“A dossier of exceptional scope, a unique look at international drug trafficking. At the “Tatoo” trial in Marseille, the prosecution requested heavy sentences on Wednesday, up to 14 years in prison against the 27 defendants. Two networks of Colombian drug traffickers, “la fea” (the ugly one) and “la guapa” (the pretty one), used the complicity of porters to exfiltrate suitcases containing narcotics. The first, in Venezuela and the Dominican Republic, loaded suitcases containing 24 to 36 kilos of cocaine onto planes bound for Paris. On arrival, these were recovered and exfiltrated by other accomplices at Orly and Roissy.
Since November 2, the Marseille Criminal Court has been judging “the fea” and its actors, including the Seraf brothers, Kamel, Abdelkrim and Abdelnasser, “one of the most important teams in the capital involved in international traffic”, according to the prosecutor of the Republic Bastien Madelon. Against Kamel Seraf, hospitalized in psychiatry on the eve of the trial, described as “a real general of this imported army”, the magistrate demanded 14 years in prison and a fine of 100,000 euros. He requested respectively 12 and eight years in prison against Abdelkrim and Abdelnasser, as well as fines of 15,000 and 50,000 euros.
Customs demanded that the defendants be fined more than 2.5 million euros, based on a resale price of 30,000 euros per kilo, while 84.9 kg imported by the network were seized by the police. “This case is of exceptional magnitude because of the pedigree of the defendants, their financial capacity but also their power to bribe baggage handlers, (…) a customs officer and at least one police officer”, underlined the prosecutor. With Colombian suppliers, the network benefited from the interpersonal skills of an emissary, Francisco Jimenez Galvan, 66, the only one of the defendants to have admitted his participation in the traffic: “I no longer want to continue talking bullshit”, had- he blurted out in court.
Several outlets in the south of France
Eight years in prison and a fine of 50,000 euros have been claimed against him. Ten years in prison were required against the Colombian James Cardenas Guisado, network provider, never arrested and therefore tried in absentia. Importers benefited from several outlets in the south of France and in Italy. Italian mafiosos from the Camorra and the N’Drangheta, historic sponsors from Marseille and members of the “milieu” of the Côte d’Azur thus appear on the list of clients enumerated by the prosecutor.
Eleven years in prison and a fine of 60,000 euros were thus claimed against Vincent Saccomano, 57, figure of the gang of the Alps, already condemned to heavy sentences. It passes for one of the essential cogs between importers and resale networks. The facts dating from 2012 to 2014, the defendants have all been released since. But Madelon asked the court to issue a large number of warrants of committal. Only one accomplice baggage handler, Baba Wague, could be identified. The prosecutor requested four years in prison, including one year suspended against this defendant, who appeared detained in another narcotics case.
The file is called “Tatoo”, from the name of the small non-traceable e-mail devices that equipped all the defendants. They exchanged only through telephone booths, in order to escape the technical surveillance of the police. The prosecutor also had fun plagiarizing the commercial slogan of this operator, “Tatoo, your tribe keeps in touch with you”, by transforming it into “”Tatoo”, your narcotics network keeps in touch with you “. The defendants’ lawyers must plead for several days.