Cannabis trafficking in Pau: delivery driver and drug minder convicted
Two men aged 28 and 30 were tried in Pau for their roles in a drugs network, one as a courier, the other as a drug minder.
Cannabis trafficking in Pau: delivery driver and drug minder convicted
Two former schoolmates appeared before the Pau tribunal on Thursday for their involvement in a cannabis operation. The verdict was delivered in a case reported by La République des Pyrénées.
The case began on 10 June, when the younger of the two men, aged 28, was intercepted by a unit specialising in combating organised crime. The young man was stopped for irregular parking of his two-wheeler on a pedestrian crossing, between Montpensier and Monpezat streets. His defence, represented by Maître Thierry Sagardoytho, contends that the officers were already informed of his activity.
On being questioned, the suspect immediately handed over to the police the merchandise he was carrying. He admitted to working as a courier for a drugs network operating in Pau. A search of his home proved unproductive, but he directed investigators to the flat serving as the drug warehouse. It was in that apartment that his accomplice, aged 30, was apprehended.
Both defendants had been in custody since 12 June. The delivery driver had started this activity approximately one year earlier, recruited in a nightclub by an individual who had promised him substantial earnings. Unemployed for eighteen months and burdened by debts, he had accepted this illicit activity. He earned up to one hundred euros per day distributing grass and resin. Orders were sometimes prepared via an encrypted messaging application managed by his superiors.
The second man served as a drug minder in exchange for a monthly payment of 1,000 euros. He too had been without work since the previous summer and was hiding his financial situation from those close to him. Police seized approximately 3.5 kilograms of grass and 1.6 kilograms of resin, concealed in various containers distributed throughout the flat.
The public prosecutor's representative made a distinction between the drug minder and the courier, the latter being described as the one who "intoxicates" consumers on the ground. He considered requesting that the delivery driver remain in custody.
Maître Sagardoytho invoked one of La Fontaine's fables to describe his client as more of a "grasshopper than a beneficiary of a trafficking operation", emphasising that genuine professionals in this trade do not get apprehended for a parking violation. He stressed the precariousness of his situation: "We are in the Fourth World, not at the heart of trafficking."
The tribunal ultimately sentenced the courier to 15 months' imprisonment, of which five months were suspended with probation, accompanied by obligations for treatment and work. The remaining ten months are subject to adjustment by a judge responsible for the enforcement of sentences. The drug minder received 12 months, of which six were suspended with probation. Both men left the courtroom free to go.
Source: Google News FR — Crime (fr)