They allegedly set up cocaine trafficking between Suriname, Guyana and mainland France, to carry out, once the drug had been transported, seizures and arrests and to make a profit. The trial of the number two of the Bordeaux judicial police, Commissioner Stéphane Lapeyre, former head of the operational division of the Narcotics Office (Ocrtis, now Ofast), as well as his former subordinate, opened Monday in Paris . Alongside seven other defendants, they appear until November 7 before the criminal court.
The case dates back to 2013. Stéphane Lapeyre and his ex-subordinate are, among other things, accused of having sent two “snitches” to convince a man just released from prison, Jean-Michel L., to pocket 70,000 euros to go buy at Suriname 14 kg of cocaine and send them from Cayenne via air freight to Orly airport, so that he can travel without contact with the goods.
No authorization had been given
On the way out, large bills in his bag, he was assured that he “didn’t have to worry about customs” if he passed through a specific portico indicated by one of the informants, Lionel K. , or “Marc” under his false identity.
For this mission, the Guyanese was promised “approximately 1,000 euros per kilo of cocaine” imported, the 38-year-old man recounted in court on Monday. “I needed money, and then it was the police…” he justified himself.
If controlled delivery, which consists of allowing drugs to pass across borders to dismantle resale networks downstream, is a common police technique, in this case the judicial authorities had not been informed of it and no authorization had been obtained. been given, especially since there was no pre-existing trafficking, according to investigators.
“The manner was not good”
“The way I handled this matter (…) was not good,” conceded Stéphane Lapeyre during the investigation. “In my mind, there was no question of building a network to dismantle it. » The lawyers of Stéphane Lapeyre, Thibault de Montbrial, and his subordinate, Anne-Laure Compoint, did not wish to comment at this stage.
During the investigation, the former boss of the Narcotics Office François Thierry was heard as an assisted witness. The latter is at the heart of a similar case, suspected of complicity in drug trafficking in a sprawling case relating to the methods of Ocrtis, led by the police officer between 2010 and 2016.