The first version of this story was that of a triumph. The pride of a handful of elite customs officers multiplying seizures « record », at the port of Le Havre, through infallible information. After four weeks of hearing before the Paris Criminal Court, it is a completely different story that the prosecutors unfolded, Tuesday, June 7, over a long indictment of more than five and a half hours.
The six former executives of the prestigious National Directorate of Customs Intelligence (DNRED), seated on the bench of the defendants, were portrayed by the two prosecutors as ready for all compromises to “make numbers”leaving to their “Alarm” Serbian fetish, Zoran Petrovic, full latitude to continue his trafficking without being worried.
The argument, cold and scrupulous, ended with the requisition of prison sentences for four of them, suspected in particular of “complicity in the organized importation of counterfeit goods”, ” scam “ et “embezzlement of public funds”.
This affair was revealed in 2015 after the seizure of 43 tons of counterfeit coffee, revealing the murky circumstances of the cooperation between customs officers and their adviser. The mastermind of the operation, Zoran Petrovic (a former soldier known by various aliases: “Alex”, “Le Grand”, “Monsieur Z”…) had brought 32 cases to customs between 2011 and 2015 – cigarettes, counterfeits, medicines – when he was officially blacklisted.
“A tragedy for customs”
This Tuesday, the six incriminated members of the hierarchy are scattered in the courtroom; some scribble in their notebooks, others stare intently at the ground. The first sentences of the prosecutor, Vanessa Perrée, were enough for them to understand that none of them will be able to consider the promise of a release today.
Because it is a ” system “ au “illegal operation” that the prosecutor took pains to dissect. “It’s a real team, with customs officers who become delinquents, and an adviser who becomes a civil servant, she analyzes. A team with convergent interests: money for some, numbers and glory for others. » The six members of this service of “first circle” intelligence flushes. “This case is a tragedy for customs”, hammers the prosecutor.
The indictment takes on the appearance of a class council where bad points are distributed to former good students. “These operations are not intended to dismantle networks, they are above all intended to allow customs to make the figures expected of them”, underline Mme Perrée, in reference to this frantic race for “dry seizures”, to the detriment of the dismantling of networks – a practice conceded by several defendants during the interrogations of the previous days.
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