Charles Guyard (in Nantes), edited by Laura Laplaud / Photo credits: Jeff PACHOUD / AFP 09:37, September 20, 2023

In Nantes, four people suffered the worst abuse for two days for refusing to serve as a nanny, that is to say to agree to hide drugs in one of the apartments of a tower in the Malakoff district known to serve as a point of deal. The tenant and his three friends were kidnapped and tortured by two men who were eventually arrested.

A sordid affair. Four people were kidnapped and tortured for two days last week in an apartment in a sensitive neighborhood in Nantes. A case against a backdrop of drug trafficking. Two individuals, one of whom is very unfavourably known to the judiciary, have already been remanded in custody. The investigation has only just begun.

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A two-day ordeal for the four occupants

The prosecutor of the Republic of Nantes, Renaud Gaudeul, agrees, the investigation on which the judicial police has been working since Saturday and particularly delicate. "What is certain is that these are investigations that are never very simple to conduct in a building known to have been for a few months already a point of deal on the Nantes market," he said.

Translation, it is the omerta that reigns here. Not to protect the traffickers but to protect oneself, because the dealers have shown what they are capable of. Burns with a heated blade, mock drowning, a gun inserted into the mouth and a woman raped several times... This ordeal would have lasted two days for the four occupants of an apartment that apparently served as a hiding place for dealers.

Two individuals indicted for kidnapping, torture and barbarity and gang rape

"What the tenant tells us is that for a few days already, he would have been forced to serve as a nanny for the benefit of these individuals engaged in drug trafficking," continues the prosecutor. To date, two individuals have been arrested and indicted, inter alia, for kidnapping, torture and barbarity and gang rape, facts they dispute. Police are looking for two or even three other people who may also be involved in the case.