“Mouf”, presumed cannabis baron in France, sentenced to 16 years in prison



He is portrayed as one of the most important French drug traffickers. Moufide Bouchibi, 41, was sentenced Thursday in Bordeaux to 16 years in prison for a series of “go fast” in 2011 involving several tonnes of cannabis.

The criminal court attached this sentence to a two-thirds safety period, a fine of 4 million euros and a customs fine of 2 million euros. At the hearing last week, the representative of the public prosecutor requested 18 years in prison against the Franco-Algerian who had been sentenced in his absence in 2015 by this same court to 20 years in prison and 1 million euros. fine, during a first trial.

Procedural guerrilla

His arrest in March in Dubai, after nine years on the run, then his transfer to France, which the defense has always denounced as a “disguised extradition”, had led to this new trial in Bordeaux, marked by a procedural guerrilla war, with demands nullity on the part of the defense.

Before his judges, the defendant, nicknamed “Mouf”, had contested being behind the traffic and questioned the wiretapping, at the heart of the procedure, believing that “a single investigator (him) ‘identified”.

“In the capacity to send astronomical quantities of cannabis resin”

In his indictment, the deputy prosecutor Mathieu Fohlen had underlined that during a hearing Moufide Bouchibi had asked if he could “pay the fine [du premier procès] in cash ”and that his lawyer was quick to say that his client was“ joking ”. Analyzing the content of telephone interceptions, he had endeavored to demonstrate “the mastery” and “the extent” of the traffic of Moufide Bouchibi, who “was in the logistical capacity to send different convoys simultaneously on different routes, with astronomical quantities of cannabis resin ”.

One of the lawyers of “Mouf”, Me Thomas Bidnic, had asked the judges “to note that in the absence of extradition, he cannot be tried”. In the absence of an annulment of the procedure, he had asked for the release, inviting them to resist the “manifest pressure of the public prosecutor” who wanted to “hang the head of Moufide Bouchibi”.

In this case, “the law was minced, passed through the mill”

“It is a systematic violation not only of the texts but also of the principles of the rule of law. This judgment has no rigor. My client was condemned in advance and the demonstration has just been made, ”responded Mr. Bidnic, who affirmed his intention to appeal.

In this case, “the law has been minced, passed through the mill,” he added, very reassured. “The extradition agreement was violated, and that doesn’t matter. Everything was like that in this trial… ”.



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