Posted by Peter on April 07, 2006 at 16:56:58:

Three dead in French underworld shoot-out

MARSEILLE, France, April 5, 2006 (AFP) - Three men including a suspected drugs kingpin were killed in a shoot-out at a cafe in the Mediterranean port of Marseille in what police said Wednesday appeared to be a settling of accounts in the criminal underworld.

A gang of around 10 heavily-armed men opened fire late Tuesday in the Les Marronniers brasserie, killing Farid Berrhama and two others.

Police said that Berrhama was a well-known figure in the Marseille crime scene, and was facing charges for international drug-running. The other men were believed to be his henchmen.

==

Posted by Peter on April 07, 2006 at 16:57:31:
In Reply to: Three dead in French underworld shoot-out posted by Peter on April 07, 2006 at 16:56:58:

Three die in Marseille bar attack

Three people have been killed in south-eastern France after a gang of about 10 gunmen burst into a Marseille bar and sprayed the room with bullets.

Police said the attack at Les Marronniers brasserie appeared to be a settling of scores among members of the French underworld.

Two people died at the scene, a third later, one was less seriously injured and a fifth man ran off bleeding.

One of dead men was a convicted drug dealer, police said.

Correspondents say gangsters in Marseille have been battling for control of the drugs and slot machine markets.

Two people were killed in a shooting on New Year's Eve.

In the 1970s there were two bar massacres in Marseille, including one in October 1978 in which 10 people were killed.

==

Posted by Peter on April 07, 2006 at 16:58:08:
In Reply to: Three die in Marseille bar attack posted by Peter on April 07, 2006 at 16:57:31:

Second shoot-out in French underworld killings

MARSEILLE, France, April 7, 2006 (AFP) - A French mobster was killed in a drive-by shooting in the Mediterranean port of Marseille, the fourth victim of what appeared to be a settling of scores in the criminal underworld, police said.

Michel Filippi, 38, who been jailed for several hold-ups, was shot three times Thursday by two assailants who pulled up alongside his motorbike as he was riding through the evening rush-hour traffic.

Witnesses told the police that the gun was fired by a woman.

Three men — including a suspected drugs kingpin — were killed in an shoot-out on Tuesday, when a dozen heavily-armed men opened fire in a Marseille cafe, and police suspect Filippi's murder may have been a revenge attack.

Police said one of the victims, Farid Berrhama, was a well-known figure in the Marseille crime scene, facing charges for international drug-running. The other men were believed to be his henchmen.

IMHO it is a drug war between Italian gangs (eg. Filippi) and Arabian gangs (eg. Berrhama). Above all criminals coming from Southern Italy, Morocco and Algeria.

Incorrect.

It is a war between the Arabic gangs (Algerians, Moroccans, Lebanese etc.) with the traditional Marseille Mafia (also known as the Milieu).

They are predominantly made up of Corsicans (the Unione Corse mafia) as well as several Sicilian and mostly Napolitano clans from Italy. This also includes a number of native French criminals from the old school French Connection group. The war has begun over the killing of the old school gangster "Le Belge" (who was Belgian, but part of the Marseille milieu).

The Arabs have never been particularly liked or trusted in the French underworld. In the past the wars have been fought by the (mostly) Corsican-Italian mafia alliance against the Arabic alliance. The Corsicans have always been victorious mostly due to the fact that they can find more allies because of an ethnic bond between Latin people. Whereas the Arabs, of a different ethnic blend and being considered more "foreign", found it difficult to align themselves in the past.

For more information see books such as James Morton's Gangland International or perhaps (if you can find this old book) Galante's The Marseilles Mafia (actually spelt "Marseilles" and not "Marseille").

Disagree.
1. the arabic gangs come from north africa, and geographically, culturally and historically speaking they have nothing to do with Asia minor (eg. the folks from Lebanon you mentioned). In addition, we cannot consider the juvenile gangs of northafrica as members of a true "mafia", because they are independent groups whose business is often limited to the buy/sale of drugs. They are not kidnappers or bombers, and there are not important african politicians involved in their scandals/crimes. There is not an african "family" or an african "godfather" such as Gotti, Provenzano etc. They are young delinquents belonging to small gangs and the news about a local mafia is purely a bulls.... I mean, it is only a trick used by journalists and editors to sell more copies of their newspapers/books.

2. Many authors do often confusion between the corsicans who fight and use terroristic strategies for the purpose to achieve their own political goals (e.g. their independence from France, not differently from the sardinians who want to become independent from Italy and fight ever since the 19th century; or from the Basque criminals of Spain) and the few Corsicans who live in Marseille and are common delinquents, sometimes involved in trading of weapons. The relation is not Corsican-Italian as someone writes. It is Corsican-Sardinian, and for the reasons above mentioned. Their common problem is to fight their relative governments by using any means, bombs and fireweapons included. Concerning to the ethnicity and diversity of Arabs, well, this is another prehistoric bull... It is raccism. We cannot distinguish a sicilian, a corsican-sardinian or a spanish from a northern african. In many cases arabs and latin folks, beside having a similar culture and history, can have other common denominators. For example the color of the skin and the same somatic features. So it is impossible to distinguish two mediterranean persons, if a man comes from Tangier or from Cadiz, from Trapani or Tripoli. This is due to their own mediterraneanity. About the traditional mafia of Marseille, according to the scholar Dubois, it was replaced by the sicilian mafia and neapolitan camorra around the 50-60's, whose organizations were firstly located in the ligurian region of Italy. This foreign migration of criminals was subsequently followed from the chinese mafia (1970's) -a true crim. organization- and by other criminal folks -later organized in gangs- coming from north and central africa (e.g. morocco, tunis, algeria, senegal, ivory coast, nigeria) and eastern europe (e.g. romania, albania, jugoslavia).

Hang on,

What in the world does this have to do with what I typed?

I did not say that there was an Arab "mafia".

I said there was an Arab alliance. Meaning a loose group of Arabic criminals that operate in France.

I said that this was a war between the traditional Marseille Mafia which is made up of mostly Corsicans and other Italians (such as the Camorra and Cosa Nostra members you mentioned earlier). As well as some French and the odd Belgian.

Thirdly, I know perfectly well about the Corsican situation and the separatist movement. My grandmother is Corsican!

Fourthly, I know as a matter of fact that there are Muslim Lebanese gangs which operate in Marseille in the Arab quarter alongside North Africans. Have you been to Marseille? I have many times, in fact my uncle is from Marseille and many people on this forum have known me for quite some time.

I did not attack you, I don't even know you. So why are you posting in this manner? This is a friendly site for proper discussion

Read what I have written more carefully next time.

Next, you are incorrect to state that Lebanese (who are not from Asia Minor as you say, they are from the Levantine coast which is also known as the Near East) have nothing culturally linking them to North Africans. That is an absolute supremist denial.

Many Lebanese are Muslims, North Africans are Muslim. They share languages which descend from Arabic and are both Islamic. And it is also true that there is a small proportion of criminals in Marseille that are both North African and Lebanese. Just as there are criminals who are northern or southern French, or Corsican, or Italian, or Russian.

There is criminals elements in every nationality and ethnic group in the world.

If you are trying to say that Corsicans, Sardinians and Italians are the biggest kinds of criminals then it is you who is the racist.

You must not have a very good grasp of English. Do you understand what I have written.

I wrote: Whereas the Arabs, of a different ethnic blend and being considered more "foreign", found it difficult to align themselves in the past.

Do you know what I am saying by this ?? I am saying that in France there is a problem. This problem is that a lot of French people are intolerant of Arabs because they look "different" or their skin tones, language and names make them stand out compared to other people.

I do not agree with this sort of racism at all. That is why I wrote those comments. What I am saying is that the reason why the traditional Marseille Mafia is at war with the small Arabic gangs is because these Arabic gangs found it difficult to find alliances with the traditional Marseille Mafia (French, Corsicans, Italians etc) because they see the Arabs as different. This is why the Arab gangs were never able to integrate into the Marseille milieu.

I think it is YOU who are the racist.

You wrote that: They [the North Africans] are not kidnappers or bombers, and there are not important african politicians involved in their scandals/crimes.

What you are obviously saying is that Sardinians and Corsicans are kidnappers and bombers and that North Africans are not.

How DARE you imply that Corsicans and Sardinians are "kidnappers and bombers"!

Not all Corsicans are terrorists! Just as not all North Africans are involved in crime.

Get your facts right otherwise you will soon find yourself in trouble on this forum. We do not like flamers or people who blast others with their comments of hatred and division.

Dear Cassandro,
nobody is attacking you, I am just debating your lines. Read carefully my past message, please. I never wrote that you said “that there was an Arab mafia”. I am trying to explain that “mafia” and “gang” or alliance are different concepts, that the Italian mafia is professional and has nothing to do with the delinquency of Marseille (consisting of common criminals without competence and mostly coming from north Africa, not from Corse or Belgium), that there is no competition between the Italian mafia and the small gangs of the place. The Italian mafia, as I wrote, includes professional bombers, kidnappers, trafficers in organs, trafficers in weapons (they even contracted for German tanks) and so on. They work for the local politicians too. The north African gangs almost exclusively work as drug trafficers and they are not involved in politics. They work as independent groups and do not belong to a “central family”. But this is due to a different culture. There is not an “Arab alliance” in Marseille, as you write, and among the different groups we can find even a true rivalry (e.g. the small gangs of Tunis hate the juvenile gangs from Morocco. And viceversa.). A hypothetical “Arab alliance” can be found only if we consider the different members belonging to groups of the past such as the new Gia, Gspg, Takfir etc. and that followed religious and political ideologies. But they were in Paris, not Marseille, and controlled by police. I do not want to polemize, but I repeat, Lebanon is in Asia Minor (you cannot say “Near East”. It depends where you live. For example, if you live in Japan, the “near east” concept does not work for you. Asia Minor is the place.). Believe me, there is not relation between Lebanon and North Africa. About the religion, it is not the same. In North Africa there are muslims who are Baifal, Murit, etc. and their rites are different from the Lebanese rites. Imagine, for example, Protestants and Catholics. Both believe in Jesus Christ, but they have different rites and surely they are not good friends. It is the same about Islam. As to the language. A friend of mine, who teach Lebanese, says: “Our language is a mix of Phoenician, Aramaic, Turkish, Syriac, Arabic and other languages. The difference between Lebanese and Arabic is so wide that, if you never had a chance to learn classical Arabic, you do not understand Arabic at all”. About the kidnappers, you probably ignore that in Europe there is a mafia specialized in this kind of crime. It is the Sardinian mafia, best known as “Anonima Sequestri” or “Anonima Sarda”. There was an interesting page about them on The Sunday Times. I also wrote: “many authors do often confusion...”. This sentence and others concern to some authors and journalists -read the previous post, plz- who write false news and speak about a hypothetical mafia just to sell more papers. (For example, Rivele said that Guerini organized the assassination of J.F.Kennedy!). The traditional mafia of Marseille or “old school” is a bull.... and doesn’t exist as organisation. It is a story of the past, a legend that many French journalists/novelists love to cultivate and utilize to attract readers. French newspapers are still speculating about it. According to professor Dubois and other scholars, the local gangs of Marseille were replaced around the 1960s by the Italian “maffia”, considered as a “more organised” gang for those years. Later, Jerome, Zanelli, Brown and other criminologists confirmed in Europe the dangerousness of this foreign organisation, and in 1971 Goppinger wrote that: “in Europe only the Italian mafia constitutes large syndicates comparable to those in the USA”. The numerous crimes of the 1980-2000s commited around the world by the members belonging to the Italian mafia are well documented by Interpol. In Italy, the birthplace of the mafia, there are over 300 murders per year, according to police sources of the year 2005. This is not racism. This is a fact proved by serious statistics. These data are not refered to an ethnical group, they concern to a criminal organisation born and developed in Italy. About the criminals of Corsican origin, they are a small minority in Marseille. I disagree with you when you speak about the Corsican “milieu”. Seriously speaking, to use the same words of the gendarmerie nationale, we cannot consider them as a “mafia” or as a criminal organisation founded upon strong roots. In Corse there is only a form of banditism, the same that can be found in Sardinia. Another problem of the island are the Corsican bombers belonging to the FLNC. So it is wrong to say the “Corsican-Italian mafia alliance”. It is more correct to say that the “Italian” mafia rules there, in Marseille. There is no alliance, and there is even a big competition or rivalry between the Sicilian Cosa Nostra and the heirs of the Neapolitan NCO. It is interesting the fact that in recent times an old boss, a certain Bernardo Provenzano made more trips from Sicily to Marseille “only” to cure his prostate. Nobody believes him. Probably, Provenzano went there to control the situation and about this fact the Italian police is currently studying his secret messages or “pizzini”. Hope this helps a little.

@Kutter one thing.
"of the Neapolitan NCO" the NCO is dead, since nearly 20 years (a little less).
The only "cartel" existing nowadays in Napoli is the alleanza di secondigliano. But this is a very loose alliance .
Il cartello è composto dai seguenti gruppi :

* Contini
* Licciardi
* Lo Russo
* Prestieri
* Stabile
* Mallardo
* Ferone
* Bosti
* Bocchetti

Esternamente al cartello, ma col ruolo di garanti all'interno dell'Alleanza, vi è il clan Di Lauro. anza di secondigliano. But this is a very loose alliance (

Hi Moribundo, thank you for the list. Great info. Yes I know, I meant to say that there is still a big rivalry between the Sicilian Mafia and the New Camorristic Organisations of Naples (here why I wrote NCO's heirs: Contini, Licciardi etc.).

"New Camorristic Organisations" (plural!!!)
First time i hear this formulation, i would doubt Cutolo had so much influence on character and structur of nowadays camorristi.
by the way the most nowadays dominating clans had either not existed or no importance in Cutolos Time fe. Di Lauro or had more to do with the Nueva Famiglia f.e Lo Russo Liccardi.
But maybe i overlooked/ don´t know something. Is their a story behind this name? If yes, could you tell more?

Hi Moribundo. Yes, I am not speaking about Cutolo and its rites, Califano, the BR, the Democrazia Cristiana, Cirillo and company. When the leader Cutolo was arrested, the original NCO was not annihilated. It was only pulverised in a variety of different groups. Some of these groups, like the Nuova Famiglia, were partly constituted by ex-members once belonging to the NCO. The Nuova Famiglia was unable to form a strong organisation and reign in Campania because of the support given by the Sicilian mafia. Those members who rejected the affiliation, like Casillo, were killed. The Nuova Famiglia, because of internal wars, was then obliged to a subdivision, giving perhaps origin to other organisations of "stampo camorristico". In conclusion, we can say that the criminals who rules in Campania and in other parts of Italy "are the heirs" of the past NCO. Gennaro Raia, for example, that was a boss of the NCO, was arrested in Ercolano, Naples only in the year 2001.

:D :P :D Nueva Famiglia haha, thats my spanish, always the same problems with italian.
To the discussion. First Nuova Famiglia was founded to fight NCO, it wasn´t a remnant of it. Second i´m well aware of the facts you posted. Yes the clans nowadays are mostly heirs of the NCO, but as i said, in my opinion this influence on the clans today is to small to generally call them Nuova Camorra Organizations. i think this would be exegeration (fuck my english, how do u spell it: ecsegeration? no! i dont know!).
f.e in Colombia some drug kingpins like Diego "Don Berna" Bejarano Murillo are also former member of the old cartels (in this case cartel de Medellin) and also their heirs, but nobody would call "Don Bernas" org. Medellin Cartel or New Medellin Cartel!

But this is a point one can discuss about!

No, no... I am not speaking of the renaissance of the Nuova Camorra Organizzata, I am speaking about new camorristic organisations built by the heirs of the past NCO. It is different. When the NCO ruled in Southern Italy, especially Campania, no criminal organisation of the place could compete with it. Every clan was controlled by Cutolo and every clan worked for him. He had over 6000 soldiers ready to die for him. When Don Raffae was arrested, many things changed. (But consider that the first days many Italian politicians belonging to the DC pay Cutolo a visit because of his strong power. There are even interesting news about his clans and the BRs.) As I wrote, the Nuova Famiglia had origin from the real disintegration of the NCO and achieved its individual power thanks to the support of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra. Wars between the Nuova Famiglia and Cutolo's members followed later in Naples, Rome and other towns. Yes, I repeat, the Nuova Famiglia included even NCO members, dissenters of the old organisation. This fact is proved by the names kept inside the archives of the "Polizia di Stato" of Italy. Then, like the NCO, the Nuova Famiglia had internal wars. Here we have another pulverisation of the central power. Consequently, new organisations. And this is history.
Pero Moribundo no se olvide que sin un jefe el periodo de crisis de la vieja armada y su desplome fue casi immediato y rapido como una rebenqueda. La nueva familia ha aprovechado de eso hecho para crear una resistencia activa y mortal, una verdadera guerra de camorra por la adquisicion de los barrios napolitanos. Un hecho particular que tambien coincide con el peor momento de la democracia asociativa italiana. Hay un obra interesante sobre la camorra y en modo particular la politica italiana por camara de landa (2005) que explica todo en detalle. Un grande abrazo.
Atte. kutter

ah, sí. Te he incomprendido en lo´ posting anteriores.
´stoy de acuerdo con todo que has escribido en tu ultimo posting.
Solo una pregunta: es el nombre del autor realmente camara de landa? porque conosco un autor italiano, que se llama Kammerlander (de alto adige) y que escribe tambien sobre la politica italiana.
tambíen un grande abrazo pa´ti.
perdona mí mala ortografía, soy hijo emigrantes, nunca lo(el espan~ol) aprendí en una escuela. saludos cordiales
el moríbundo alegre

hola moribundo, si, el nombre es camara de landa, saludos cordiales...

Corsica 'godfather' dies in crash

1-11-06 BBC

The man suspected of being Corsica's last mafia "godfather" has died in a car crash on the French Mediterranean island, police said.

Witnesses said the car carrying Jean-Baptiste Colonna swerved into a ravine and burst into flames.

Mr Colonna rejected the description of crime boss. He was never jailed despite convictions going back to the French Connection heroin smuggling ring.

French police say he may have had a heart attack at the wheel. He was 67.

A French parliamentary commission identified him as Corsica's godfather of organised crime in 1998.

Mr Colonna was convicted in 1978 for involvement in the network that smuggled heroin to the United States via Marseille in the 1950s and '60s - the French Connection.

But the case was eventually thrown out on appeal and after 10 years on the run in South America he returned to Corsica.

An autopsy is to be carried on Thursday to determine the cause of death, a Corsican prosecutor told AFP news agency.


Corsica 'godfather' dies in crash

November 1, 2006

PARIS, France (Reuters) -- A man dubbed the "Godfather" gangster of the unruly French island of Corsica died on Wednesday after he lost control of his car, a police source said.

Witnesses said they saw Jean-Baptiste Colonna's car swerve, then flip over near Serra di Ferro, in the south of Corsica. Police suspect the self-confessed murderer, who was in his late 60s, might have had a heart attack at the wheel.

A parliamentary report in 1998 described Colonna as the only "Godfather" figure still active on an island where mafia-style racketeering and separatist violence go hand-in-hand.

Colonna himself rejected the mafioso description but in a rare magazine interview published in 2002 he spoke freely about how he spent a decade patiently hunting down and killing his father's assassins.

He also described how he skipped the country after he was arrested by police dismantling a drugs ring and spent 10 years in hiding in Brazil.

Colonna told the magazine all he wanted was to enjoy the "simple pleasures of life", saying his silence over the years has made him a cult figure who was conveniently accused of everything murky in Corsica.

El 'padrino' de la mafia de Córcega muere despeñado en un barranco
Jean-Baptiste Colonna fallece al salirse su vehículo de una vía




Jean Baptiste Colonna

J. M. MARTÍ FONT - París

EL PAÍS - Internacional - 02-11-2006


Jean-Baptiste Jérôme Colonna, también conocido como Jean-Jé, condenado en 1978 por su relación con la llamada French Connection, la mítica organización mafiosa que desde Marsella, en la década de los sesenta, introducía heroína en Nueva York, murió ayer a los 67 años en un accidente de automóvil en su Córcega natal. Las autoridades francesas le consideraban "el único auténtico padrino de Córcega".

Pese a reconocer que había matado a una serie de personas para vengar la muerte de su padre, Colonna siempre negó que formara parte de la Mafia.
Colonna conducía por una carretera cerca de la localidad de Porto Pollo, en la Serra di Ferro, al sur de la isla, cuando a la entrada de un puente su vehículo se salió de la ruta y cayó por el barranco. Varios automovilistas se detuvieron y lograron sacarle del coche. Una ambulancia llegó rápidamente pero el médico sólo pudo certificar que Colonna había muerto por un paro cardiaco, aunque sin poder precisar si había fallecido antes del accidente o como consecuencia del mismo. El juez ha ordenado que se le practique la autopsia.

Colonna fue condenado a 17 años de cárcel en 1978 por tráfico de drogas, acusado de formar parte de la French Connection. Pero no llegó a entrar en prisión. Apeló varias veces la sentencia y aprovechó la lentitud del proceso legal y que se encontraba en libertad para escapar a Latinoamérica, donde permaneció escondido, hasta que en 1985 los hechos delictivos de los que se le acusaba prescribieron.

Ya de vuelta a Córcega, junto a su esposa Arlette, mantuvo un modo de vida discreto dentro de lo posible, ya que se dedicó a negocios de hostelería y también al juego. Pero la policía le tenía vigilado y acabó siendo procesado por un caso de empleos falsos. El informe parlamentario elaborado por una comisión presidida por el socialista Jean Glavany, sobre la utilización de fondos públicos en Córcega, calificaba a Colonna de "el único auténtico padrino" de la isla.

Colonna fue condenado a tres años de cárcel, pero sólo cumplió tres meses y el resto quedó en suspenso tras el recurso que presentó ante el Tribunal Supremo francés. Pese a su notoriedad pública, Colonna era un personaje del que la opinión pública sabía muy poco. Era discreto y parco en el hablar.

Sus contactos con los medios criminales, explicaba, los estableció con la sola y única intención de vengar la muerte de su padre, asesinado en 1955. Y para confirmarlo explicaba con pelos y señales cómo había ido siguiendo la pista de todos los que habían participado en el asesinato de su padre y cómo los había ido eliminando metódicamente.

French royal family's last in line in police custody

CLERMONT-FERRAND, France, Nov 8, 2006 (AFP) - A scion of France's last royal family was in police custody Wednesday as part of a criminal probe into a suspected smear campaign against a pharmaceutical company, a source close to the investigation said.

Charles-Philippe d'Orleans, the great-great-great-great-grandson of the last king of France, Louis-Philippe, was detained Tuesday in Paris and was being questioned over alleged fraud to do with the pharmaceutical company, a French-based enterprise called Thea, the source told AFP.

Orleans, 33, was being interrogated in his capacity as owner of an economic consulting firm.

Three other men were also being held and questioned: a senior executive in Orleans's firm, the head of development of a pharmaceutical company based in Monaco, and the chief executive of another consulting firm that part-owns the Monaco company.


A section of the French police specialising in technology crime was handling the case.

According to the source, the investigation into the matter began March 10 when the head of Thea, Henri Chibret, complained to police that his company was the object of a smear campaign designed to bring it to its knees.

He alleged that bottle containing eye drops Thea invented was the subject of a faked scientific study and two e-mails sent to pharmacies and health authorities which called its safety into question.

The bottle was designed with a special filter that increased the shelf-life of the liquid inside four-fold compared to existing containers. But the e-mails and scientific "study" sent to hospitals and eye-doctors challenged the bottle's reliability.

"It looks like there was deliberate manipulation," the source close to the investigation said.

Thea, founded in 1994 and based in the central French city of Clermont-Ferrand, employs 338 people across Europe and had turnover last year of EUR 108 million.

Orleans started his career working for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Rwanda in 1994.

He then went on to serve in the military for eight years before founding his Paris-based consulting firm. He has also written a novel and this year appeared on the French version of the reality TV show "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!"

Orleans claims a "courtesy" aristocratic title as duke despite challenges from descendants of a rival former royal dynasty.

His great-great-great-great grandfather, Louis-Philippe, reigned from 1830-1848 as the last king in the monarchy restored after the abdication of Napoleon.

Copyright AFP

Bretagne
Trafic de cocaïne. Les trois Hollandais condamnés

Le procès des trois Hollandais accusés d’avoir tenté d’importer 1,5 t de cocaïne, saisie à Lorient en décembre 2002, s’est achevé hier soir, devant la cour d’assises spéciale de Rennes, au terme de quatre jours de débats. Nico Arends a été condamné à 14 ans de réclusion criminelle et 100.000 € d’amende; Stefan Van der End et Wilhemus Fleurbaaij - les deux skippers - à dix ans de réclusion et 50.000 € d’amende. En outre, la cour d’assises a prononcé une interdiction définitive du territoire français à leur encontre, ainsi que la confiscation des deux voiliers.
La méditation et les marches forcées durant l’unique heure de promenade n’auront pas suffi. Wilhemus Fleurbaaij, 60 ans, ne supporte plus cette longue escale forcée derrière les barreaux. « C’est un marin qui a mis le cap sur les Caraïbes depuis 30 ans », souligne son avocat, M e Thierry Fillion. Alors, « le sailing Dutchman » a craqué et fini par reconnaître sa participation. Malgré quelques louvoiements spécieux au sujet du contenu des paquets embarqués sur son voilier, le Jumbie. « Sa position est difficile. Il sait que sa parole peut nuire à ses coaccusés, admet son avocat. S’il a utilisé son bateau pour le transport d’une marchandise qu’il savait prohibée, il n’a fait qu’obéir à des instructions ». Cependant, l’aveu de cet exécutant, qui attend avec impatience son transfert dans une prison hollandaise, ne suffit pas à éclairer toutes les zones d’ombre. « Cette cour n’a à juger que des seconds, voire des troisièmes rôles », regrette Thierry Fillion.
Cachée sous la moquette
D’où vient la cargaison ? Quelle était sa destination finale ? Ces questions resteront sans réponse. L’empressement des douanes a considérablement limité l’horizon de ce dossier. Il permet aussi certaines spéculations.

« Et si la drogue avait été chargée à l’insu du skipper du Planet dans le port du Marin, juste après la descente des douanes, le 4 décembre, et avant l’embarquement sur le dock-transporteur, le 8 décembre », ose Fabrice Petit, l’avocat de Stefan Van der End, 37 ans. Cette thèse est également soutenue par Jean-Jacques Le Roux, le conseil de Nico Arends, 51 ans, qui se présente comme un paisible entrepreneur. L’un et l’autre, plaidant l’acquittement, ont rappelé que les fouilles sont demeurées vaines en Martinique, mais couronnées de succès à Lorient, après une inspection beaucoup plus rapide. « Ils ont été mis sur la piste par des traces de silicone frais sur une latte de plancher, cachée sous la moquette », indiquent-ils.
Pourquoi un tel silence ?
L’escale lorientaise, si médiatisée, n’en finit pas de laisser des regrets. « Que de frustrations ! Nous avons celle des accusés découvrant les conditions de détention en France, celle des douaniers martiniquais, déçus de rater la saisie, faute de moyens suffisants, celle des enquêteurs confrontés à l’attitude des policiers étrangers freinant des quatre fers et... celle de la Justice face à une peine qui va lui échapper », résume l’avocat général, Marie-Annick Rossignol. La quantité interceptée (1,5 t), le taux de concentration élevé de cocaïne, le travail de camouflage sous le plancher et dans les parois des voiliers, le conditionnement de la drogue (enrobée de café moulu ou masquée par de l’insecticide pour tromper les chiens), sont autant de signatures d’une organisation bien huilée. Encore faut-il préciser la place des trois Hollandais dans ce trafic international. « Ils ont œuvré pour la même cause, le même but, mais à des échelons différents », affirme l’avocat général, qui désigne Nico Arends comme le responsable de ce trio. N’a-t-il pas effectué les démarches et financé le convoyage des deux bateaux, pour aider ses collègues ? De retour aux Pays-Bas, ne leur a-t-il pas conseillé la discrétion, après la découverte de la drogue ? « Pourquoi un tel silence auprès de la société de transport et des autorités françaises, s’ils sont innocents ? Vand deer End et Fleurbaaij se retrouvaient pourtant sans domicile après l’arraisonnement de leurs bateaux », s’étonne l’avocat général. Elle a requis vingt années de réclusion criminelle et 500.000 € d’amende à l’encontre du « maillon fort », et 15 années de réclusion ainsi que 300.000 € d’amende pour les deux navigateurs.
Patrick Hernot

France nabs robber, 20 years later

PARIS, France (Reuters) -- French police have arrested a bank robber who spent 20 years on the run after taking part in one of the country's biggest hold-ups.

Miloud Hai, 48, was one of a group of about a dozen armed men who robbed a branch of the Bank of France in the western town of Saint Nazaire in July 1986, escaping with some 88 million francs (13.3 million euros, $17.57 million).

The hold-up, for which Hai was convicted and sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment in 1992, still stands as one of the biggest in French history.

Hai, an Algerian national, was arrested early on Friday as he was leaving a building in the north of Paris, a police spokesman said on Tuesday.

"He was very, very careful for a very long time," the spokesman said.

Police said he had spent years moving house frequently and leaving home in the early morning to evade possible raids.

He was identified following an investigation into an armed robbery of a real estate agent's office in the chic Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine in which police believe he was involved.

Is the Union Corse still around these days???

Monday, Sep. 04, 1972

The Milieu of the Corsican Godfathers

The eyes in the walnut face held his. "I am the head of the Union Corse." The Union Corse! More deadly, and perhaps even older than the Unione Siciliano, the Mafia. Bond knew that it controlled most organized crime throughout metropolitan France and her colonies—protection rackets, smuggling, prostitution, and the suppression of rival gangs.

—Ian Fleming, On Her Majesty's Secret Service

THE Union Corse, an organization that originated in the parched hills of Corsica but is today centered in Marseille, rules more in fact than even James Bond imagined in fiction. It dominates the worldwide trafficking in narcotics, and in particular controls the supply and processing of heroin flowing into the U.S. from France, South America and Southeast Asia. Though it is relatively weak in the U.S., the Union Corse is far more powerful than the Mafia in many parts of the world.

As an organization, the Union Corse is more tightly knit and more secretive than its Sicilian counterpart. U.S. agencies have been able to obtain information from all levels of the Mafia clans in the U.S., but not from the Union Corse. "When the Mafioso is spilling his guts," says one U.S. intelligence official, "the Corsican is still silent—refusing even to give you his name." In the early 1960s, for instance, a Union Corse member who called himself Antoine Rinieri was arrested in New York with a suspected narcotics payoff of $247,000 in cash. In the Corsican tradition, he refused to give his real name or explain what he was doing with the money. His silence caused him to be sent to jail for six months for contempt of court. At the end of his term, the U.S. deported him but, since it could prove no link between the $247,000 and dope trafficking, the government was forced to give him the money back—with interest.

In France, the very existence of the Union Corse is still denied, in much the same way that the Mafia was often dismissed as fictional in the U.S. two decades ago. "The structure is a myth," says a senior French cop. With five gang murders in Marseille in the past six months alone, that notion is beginning to change.

In many respects, the Mafia and the Union Corse are similar. Both are divided into a number of families—the Mafia into about 24 in the U.S., the Union Corse into about 15 in France. The best-known of the Corsican families are the Francisci, Orsini, Venturi and Guerini clans. The identity of some of the clans is so deep a secret that a member could be marked for death for discussing them. And in the matter of exterminating informers, the Union Corse is said to be quicker and more deadly than the Mafia.

The Corsicans have spread around the world for much the same reason Sicilians came to the U.S.—hopeless poverty at home. "We see our sons as they leave as young men and when they come back to retire on their pensions," says a Corsican detective in France. Often smuggling is the only way that Corsicans can make a living.

The French bring a new language to international crime; the army of ordinary racketeers, for instance, is known simply as the "milieu." The Corsican gang boss ordinarily carries his identification in plain sight—a watch-fob medallion bearing the Moor's-head crest of Corsica. Like the Mafia, the Union Corse has a code of honor, the word of a gangster is supposed to be his bond. The difference is that Mafiosi are forever doublecrossing each other—hence the present gang war in New York—while the Corsicans usually keep their word. Members of the Mafia usually submit internal disputes to other Mafiosi; Corsicans often call in expert outsiders to arbitrate their quarrels.

The strength of the Union Corse outside the U.S. is based largely on its ability to infiltrate government agencies. In France the Union Corse has, to some degree, infiltrated the police, the military, the customs service and the French equivalent of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, the SDECE (for Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionage). One of that outfit's former agents, Roger de Louette, who was convicted in Newark last April of smuggling $12 million worth of heroin into the U.S. and is currently serving a five-year prison term, testified that he imported the drugs in league with his superiors in the agency. The Corsican influence in French law-enforcement agencies is also believed to have been a large factor in the French government's reluctance to crack down on the Corsican narcotics laboratories in Marseille until drugs became a problem—and a political issue—in France.

The Union Corse's immense political influence in France stems from the Corsicans' work for the French underground during World War II—German collaborators in Marseille were regularly and efficiently dispatched—and for the French government in the postwar years. In 1948 Paris called upon the Union Corse to break a strike by Communist-controlled unions that threatened to close the port of Marseille. The Union Corse obliged by providing an army of strikebreaking longshoremen to unload the ships and a crew of assassins to gun down defiant union leaders. French government officials have not forgotten such favors.

The same kind of political fix, arranged in other ways, has kept the Union Corse narcotics network operating in Southeast Asia since 1948. A large share of the heroin used by U.S. troops in Viet Nam was supplied by Corsican-financed narcotics producers in Laos and Thailand. For about ten years following the French withdrawal from Indochina in 1954, a group of Corsican war veterans ran several small charter airlines whose purpose was the smuggling of narcotics from Laos into South Viet Nam; the lines were collectively known as "Air Opium."

In Latin America, the Union Corse is extremely influential in a number of countries, including Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela, Paraguay, Bolivia and Panama. In some cases, the influence has proved strong enough to protect a handful of heroin laboratories that have recently been moved there from Marseille. In Paraguay, Corsican influence is believed to have been behind the U.S.'s recent difficulties in extraditing French-born Auguste Ricord to the U.S. to face narcotics charges.

According to testimony given before a U.S. Senate subcommittee in 1964, one of the Corsican godfathers is Marcel Francisci, 52, a flamboyant, onetime war hero (the Croix de Guerre) whose business interests include casinos in Britain, France and Lebanon. In 1968, caught in a gangland vendetta, Francisci barely escaped an ambush in a restaurant on the island of Corsica. Four months later, the men who tried to kill him were murdered in a Parisian restaurant by gunmen posing as cops. Francisci today is an elected district official on Corsica.

Other known leaders of the Union Corse, according to the Federal Bureau of Narcotics in testimony before the same Senate subcommittee, include Dominique Venturi, 49, and his brother Jean, 51. Dominique's base has been Marseille, where he has been known as a political crony of Mayor Gaston Deferre, the Socialist candidate for President of France in 1969. Dominique got into the narcotics-smuggling business in 1953, and at one time ran a fleet of yachts for hauling morphine base from the Middle East to Marseille. Jean Venturi, who went to Canada in 1952 and is believed to be operating there still, is sometimes credited with pioneering the technique of hiding heroin in the nooks and crannies of imported autos.

About 10 years ago, the Union Corse began to move into the U.S. to fill the vacuum created by the partial withdrawal of the Mafia from the narcotics racket. Its chief contact in the U.S. became Florida Gang Boss Santo Trafficante Jr., who traveled to Saigon and Hong Kong to work out narcotics deals with the Corsicans and later turned up in Ecuador to check out a cocaine network in which he had been offered a partnership. The Union Corse also supplied and financed the new gangs of South Americans, Puerto Ricans and blacks, who moved into the vacant territories. All members of the milieu were instructed to avoid disturbing those Mafiosi who still continued to deal in narcotics—chiefly the capos and soldiers of the Bonanno and Gambino families.

The peace between the Corsicans and the Sicilians has endured for a surprisingly long time, but it may not last much longer. Last week representatives of the Mafia clans in New York met to consider a mass re-entry into the narcotics business. If they decide to proceed, and if approval comes from the Mafia's supreme council, the Commission, they will have to do it over the Corsicans'—and some of their own—dead bodies.

hey everyone!


in the past the Marseille gangsters were very active in cocain smuggling- they were part of a criminal network that smuggled cocain traught Marseille port to the hand of the powerful italian camorra.

but what is their situation today? they still working closley to the camorra families or other mafia organizatons?

thanks!


x-man.

Good question Peter guess they are still around..

Does anybody know some good books about French/Corsican organized crime? Of course the French Connection book, any others?

It's an old one but still a great one.....

The Marseilles Mafia: The Truth Behind the World of Drug Trafficking
Pierre Galante & Louis Sapin © 1979
ISBN 0 491 02325 1

Or a more recent book (this one has a few chapters that cover French organised crime)......

Gangland International: The Mafia and other Mobs
James Morton © 1998
ISBN 0 7515 2237 6

Hope this helps.

Cassandro

Thanks Cassandro, the first one you mentioned will, I suspect, be hard to get a copy of but the second I have seen online. Picked up a French crime magazine while on vacation that contained an article about Jacky Imbert. Got the jest of it but still need to translate properly.

welcome back David


and reporting for duty!


greetings from pup

Playboy jailed for murder of casino heiress 30 years on
By John Lichfield
Published: 13 October 2007
Almost 30 years after she disappeared without trace, the murder – or presumed murder – of the French casino heiress Agnès Le Roux has been avenged.

Although her body has not been found, a French appeal court jury decided yesterday that Mme Le Roux was murdered in October 1977 by her lover, Jean-Maurice Agnelet, a Nice lawyer. The verdict completed a 30-year struggle by the missing woman's mother, Renée Le Roux, 85, to prove that her daughter was murdered and that Agnelet, 69, who was jailed for 20 years, was the killer.

However, the long saga of the "Affaire Le Roux" – a story of casinos, corruption and organised crime on the Côte d'Azur – may still not be over. Lawyers representing Agnelet said the verdict was a "judicial scandal" and vowed to fight the decision all the way to the European Court of Human Rights.

Two previous trials have ended in Agnelet's acquittal. His lawyers had argued that it was impossible to convict a defendant of murder without proving "when, where or how" it had occurred.

The appeal court jury had heard that the missing woman had fallen under Agnelet's influence soon after inheriting part of her family's casino, Le Palais de la Méditérranee, in Nice. She had broken with her mother and voted for another casino company – allegedly connected with the local mafia – to take over Le Palais.

In return for this vote, she had received £300,000 from the rival casino bosses. The money had been paid into an account held jointly by Mme Le Roux and Agnelet. Soon after her disappearance, he moved the money to his own account.

At the appeal hearing, the prosecution said Agnelet had seduced a "vulnerable and idealistic" young woman to serve his own ends. She had wanted to marry him. By murdering her, he was able to take the money and reclaim his "liberty".

After the verdict, Mme le Roux's mother said: "It's the end of an enigma but that won't bring back my daughter. Alas, I will never see her again."

At the time, Nice was in the throes of a bitter casino war waged by a shadowy Corsican tycoon with links to the Italian mafia, known as the "Gambling Emperor", and a ruthless mayor bent on turning the town into the "Las Vegas of the Coté d'Azur".

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Shortly before her disappearance, Agnès Le Roux was on execrable terms with her mother, who had refused to hand over any inheritance to her tearaway daughter – she had sent her to boarding school outside Paris as a teenager for going out with a 50-year-old.

Rènee, whose high-life acquaintances included Prince Rainier and Aristotle Onassis, had run the family-owned casino on Nice's "promenade des Anglais" since her husband died in 1967.

She had persistently refused to sell the business to Dominique Fratoni, the owner of rival casino, Le Ruhl, and a close friend of Jacques Médecin, the city's mayor.

Fratoni, a key figure in Nice's so-called "green baize" casino wars, was seeking to extend his gambling empire along the famed seafront, and soon found a willing accomplice – Agnès Le Roux.

Agnès had recently met and fallen deeply in love with Agnelet, her mother's former lawyer in his late thirties, known for his dissolute lifestyle and steady stream of mistresses.

On Fratoni's payroll, it was he who convinced Agnès in June 1977 to betray her mother and vote against her at a board meeting, thus allowing the rival casino owner to buy out the Le Roux. In return, Fratoni paid Agnès three million francs into a Swiss bank account, which was later transferred to a joint account also in Agnelet's name.

Shortly afterwards, Agnelet broke off relations with Agnès and she apparently twice tried to commit suicide.

Then on October 27, she drove off in her cream and black Range Rover to an unknown destination. Neither she nor her vehicle was ever seen again.

Police found Agnelet's behaviour suspect – he had at first clumsily denied that she had been his mistress, when they had been living together in a flat.

Before her death, he took hours to signal her failed "suicide" attempts to the police and then gave them the wrong address.

They found a coded inscription in one of Agnelet's books suggesting his involvement and discovered that he had transferred most of the Swiss money into the account of another mistress.

Although sentenced to two years in jail for money laundering in 1985 and struck off the legal register, he was acquitted of murder as he had an alibi.

Another mistress, Francoise Lausseure – later his wife – swore she was with him on a trip to Geneva at the time of Agnès's disappearance.

But in a coup de theatre in 1999, the former mistress – now divorced and living in America – admitted to Rènee Le Roux, who had stubbornly pursued her own investigations, that she had lied at Agnelet's request – they had not spent the weekend together. With the alibi gone, the case was reopened.

Life for Corsica prefect murderer
A French court has found a Corsican shepherd guilty of killing the top French official on the island in 1998.
The court in Paris sentenced Yvan Colonna to life in jail for gunning down the governor of the Mediterranean island, Claude Erignac.

Colonna, 47, had denied playing any part in the killing - the most serious political murder in France in decades.

Corsica has been the scene of a campaign of generally low-level separatist violence for three decades.

Mr Erignac was shot three times in the back of the head as he walked to a concert hall in Corsica's capital, Ajaccio, in February 1998. The killing happened in front of the prefect's wife.


Colonna has always denied pulling the trigger, but prosecutors successfully argued during the trial that there was enough circumstantial evidence.

A lawyer for Colonna said he would appeal against the verdict, the AFP news agency reported.

Colonna, portrayed by the separatists as a kind of Robin Hood figure, had been hiding for five years on Corsica, enjoying protection under the local code of omerta (silence).

He was finally captured in a shepherd's hut in Porto-Pollo in 2003.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/7143297.stm

Published: 2007/12/13 19:30:59 GMT

Comment le Milieu marseillais traite avec la mafia italienne

Publié le jeudi 31 janvier 2008 à 05H47

Après l'arrestation d'un membre de la Comorra napolitaine


Les trafiquants avaient caché les 180 kg de cocaïne dans des poutres de bois exotiques évidées. La marchandise, arrivée à Rotterdam, devait ensuite être livrée à Anvers, puis à Paris.

© LP

La légende voudrait que les Milieux corse et marseillais se dressent comme des remparts face aux tentacules de la mafia italienne et s'opposent à toute incursion de la "Pieuvre" sur leur territoire. Un pacte tacite qui lierait ainsi les grandes pointures de deux camps. Mais ce contrat moral n'interdit pas les collaborations fréquentes, surtout en matière de stupéfiants.

Le démantèlement par la PJ d'un gigantesque trafic de cocaïne, entre le port de Callao au Pérou, Rotterdam, Pariset Marseille (notre édition du 22 janvier) illustre bien ces liens et montre de façon très claire comment les rôles sont distribués. Le réseau était animé par plusieurs hommes, dont Dominique Lortal, originaire de Perpignan et soupçonné d'être à la tête d'un empire en matière de stupéfiants.

A ses côtés, des Marseillais, parmi lesquels un ancien de la French Connection, André Lajoux, 66 ans et le fils d'un chimiste de l'époque, Claude Calmet, 59 ans. Eux ne sont considérés que comme des intermédiaires, mais pourraient avoir également joué de leur entregent avec les Italiens, dont Umberto Naviglia, grâce à leur expérience et leur réputation.

Le Transalpin est le dernier homme à avoir été interpellé le 24 janvier, à Naples et suspecté d'être l'un des "Capi" de la Camorra locale. Les enquêteurs ont établi qu'il était le principal commanditaire des 180 kg de drogue, saisis par la PJ dans un container à Rotterdam.

Pour la PJ niçoise, qui a suivi l'enquête, ce type de collaboration n'a rien d'exceptionnel: "On a régulièrement vu des pointures italiennes faire appel à des trafiquants français ou de la région marseillaise, qui sont mieux implantés en Amérique du Sud. Ils ont les connaissances et les réseaux pour organiser les importations de drogue. Les Italiens sont très intéressés car cela leur évite une grosse partie du travail. Et puis pour eux, il est plus simple de passer par des Français qui ont un accès direct avec la façade atlantique, où arrive la drogue d'Amérique du Sud".

Une autre saisie de cocaïne sur un parking du centre commercial de la Valentine avait déjà mis en lumière ces pratiques. "Les 33 kg étaient destinés à une famille de mafieux calabrais, confie un enquêteur. Les Marseillais devaient les leur livrer".

Par Romain Luongo ( rluongo@laprovence-presse.fr )

http://www.laprovence.fr/articles/2008/01/...a-italienne.php

Nice Matin
Dimanche 27 janvier 2008

Nice : Les 500 kg de cocaïne étaient destinés aux milieux azuréen et napolitain

De ce côté-ci de la frontière transalpine, il y a « les Marseillais ». Des vieux de la vieille qui s'apprêtaient à remettre le couvert en inondant la Côte d'Azur - voire tout le Sud de la France - d'une drogue pure à 90 % ! De l'autre côté, en Italie, on ne serait pas en reste puisqu'une partie des 500 kg de cocaïne interceptés ces derniers jours au Pérou et en Belgique était destinée à la « Camorra ». Pour preuve l'interpellation, jeudi soir, d'un des principaux « capo » de mafia napolitaine, Umberto Naviglia, à qui la capitale azuréenne ne réussit décidément pas (voir ci-contre). Si, cette fois, le « mafioso » a été cueilli chez lui par les policiers antidrogue italiens, il n'en demeure pas moins que sa mise en cause est le fruit du travail de titan accompli ces huit derniers mois par la PJ de Nice, en collaboration avec l'Office central des Stups (l'OCRTIS) sous le contrôle du juge marseillais Serge Tournaire.

Rencontre sous étroite surveillance au Pérou

Au printemps 2007, les incursions répétées dans le Sud-Est d'un Perpignanais ne sont pas passées inaperçues. Il faut dire que ce gérant de plusieurs restaurants branchés, la cinquantaine, n'est pas un inconnu. Dominique Lortal est même la bête noire des policiers français qui, en dépit d'un casier presque vierge en la matière (1), le soupçonnent depuis des années d'être l'un des principaux maillons du trafic de stupéfiants dans l'Hexagone, voire en Europe.

Pas question de le lâcher. Lortal devient l'objectif n° 1 de la brigade des stups de Nice qui va le suivre jusqu'au Venezuela ou encore au Pérou. C'est là que « le Perpignanais » aurait trouvé ce qu'il cherchait : un narcotrafiquant et une imprimerie. Le premier, un certain Marina Pastor Lester, surnommé « la loca » (la folle) dans la région d'Iquitos aurait fourni la marchandise. La petite officine, elle, aurait permis à Lortal d'éditer le papier à en-tête d'une société fictive d'import-export basée à Anvers pour convoyer la drogue cachée dans des poutres creuses de bois exotique.

Lester, l'industriel péruvien présumé fournisseur, a été interpellé alors qu'il tentait de fuir son pays. Tout comme le cogérant de la société fictive belge, un pied-noir surnommé « Baba ». Et les policiers ne se sont pas arrêtés en si bon chemin. Après avoir décapité cette organisation criminelle internationale, ils se sont attaqués aux filières chargées dans un second temps d'écouler la cocaïne.

Les enquêteurs de la PJ de Nice ont donc identifié au moins deux réseaux de distribution distincts. Dont un qui projeté d'alimenter le marché azuréen.

1. Poursuivi dans un précédent trafic de stupéfiant il avait été relaxé.
Nice Matin

Napoli, presunto boss della camorra arrestato su mandato francese

presunto boss della camorra e' stato arrestato a Napoli su mandato della Procura antidroga della citta' francese di Marsiglia. Lo hanno reso noto ieri sera dei responsabili della polizia trasalpina.

L'uomo, Umberto Naviglia, sarebbe il referente italiano di un traffico internazionale di cocaina smantellato dalle forze dell'ordine francesi. Autorita' transalpine sarebbero pronte a chiedere estradizione

Secondo le fonti di polizia le autorita' transalpine intendono chiedere l'estradizione di Naviglia, fermato giovedi' scorso. Il presunto boss e' noto in Francia per esser gia' stato arrestato a Nizza nel 1989, quando a Marsiglia fu catturato il defunto capoclan Michele Zaza.

Scattata a meta' gennaio, l'operazione antidroga della polizia francese ha finora portato al sequestro di 180 chilogrammi di cocaina nella citta' olandese di Rotterdam e all'arresto di otto persone. Fra queste c'e' anche la presunta mente del gruppo criminale, il francese Dominique Lortal.



original link to the article: http://www.rainews24.rai.it/notizia.asp?newsID=78023

Major arrest in transcontinental swoop
Among the others arrested were a Bulgarian girlfriend of the "brains",an Italian based in Marseille and a Frenchman in Belgium

NICE-Eight alleged cocaine traffickers including a member of the '70s-era"French Connection" have been arrested in a transcontinental operation,French police said on Monday.

Police seized 180 kilos of the drug in the Dutch port of Rotterdam and conducted arrests in France,Belgium and Peru--with the "brains" of the cartel,a Paris-based high-roller,expected to appear before a judge shortly,police said.
Exported from Colombia,the cocaine was destined for France's southern Cote d'Azur,and came from the same source as 320 kilos already seized in Peru at the end of November.

The Peruvian arrest,one Lester M.P.,was described by Southern American police to their French counterparts as "a major political and industrial figure" in Callao,a port neighbouring the capital Lima."They were pleased to get him,"the French policeman said.The drugs packages were dispersed within a cargo of exotic wood and it took police,acting on a tip-off,two days to isolate them.

Among the others arrested were a Bulgarian girlfriend of the "brains",an Italian based in Marseille and a Frenchman in Belgium.The group had set up a shelg 'import' company an Anvers,northern France.

France seizes record haul of Africa-bound drug chemical

PARIS-French custom have seized a record shipment of a chemical used to make the highly-addictive drug methamphetamine,bound from Lebanon to Africa,officials said Thursday.In December,Paris airport officials intercepted some 88 million tablets of pseudoephedrine,a decongestant that is also a key ingredient used to synthesise ecstasy and methamphetamines,known as "crystal Meth" or "Ice".

Weighing four tonnes,the chemicals had an estimated resale value of 16.6 million euros (24.3 million dollars) on the illegal drug market,making it the biggest ever haul of the substance in Europe,the budget ministry said.The shipment originated in Beirut and was bound for several African countries.

Considered a top narcotics threat by many Western countries,methamphetamine is a highly addictive stimulant that can be taken as a pill,smoked,snorted or injected,with long-term side effects including hallucinations and stroke.

According to U.N. figures,hauls of synthetic drugs worldwide increased by 53% between 1998 and 2005.Interpol specialists have raised the alarm over the trafic of drug ingredients such as pseudoephedrine,which they say often transit from manufacturing sites in China or Insia,via Africa,to drug factories in Mexico.

"In France, the very existence of the Union Corse is still denied"

In fact, it is just a bull...

Gunman kills french prisoner
A gunman is arrested after killing one prisoner and wounding another in Varces-Grenoble jail in southeast France

29 September 2008

VARCES-A prisoner about to be questioned in a murder case was killed by a gunman from a hill overlooking his jail in southeast France,officials said.

The suspected gunman ,who was reported to have a police record for several burglaries,was arrested shortly afterwards with his gun still hot,Justice Minister Rachida Dati said late Sunday.

A second prisoner was wounded in Sunday's incident,in which five shots were fired into the exercise yard of the jail at Varces-Grenoble,in the southeast of France.

The slain prisoner,born in 1979,had connections to organised crime and was going to be questioned about a murder case,said Dati.

The Dauphine Libere newspaper identified him as Sghair Lamiri and said he was serving an eight-year sentence for robberies committed in 2001 and 2002.

The injured prisoner,a friend of the dead man,was hit in the hand when he tried to help.

Dati did not name the suspected gunman,aged 58,who is now being held by police.

"He denies the facts,"she added,"but he was arrested when he was getting to his motorbike which had false licence plate and his rifle with telescopic sight was still warm."

Dati said it was the first time in France that someone in prison had been killed from outside.

100 police and firefighters were sent to the jail after the incident.

Prison security official Martin Parkouda said several prisoners refused to return to their cells after the shooting,and other threw flammable material onto workshop causing a fire which was later put out.

Lamiri was a known figure in the underworld of Grenoble.There is a gangwar raging at Grenoble,which has left eight dead.

Robbers take €80 million in Paris jewelry theft
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/12/05/...wel-Robbery.php


Pink Panther gang from Serbia??

Balkans-based group is suspected of stealing $134 million in series of heists
updated 3:31 a.m. ET Oct. 18, 2008
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Pink Panther gang jailed for £100m jewellery thefts
Three members of the notorious "Pink Panther" gang of jewellery thieves have been convicted for a series of spectacular robberies.

By Henry Samuel in Paris
Last Updated: 6:03PM GMT 04 Dec 2008

Top jewellers and police chiefs the world over fear and grudgingly admire the international crime syndicate whose cold professionalism has reaped them £100 million in jewellery heists over the past decade.

The educated gangsters – who all have multiple identities and speak several languages – earned their nickname after stealing a £500,000 diamond from a Mayfair jewellers in 2003 and hiding it in a jar of face cream. They were apparently inspired by the original Inspector Clouseau film in which the world's most expensive gem is hidden the same way.

Members of the gang, believed to come from across the former Yugoslavia region, has carried out around 100 daring raids across the globe, including in London, Dubai, Geneva, Monaco and Tokyo.

Most are at large but three were caught in France after swiping almost £7 million pounds in luxury gems and watches.

A court in Chambéry, southeastern France, found the three men – all Serbs – guilty of organised armed robbery in Biarritz, Cannes, Courchevel and Saint-Tropez in 2001 and 2003.

Boban Stojkovic, 35, and Goran Drazic, 35, were respectively handed down six-year and ten-year sentences. The group's mastermind, Dragan Mikic, 33, was sentenced in absentia to 15 years. He is currently on the run after escaping via a ladder from a French prison in 2005, as accomplices peppered the compound's watch tower with machine gunfire.

"We are dealing with hardened, professional delinquents," the judge said in his summing up. "They are almost all intelligent, but when one is intelligent, why follow the path of easy money?," he asked the jury.

The Pink Panthers' attention to detail led one criminologist to describe their work as "artistry."

In Biarritz, for example, they applied fresh paint to a bench opposite the jewellery store they were about to rob to deter potential witnesses from sitting there.

In August 2005, disguised as tourists in flowery T-shirts, gang members casually walked into the Julian jewellers in the crowded port of Saint-Tropez in broad daylight. Minutes later, they left with the stolen gems and – to the amazement of a crowd of onlookers – sped off in a waiting motorboat.

"Their cold determination is only matched by their highly meticulous mode of operation," said Christophe Haget, judicial police chief in Monaco, where the gang struck twice last year.

"No fortress scares them," he told Le Figaro.

Last year, wearing mask and in black suits, eight gangsters rammed two limousines through the front window of a luxury shopping mall in Dubai to break into the Graff jewellers. The whole operation took 90 seconds and the gang escaped with 11 million dollars in watches and gems.