French Police Nab International Drug Traffickers in Cross-Border Operation

These three fugitives were arrested on Wednesday and Thursday, reports BFMTV. This is the result of work that began in 2020. It is part of the anti-drug plan launched by the government in 2019. "France will not be the playground" of traffickers, Christophe Castaner, then Interior Minister, had promised.

The Fugitive Research Brigade conducted investigations to trace the whereabouts of each of the fugitives. The 30-year-old Moroccan had settled in Gennevilliers, and was importing cannabis and cocaine. He had been on the run since 2016. The fugitive had received two four-year prison sentences in two different cases: one concerning a case of importing cannabis resin between Morocco and the Paris region and the other, a cocaine trafficking between the West Indies and the metropolis.

The investigators prioritized the trail of the fugitive’s entourage and professional circle. "After a few years of flight, attention is no longer the same," decrypts a police source. "And even if the fugitive takes precautions, it happens that the entourage is less cautious." In the police register, the fugitive is known under several identities, each linked to a car, a home or a telephone line. He often shuttled between France and Spain, but it was especially on the Costa del Sol that he had hidden.

On Thursday, the Spanish police arrested him on a street in Marbella after a series of searches. He will be extradited to France to serve his sentence.