This documentary series in four episodes reconstructs the journey of several environmental criminals, including the flamboyant “Prince of Carbon”, Cyril Astruc.
by Catherine Pacary
It has been ten years since Interpol, an international criminal police organization, has acquired a program to combat environmental crime; And it took two years of negotiations for the Planet Killers teams, a documentary series devoted to ecocidaires, were authorized to film inside the heavy glass building which houses the headquarters of Interpol, in Lyon.
The unit remains unknown to the general public, while environmental crime earns $ 250 billion a year to its authors. The explanations of the director of this environmental program in Interpol, Rory Corcoran, “thirty years of experience in terrorism and organized crime”, seated alone in the center of a round room, alternate with the debriefs in English with its teams, the Reports and testimonies of investigators in France, Belgium, Kenya, Israel and Thailand.
The courses of four “red sheets”, these criminals targeted by an international mandate, were thus able to be reconstituted in four films, the first two of which are broadcast on Monday, January 23, in the weekly “case” that France 5 reserve , since the beginning of the year, the environment.
If the side “in the bowels of interpol” appears a little occurred, the return to these cases, with the lighting of professionals who, usually, does not express himself, proves to be exciting and follows as A detective series.
incredible
With, as a bonus, in the prince of carbon, the flamboyant Cyril Astruc personality: black glasses, two -day beard, charmer … This sympathetic crook has, all the same, diverted 5 billion euros of public funds thanks to a large scam on the Carbon Stock Exchange – No concern, the principle is clearly explained here.
The documentary has been going up since March 2009, when this “century breakage” was revealed in the press, then follows the incredible hunt led by European and Interpol police. Despite the gravity of the facts, one cannot help smiling the multiple provocations of Cyril Astruc, alias Alex Khann – he has dual nationality, French and Israeli: on the videos showing him during evenings in the company of Russian oligarchs; In Tel Aviv, in its villa in the “Co 2 ” district, where the impunity of wealthy fraudsures of the carbon market.
In all circumstances – threatened with death, in pre -trial detention, on the run -, Cyril Astruc appears relaxed and showing off. He even sent the police a selfie of him dressed in a printed t-shirt “Catch me if you can”. But say more would be disclosed…
Nothing flamboyant on the other hand in the king of ivory, dedicated to Kenyan Samuel Jefwa, who set up with his brother Nicholas the most important world ivory traffic. To approach this sad subject, the treatment is precise and relentless, since April 2015 day when Thai customs intercepted 3,127 kilos of ivory hidden in tea containers, until the involvement of Siginon society, Led by the family of the former president of Kenya, Daniel ARAP Moi, in power from 1978 to 2002, died in February 2020.
There remains this strange feeling of impunity, of helplessness, the only common point felt at the end of the two episodes, even if, according to Interpol’s formula, “crimes have no expiration date “.