Cannabis trafficking in Paris: Final conviction for ex-head of Ocrtis
François Thierry, former head of French anti-drugs agency, did not appeal his one-year suspended sentence for complicity in a 7-tonne cannabis trafficking operation.
Ex-head of Ocrtis facing definitive sentence after abandoning appeal
François Thierry, former director of the Central Office for the Repression of Illicit Drug Trafficking (Ocrtis), has allowed his conviction to become final, reported actu.orange.fr on Tuesday. The Bordeaux prosecutor's office confirmed to AFP that the police officer had "not appealed his conviction", contrary to what his lawyers had announced at the end of the trial.
The Bordeaux court had found him guilty in March of having "provided assistance to trafficking" for the benefit of his main informer, Sophiane Hambli. The sentence handed down was one year in prison with suspension for complicity in the shipment, in central Paris, of seven tonnes of cannabis resin in 2015. The prosecutor's office had nevertheless requested acquittal.
Me Francis Szpiner, one of his lawyers, had denounced an "unjust conviction" at the end of the trial. François Thierry, 58, currently heads the Digital Transformation Service of the national police.
Seven tonnes seized in upmarket Paris district
The facts date back to 2015: customs had intercepted seven tonnes of cannabis resin concealed in vans parked in an affluent Paris arrondissement. The delivery was supposed to be "monitored" by Ocrtis as part of the so-called "Myrmidon" strategy, which Thierry himself had put in place between 2010 and 2016. This method consisted of allowing drugs to enter the territory in order to identify and arrest network leaders, using undercover informers.
At the bar, the former official had described the episode as an "operational disaster", while asserting that he had never "sought to conceal anything". He had furthermore been acquitted in 2024 in another case related to a fictitious custody hearing organised for Sophiane Hambli in 2012.
Hambli sentenced to 20 years, prosecutor appeals for six defendants
Sophiane Hambli, 50, detained in Morocco and tried in absentia, was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Among around fifteen other defendants, sentences of up to eight years' imprisonment were handed down.
The Bordeaux prosecutor's office clarified on Tuesday that it had appealed the sentences concerning Hambli and five other accused. This high-profile case had led the authorities to fundamentally reform the French anti-drug enforcement system.
Source: Google News FR — Crime (fr)