She wanted to “change people’s lives”, today she finds herself “destroyed”… Tried for complicity in drug trafficking, the former socialist mayor of the small town of Canteleu (Seine-Maritime) painfully protested his innocence Wednesday at the Bobigny court (Seine-Saint-Denis), describing herself as an elected official overwhelmed by the balance of power in drug trafficking.
White blouse with purple flowers over black pants, Mélanie Boulanger, who resigned “for health reasons” in February from the mandate of mayor which she had held since 2014, stands overwhelmed at the bar of the criminal court, her voice blank, the curved spine.
” I am destroyed. I gave a lot, I did things that I loved, I wanted to change people’s lives, I wanted to improve them. I knew I didn’t have a wand. I only had energy to give, I gave it,” bursts into tears the former head of the socialist list in Normandy in the 2021 regional elections.
“I am very, very far from the other defendants! »
The interrogation of the mayor constitutes the high point of the month-long trial at the Bobigny court of 18 defendants in connection with significant trafficking in cocaine, heroin and cannabis based in Canteleu, suspected of being run by the formidable clan Meziani. An enlightening case on the influence of drug trafficking on the scale of a small town.
A figure of Norman socialism, Mélanie Boulanger, 47, denies wholeheartedly having put pressure on the police so that they do not interfere with the affairs of the Meziani family, renowned for reigning in terror in this popular town of 14,000. residents.
“I wanted to tell you my innocence, because in this story I am innocent. I am not only innocent, I am very, very far from the other defendants! », Protests Mélanie Boulanger, who ostensibly showed her disgust when sitting alongside the alleged drug traffickers at the opening of the trial.
“Drug trafficking at the heart of the issues in Canteleu”
Having passed through several towns in the Rouen region during her political rise, this daughter of an elected official put down roots in Canteleu from 2007. In this commune, one of the poorest in Normandy, she was gradually struck by the visible presence of the drug trafficking.
“I worked in a city that was a difficult neighborhood, Val-de-Reuil. I could see that what was happening in Canteleu was much more serious,” says Mélanie Boulanger, blonde bob and small round glasses. “Drug trafficking was always at the heart of the subjects discussed at Canteleu.” From 2015, “I have this perception that something has turned around and is gaining a lot of momentum”. In town, tension with traffickers rises.
“In the pincers”
In 2017, the eldest of the Meziani family presented himself in his office upon his release from prison to demand the allocation of social housing. Faced with the mayor’s refusal, he threatens her by telling her he knows where she lives and which school her daughter attends. For fear of reprisals, the councilor did not file a complaint.
Between the recriminations of drug traffickers brought up by one of her deputies on one side and the refusal of protection from the prefecture on the other, the mayor finds herself “in a pinch”. “I’m scared but I don’t care,” says Mélanie Boulanger to her judges. “They can kill me on the way out, as long as they don’t go after my daughter. I have nothing to lose, I’ve been so dirty! »