Marseille: five legionnaires judged for their role in an international pimping network

Europe 1 with AFP // Photo credit: Loic Venance/AFP 4:42 p.m., March 11, 2024

The trial of five legionnaires, four Russians and an Uzbek, prosecuted for their role in a vast international network of pimping and human trafficking, opened Monday before the Marseille criminal court.

The thirty-year-olds, who have now all left the Foreign Legion, with the exception of one of them, whose contract will end in July, are accused of having set up a prostitution network in around forty medium-sized towns. across France, by exploiting several dozen young women from Ukraine and Russia, between 2019 and 2021. 

The five men had all had uneventful careers in the Legion, which had issued them numerous medals after external operations, in Mali in particular, and certificates of good conduct.

Only one woman accompanies them on the dock, a young Ukrainian, ex-partner of one of the legionnaires.

She herself came to France in 2018 to become a prostitute, with the aim of helping her sick mother pay medical expenses. 

“I don’t do anything, the organization does everything”

The investigation began in November 2020 with the arrest at Saint-Nazaire station (Loire-Atlantique) of a young Ukrainian woman in possession of 10,770 euros and numerous condoms.

The telephone lines used to contact young women, in La Rochelle, Brest, Strasbourg, Bayonne, Antibes and Fréjus, among others, were geolocated in Nîmes.

Some holders of these lines had the barracks of the 2nd Foreign Infantry Regiment, based in this city, as their address. 

Faced with investigators, the prostitutes spoke of "an organization" with which they had contacted via discussion groups on Telegram.

The structure took care of everything: plane ticket to Paris, taxis, train tickets with a view to settling in medium-sized towns, in apartments rented via platforms, and publication of their ad on the sites.

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“I don’t do anything, the organization does everything,” explained Nina, who had already worked in Denmark or Dubai.

Alleged organizers of this prostitution network, the defendants were responsible for making appointments, playing the role of switchboard operator.

Then the customer received an appointment confirmation with the address and building code.

The only person in the organization that the prostitutes met regularly was the collector, who collected 50% of their earnings.

On the first day of the trial, scheduled to last until Friday, the defendants first explained their commitment to the Legion, which would have earned them “considered traitors by the Russian government”.

One of them pointed out his disagreement "with Mr. Putin" and with corruption, when "you have to give part of your salary to the police."