Marseille Court Sentences 18 in €70 Million Drug Money Laundering Scheme

The convicted persons belong to a very active network. In total, 310 transactions, for a total amount of 70 million euros, were recorded by the prosecution, between August 2015 and November 2016, reports Le Figaro.

These transactions result from sums collected from drug traffickers, from cash transfers made in France or from the transport of funds to Spain, intended for the payment of suppliers.

During the indictment, the two prosecutors took turns for 8 hours. According to Prosecutor Etienne Perrin, this money laundering network would have handled "sums corresponding to 100 tons of cannabis resin" during four months of transactions.

Directed in Morocco by an influential businessman, who is still wanted, the network is developing, according to the prosecution, according to the hawala system, which operates on the basis of the trust of money changers.

Thus, from France, through Belgium, the sums, collected according to the "cross-border settlements without physical movement" of money, land in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates where they are introduced into the conventional banking system, details the same source on the functioning of the network.

Several members of the network received heavy sentences. This is the case of Abdelkarim Daoudi, the main collector from the drug networks established throughout France, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

This garage owner from Grande Synthe (Nord) would have collected nearly 50 million euros on his own.

For his part, Mohamed Bouknouch, 69, was also sentenced to 10 years in prison. Manager of a small grocery store located in the Batignolles district of Paris, he managed several million for the account of the network.