling of scores which took place in the northern districts ”, advanced the public prosecutor, Dominique Laurens.
Among these two people arrested who had been seen with Kamel Meziani, one of them was carrying a key to open a box. “We seized from inside this box a stolen utility vehicle, two handguns, two machine guns and two cans of gasoline. And we discovered in another packaging characteristic of narcotics, but without finding a product, ”said Eric Arella.
“Evidence-based” operations
These three individuals were placed in police custody for murder in an organized gang, destruction of evidence by fire, and participation in a criminal association, in particular. Three other people around them were also taken into police custody. The investigation is only beginning, but the Marseille judicial police and the prosecution welcome these three arrests. “These are only the first operations, but they appear convincing in terms of the discovery of weapons and vehicles. The strategy put in place by the PJ allows us to move quickly to interesting elements, and to quickly bring about the opening of judicial information and the referral of individuals ”, the director of the PJ and the prosecutor were satisfied. of the Republic.
Twenty-five intentional homicides or attempted homicides have taken place in Marseille since the start of the year, but several arrests of “priority targets” have taken place since the start of the year.