Nine people have been prosecuted since Thursday by the Specialized Interregional Jurisdiction (JIR) of Nancy for drug trafficking, a case that began surprisingly with the discovery of a passerby who found the phone of one of the suspects.
The investigation began in an “unusual” manner, stressed President Mireille Dupont. This traffic, active for some time, would not have decreased without the extraordinary discovery made by a passer-by on August 8, 2020: a switched-on mobile phone, without an unlock code, lying in Rixheim, near Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin).
According to what was reported to investigators, its contents are beyond doubt: photographs and videos of wads of banknotes, as well as resin and cannabis herb, confirm the existence of trafficking. In the process, the Mulhouse prosecutor’s office opens an investigation to find its mysterious owner.
Quickly identified, he appears to be the giver of orders, in charge of a real business of importing and reselling narcotics. Knowledgeable in police techniques, he worked with a restricted circle of family members, who helped him place orders and monthly deliveries of several hundred kilos of narcotics from Morocco, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
Three other people who participated in the same trafficking have already been subject to an appearance procedure after acknowledgment of guilt, a type of French-style guilty plea, for which sentences ranging from one to two years in prison have been imposed.
