Illustration of an indoor cannabis cultivation in France.

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Gaëlle Girbes / SIPA

  • A couple was sentenced to an eight-month suspended prison sentence by the Rennes Criminal Court for "aiding the use of drugs".

  • Justice accuses them of having provided advice and material to cannabis growers.

  • The managers of the Culture Indoor brand tried to justify that they did not know what their customers were going to grow. 

A couple with no history or criminal record.

Monday evening, the manager of the Culture Indoor store in Chantepie, near Rennes, and his partner, collaborator, were sentenced by the Rennes criminal court to an eight-month suspended prison sentence for "aid in the use of narcotics "And" complicity in the unauthorized use of narcotics ".

The courts reproach them for having advised and provided equipment to cannabis growers established in Ille-et-Vilaine.

During the investigation started in January 2018, around a hundred gardeners were searched and heard by the gendarmes.

Nine kilos of grass had been discovered in homes which were mostly equipped at Culture Indoor.

To be immersed in the atmosphere of indoor culture, the court was able to take advantage of a temperature of 28 degrees in a courtroom "with a tropical atmosphere", as the president underlined.

At the helm, a man and a woman, in their early forties and parents of a young child.

Since 2004, this couple has managed the Culture Indoor store in Chantepie.

The brand presents itself as the “French leader in the hydroponics market” with 130 stores listed.

They only benefit from a supply contract with the purchasing center.

What justice reproaches them is having provided equipment and advice to budding gardeners.

Lamps, air extractors, high precision scales, culture chambers, or even compost and fertilizers with evocative names like "Biocanna".

The perfect cannabis grower's kit.

Each time, the couple tries to defend themselves.

"The scale can be used for dosing fertilizers, the microscope for detecting diseases and drying nets for people who make their herbal tea."

The managers explain that all the material can be used for indoor cultivation such as "cucumbers or tomatoes".

The problem is that no tomato or cucumber plant will be found in their customers' homes.

In contrast, 286 plants of cannabis were unearthed during the searches.

"Yes, we had doubts about certain customers"

Telephone tapping leaves little doubt as to the nature of the crops envisaged by customers since the name of the plant is never mentioned.

"It's as if you spoke to your mechanic without giving the model of your car", raises the president Juliette Sauvez.

“Yes, we had doubts about certain clients but we had no certainty.

We have always had a clear language with our customers ”, assures the manager.

“I couldn't afford to have suspicions.

We wanted to put people back on the ground ”, engages his companion, who seems to have the answer to everything.

“At best, it's naivety.

At worst, guilty hypocrisy, ”slips the prosecutor, before requesting eighteen months in prison.

Payments in cash, without traces

Asked in police custody on the viability of such a trade without a cannabis user, the co-manager was quite clear: "It would be fair".

The latter, an accountant by training, managed the company's accounts but had been less precise on the proportion of cash payments that her store received.

The investigation showed that more than 65% of payments were made in cash, thus avoiding any traceability, even though some invoices amounted to several hundred euros.

“It's a mistake not to have rebuffed some customers.

They were aware that it could sometimes be useful for cannabis growers.

But the requisitions go too far for people without a record, ”said one of their lawyers, Me Camille Delva.

The court was more lenient than the prosecutor and sentenced the couple to eight months in prison.

The 13,000 euros seized at home will also be confiscated.

But the keys to the store will be returned to their owner.

Placed under seal, the sign should not however reopen, the couple having chosen to change lanes.

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