The Rennes criminal court sentenced two dockers and an intermediary to seven and eight years in prison for importing cocaine from the West Indies to mainland France.
All three were suspected of having been involved in a major cocaine traffic, which took place at the port of Saint-Nazaire in Montoir-de-Bretagne, in Loire-Atlantique.
Thierry Lorcy, 56, was sentenced to seven years in prison, while the prosecution had requested twelve against him. He was also banned from practicing as a docker.
The latter has also already been convicted eight times for acts of domestic violence, criminal associations, and aggravated money laundering. Anthony Martin, 41, the second docker charged, was also sentenced to seven years in prison and banned from practicing the profession, in accordance with the prosecution’s requisitions.
Suspected of having been an intermediary in this whole cocaine trafficking network, a 32-year-old restaurant owner received the heaviest sentence of eight years in prison, and is already planning to appeal, according to his lawyer.
The court also pronounced the confiscation of the seized goods as well as a customs fine of eight million euros, to be paid with eight other defendants sentenced in October.
A well done shot
It all started in Brazil in May 2017. An investigation was opened after 690 kilos of cocaine were seized in the port of Santos. The goods were transported in a refrigerated container bound for Montoir-de-Bretagne. A judicial inquiry was opened six months later, in November.
However, the dockers had prepared their move well: they imported the cocaine using the “rip-off” technique, which consists of recovering the goods when the containers are opened, taking advantage of the legal transit between two companies, either with their complicity or without their knowledge.
According to France Info, the prosecution claims that nearly 336 kilos of cocaine were seized in the port of Montoir between June 2017 and April 2020, i.e. loot amounting to 16 million euros on resale.
The cocaine, coming from Latin America, passed through Guadeloupe and Martinique before arriving in the Montoirin port and ending up with consumers in the Paris region.