Several former DNRED leaders are suspected of having inflated the seizures by promoting the criminal activities of their favorite “indic”.
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The first version of this story was that of a triumph. The pride of a handful of elite customs officials multiplying the “record” seizures, at the port of Le Havre, through infallible information. After four weeks of hearing before the Paris Criminal Court, it is a completely different story that the prosecutors took place, Tuesday, June 7, over a clip more than five and a half hours.
The six ex-cadres of the prestigious National Department of Douanier Intelligence (DNRED), seated on the defendant’s bench, were portrayed by the two prosecutors as loans to all compromises to “do the figure”, leaving their “Avisor” Fetish, Zoran Petrovic, all latitude to continue his traffic without being worried.
The argument, cold and scrupulous, concluded with the requisition of prison terms for four of them, suspected in particular of “complicity in importing in the organized gang of counterfeit goods”, “scam” and “embezzlement of public funds”.
This affair was revealed in 2015 after the seizure of 43 tonnes of counterfeit coffee, revealing the troubled circumstances of cooperation between customs officers and their advertising. The brain of the operation, Zoran Petrovic (a former soldier known under different alias: “Alex”, “Le Grand”, “Monsieur Z” …) brought customs 32 cases between 2011 and 2015 – Cigarettes, counterfeits, medicines – While he was officially blacklisted.
“A tragedy for customs”
This Tuesday, the six incriminated members of the hierarchy are scattered in the courtroom; Some scratches on their notebook, others set the soil intensely. The first sentences of the prosecutor, Vanessa Perrée, were enough to understand that none of them will be able to consider today the promise of a relaxation.
Because it is a “system” with illegal functioning “that the prosecutor worked to dissect. “This is a real team, with customs officers who become delinquent, and an advertising that works, she analyzes. A team with convergent interests: money for some, figures and glory for Others. “The six members of this service of the” first circle “of the intelligence gets fucked up. “This case is a tragedy for customs,” insists the prosecutor.
The indictment takes on the appearance of a class council where the bad points are distributed to the former good students. “These operations are not intended to dismantle networks, they mainly aim to allow customs to make the figures expected of it,” said M me perre, in reference to this Frawed race for “dry seizures”, to the detriment of the dismantling of sectors – a practice conceded by several defendants during the interrogations of the previous days.
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