Suspected of being the protagonists of a local drug trafficking network, six men appear from Wednesday before the assizes of the North.
Three of them, friends from popular neighborhoods near the port, could be the principals of this network, dismantled in 2017. The other three accused are suspected for one of being a sponsor, for the another a temporarily allied "competitor" dealer, and for the third an essential intermediary in the port.
Tried until February 16 before the special Assize Court of the North, in particular for importing and trafficking narcotics in an organized gang, and criminal association, over a few months of the year 2017, they incur thirty years of criminal imprisonment.
In the ranking of the most important ports in the world, that of Le Havre climbs to 68th.
Its traffic exploded in 2021: three million containers, 83.6 million tonnes of goods, and 326,000 vehicles passed through Normandy that year.
The cranes load and unload, day and night, the huge metal boxes carried by the cargo ships moored at the docks.
As evidenced by the number of recent seizures, cocaine traffickers hide inside hundreds of kilos of white powder arriving from South America, ordered by French teams.
How to get it discreetly out of the port area, monitored in particular by customs?
Teams, made up of thugs from the surrounding cities, have made it their specialty.
Mohamed Mella, 31, nicknamed "Lamine" or "Crayon", Youssef Boukhari Sardi, alias "Sefuy" or "the big one", and Karim Djemel, 42: the three men, who appear from Wednesday before the assizes of the Nord, in Douai, are suspected of having joined forces to receive hundreds of kilos of drugs during 2017. Tried for "criminal association" and for "importing and trafficking in organized drugs", they thirty years in prison.
Three other people appear alongside them: Dione Mendy, 47, - "John", "Coulibaly", "the negro" - is suspected of being one of their sponsors, Aziz Sallami, aka "Ramzet", of to be a competitor who has temporarily become an ally.
As for Louis Belhacène, 56, - "Doudou", "the old", "the daron", "the old",
Decreasing prices
The team was swayed in January 2017 by a "registered source" to investigators from the judicial police branch of Le Havre.
With the help of corrupt dockers, the suspects manage to get out colossal quantities of cocaine transported to France by sea, hidden in containers filled with legal goods.
They use several techniques for this.
The first consists of paying a driver to take the bags containing tens of kilos of drugs out of the port area and deposit them in a warehouse where they are handed over to the sponsors.
Another method used: the drugs are transferred to an empty container which will later be taken out of the port using false documents.
Originally from the Champs Barets district, in Le Havre, Mohamed Mellal, Youssef Boukhari Sardi and Karim Djemel are already known from police documentation: two of them were notably sentenced in the past to four years in prison for drug trafficking.
A judicial inquiry is then opened.
From March 2017, the police will geolocate their phones, listen to all their conversations.
Above all, they will place microphones in the accommodation they occupy in Honfleur, in Calvados.
For nearly a month, the suspects will discuss "without restraint", "in detail and on a recurring basis the course of their criminal activities, their contacts, their modus operandi, their profits, their conflicts", writes the investigating judge of the Jirs de Lille in its indictment order, consulted by
20 Minutes
.
We thus learn that their prices are decreasing.
For a quantity of cocaine less than 150 kg, they take 4,000 euros per kilo.
Between 400 and 800 kg, they pocket 3,000 euros per kilo.
And beyond 800 kg, the price drops to 2,500 euros per kilo out of the port.
The sums collected amount to hundreds of thousands of euros.
Drug exchange with the West Indies
Like all entrepreneurs, whether illegal, they must pay their staff.
Port employees who recruit dockers can receive between 150 and 200,000 euros.
The rider driver - the metal gantry that lifts and moves the containers - earns around 50,000 euros.
The truck driver who recovers the cargo pockets for his part between 10,000 and 20,000 euros.
It is also sometimes necessary to pay the person who lends a warehouse to store the drugs temporarily.
In this case, eight "small hands", including port personnel, have already been sentenced in correctional or appeal, and three acquitted.
The network is also trying to diversify its activities by investing in imported drugs.
He also organizes a very profitable exchange with West Indian traffickers: they ship a hundred kilos of cannabis resin to Martinique, where it is traded at exorbitant prices.
And must receive in return 70 kg of cocaine.
But the drugs are seized on arrival by investigators from the Caribbean branch of Octris - which has since become Ofast.
"I have nothing to do with it"
Nicknamed "Doudou" or "the daron", Louis Belhacène knows almost everyone in the port and has valuable contacts in the area.
The police discover that no exit operation could be mounted without his agreement and that he was putting several competing teams into rivalry.
In May 2017, this former boilermaker was violently attacked.
Several hooded men kidnap him in front of his home and demand 600,000 euros.
Tied up, he is doused with gasoline and taken to his in-laws, where he left a bag full of money.
His attackers then set fire to his car before fleeing.
Of course, he didn't complain.
During a conversation with his accomplices, he explains that this attack has a link with a "failed exit" of 600 kg of cocaine in February 2017. The goods were seized by customs officers and the criminals who had ordered it wanted get revenge.
The small group even plans to kill "Bug", the man they suspected of having assaulted "Doudou".
Later, in front of the investigators, Louis Belhacène changes version and assures that this attack had occurred because of "chatter".
"People talk about me and think I'm the king of the port," he said, adding that he didn't know his attackers.
“Will Le Havre follow the same path as Antwerp?
»
The suspects were arrested in July 2017. The police seized, during the searches, the kit of the perfect trafficker: beacon detectors, GPS trackers, a money counter, a wave jammer, telephones, rifles, pistols … “I have nothing to say to you”, “I have nothing to do with that”… Overall, the suspects are not very talkative during their interrogations, some even claiming to suffer from memory problems.
In addition, Dione Mendy and Louis Belhacène have a hard time justifying their lavish lifestyle.
From the recorded conversations, 1,317 kg of cocaine and 445 kg of cannabis were seized by the authorities.
"Despite the workforce that is not up to the challenges faced", the seizures made in the port "are increasing inexorably", recalled the public prosecutor, Bruno Dieudonné, on the occasion of the solemn hearing at the start of the Le Havre court: 10.5 tonnes of cocaine were seized in 2022 compared to 7 tonnes in 2021, "three times more than in 2019".
And the magistrate, worried, wondered: “Is the port of Le Havre going to follow the same path as that of Antwerp?
That is to say, to become a hub for cocaine in Europe.
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