Fugitive Drug Lord Sentenced to 10 Years in Major French Trafficking Case

The sentence was handed down on Wednesday. Prosecuted for "criminal conspiracy", "transport and possession of narcotics" but also for "possession of contraband tobacco in an organized gang", the nine defendants received various sentences. They belonged to a vast network that carried out its activities in the Oise, Somme, Île-de-France or Côtes-d’Armor regions, reports Le Parisien, which recalls that on March 13, 2021, the police dismantled this criminal organization and seized 475 kg of cannabis resin in the garage of a house in the Notre-Dame-du-Thil neighborhood in Beauvais, belonging to Chouaib J., a former trader.

During the trial, the latter claimed that he was working under the orders of Atik J., the alleged leader of a network of resale of contraband cigarettes and narcotics, who was absent from the hearing. He would be on the run in Morocco. The Beauvais court issued an arrest warrant against him, while sentencing him in absentia to 10 years in prison, a €60,000 criminal fine and a €60,000 customs fine. Chouaib J., for his part, was sentenced to 5 years in prison, including 6 months suspended, a €15,000 fine and a €20,000 customs fine.

Dimitri H. and Adama Y., accused of drug trafficking and in custody before the trial, each received four years in prison. The court also sentenced three of their accomplices to sentences ranging from four to five years in prison. One of them, Taoufik M., a taxi driver, was sentenced to four years, including two suspended, for having helped transport drugs. "It’s his social death. He is the father of five children and will lose his taxi license for having made four trips with Atik J. without asking what he was transporting," laments his lawyer, Me Sonia Houzé.

"We continue to position my client at the center of all this. He acknowledged his responsibility for the storage of the drugs and for one transport, I’m not going to plead for acquittal, but five years in prison, we’re in excess," regretted Me Jérôme Crépin, the lawyer of Chouaib J., during the last day of the trial. And to add: "[...] Chouaib J.’s garage had been under surveillance for a long time. For months, the investigators saw Atik J. come and go with bags. They weren’t Babybel inside. My client couldn’t be a snitch, the file was sewn up."