Le Petit Bar d'Ajaccio -

AFP

The alleged leader of the Corsican criminal gang known as the “Petit Bar” Jacques Santoni was indicted and remanded in custody Thursday evening, we learned on Friday from the specialized interregional court (Jirs).

The 40-year-old, who has been quadriplegic since a motorcycle accident in 2003, was indicted for money laundering in an organized gang, extortion in an organized gang and criminal association, said the Jirs, which heads the financial investigation on suspected members of the criminal gang.

"This placement in detention is inadmissible because incompatible with his state of health", reacted to AFP his lawyer Pascal Garbarini who is considering a legal follow-up to contest this arrest warrant.

According to him, Jacques Santoni is currently still in Marseille, awaiting his transfer to the hospital of the penitentiary center of Fresnes, in the Paris region.

The lawyer was also indignant at the "apocalyptic" and degrading conditions of his four days in police custody during which Jacques Santoni did not, according to him, receive the necessary care. 

Jacques Santoni was arrested Sunday in Paris with 20 other people arrested in Corsica and on the continent.

Among them, eight were also to be presented to an examining magistrate by Saturday, according to Jirs de Marseille.

48 million euros

In the financial aspect, the investigators seek to dismantle the networks of money laundering of the “Small Bar” at the international level.

According to figures put forward by the daily

Le Monde

, some 48 million offshore and real estate investments have enabled the criminal group to launder its dirty money.

In the other part, relating to the attempted assassination of Guy Orsoni, himself prosecuted in various cases of banditry, Jacques Santoni has already been indicted after the September 28 attack.

He was then placed only under judicial control because a forensic expertise conducted at the time concluded that his condition was incompatible with detention, added Mr. Garbarini.

Justice

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Ajaccio: Several people arrested in connection with the investigation into the attempted assassination of Guy Orsoni

  • Ajaccio

  • Banditry

  • Investigation

  • Justice

  • Bleaching