Guest of Europe Soir, Emmanuel Fansten, journalist at the "Liberation" investigation pole and author of "State Trafficking, investigation into the abuses of the anti-drug fight", explains how part of the police recruited a major trafficker drugs in the 2010s and opened the French-Spanish borders to him.

INTERVIEW

It is a shocking book that lays bare the excesses of the fight against drugs in France.

Emmanuel Fansten, journalist in the police-justice service of the newspaper

Liberation,

publishes 

Trafics d'Etat, an investigation into the abuses of the fight against drugs. 

A work in the form of an investigation which shows how part of the French police facilitated the transit of tons of drugs between Spain and France for years.

Guest from Europe Soir, the reporter tells how he was able to update what he calls "a state system". 

A record seizure of 7 tonnes of cannabis ...

It all started on October 18, 2015, when the police seized 7 tons of cannabis in the 16th arrondissement of the capital, a record.

During this crackdown, a suspect is arrested: Sofiane Hambli, trafficker with international fame.

However, this man is also the main informant of the Central Office for the Suppression of Illicit Traffic in Narcotics (Octis).

A well-known informant of the narcotics, since he was recruited by the head of the Octis in person at the time, François Thierry.

"At that time, Sofiane Hambli was imprisoned in Spain, and François Thierry went to see him in prison to make an agreement," says Emmanuel Fansten.

The police officer thus obtains a remission of sentence and the extradition to France of Sofiane Hambli in exchange for information, but also with a view to making him a long-term informant.

If having informers is a common practice for the Octis, here Sofiane Hambli will have an active role and be placed at the heart of a real strategy which consisted in letting drugs pass to go up the channels.

"There is a legal technique, controlled deliveries, which allows these services under the control of a magistrate" to do so.

However, in this case, "the police broke the rules", affirm Emmanuel Fansten.

"Thanks to her benefactors, Sofiane Hambli had open borders and could do her business."

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... which hides an opaque system

The journalist's book is not an attack on François Thierry, the then head of drugs, but does denounce a real system, hence the title of his book.

"There were obviously police officers above in the hierarchy [of François Thierry] who was aware, in particular in the central direction of the judicial police."

Still, it is the latter who saw open against him two investigations for "complicity in international drug trafficking, criminal association and complicity in forgery in public writing", recalls the journalist.

In 6 years, Emmanuel Fansten estimates that tens of tonnes of products have been imported into France. 

But why put in place such a system and "cross the line"?

Emmanuel Fansten points to a link with "a certain number policy" of the government.

"It has the advantage of allowing the various interior ministers who have succeeded one another to pose alongside important seizures", he argues, recalling that it is "a weapon of political communication very important ".

However, the journalist affirms that the benefit of this method "is much less than the disadvantages".