Toulouse, February 25, 2013. Person begging in the streets of Toulouse.

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Fred.Scheiber

  • In June 2018, the Toulouse police dismantled a forced begging network organized by five Roma families from Bulgaria.

  • As of Monday, 18 people, accused of exploiting 33 beggars by threat and violence, are tried by the Toulouse Criminal Court.

  • For the first time since the second AZF trial, due to the health crisis and the number of defendants, the Toulouse Criminal Court is relocated to the Jean-Mermoz room.

Each beggar belonged to one of the clans.

“They were given alcohol, they were conditioned by violence.

The beggars were spread over territories and like the deal, the crossroads were traded and beggars could be resold in this way up to 500 euros, ”said in June 2018 an investigator from Toulouse to

20 Minutes

.

At the time, after several months of investigation, the men of the departmental security of Toulouse had dismantled an international network of human trafficking organized by Bulgarian Roma mafia.

From this Monday, and for ten days, eighteen of them will be tried by the Toulouse Criminal Court for trafficking in human beings committed in an organized gang and exploitation of forced begging.

Delocalized debates, for the first time since the second AZF trial, in the Jean-Mermoz room, because of the sanitary conditions to be respected.

Thirty-three victims

It all started with a complaint in May 2017. A man of Bulgarian origin came to the police station.

He then told the police how one of his compatriots had "invited" him a year earlier to come to France to do the round, and share the profits.

But the association quickly turned into a farm, its “host” having confiscated his papers.

A few months later, he returned to see the police.

This time, he revealed to them that in addition to being forced to beg at the crossroads of Toulouse avenues, he had been beaten.

And he was not the only one to suffer this "slave" fate in the Gabardie camp, to live in destitution, tyrannized by five families from Pleven.

During their intervention on the camp, one morning in June 2018, the investigators found 33 beggars, sometimes disabled, most of them attracted to France under false pretenses or thanks to promises of easy agent.

Each had specific objectives, with the results even written down on small sheets, like account books.

As with any drug dealer, the head of the clan called them regularly on a blocked cell phone, just to remind them of their daily goals.

If they had the misfortune not to succeed, they were brutalized, sometimes receiving stab wounds.

A week before the police intervened, one of them was run over by a car.

At the same time, the executioners posted on social networks their “success” aboard Audi Q7-type sedans financed by the money earned thanks to the outstretched hands, every day, at the crossroads of Boulevard de Suisse, on the side of Gramont or Ponts -Twins.

During their hearings, the eleven men and seven women who are about to be tried denied any responsibility, some citing the sale of scrap metal to justify the cash and financial flows.

“Those who say they have been victims are not there and will not come, we will remain on charges.

My clients are contesting them, they are also miserable people who have fled misery, the question will be whether they have benefited from the misery of others, ”says Alexandre Martin, lawyer for six of the accused.

Miscellaneous

Toulouse: A young woman raped, tortured and burned had become the slave of her in-laws

Justice

Modern slavery: Fifteen hours of work, 7 days a week for 10 years, a couple tried for exploiting a Burundian

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