The long trial which opens on Monday before the Paris Criminal Court is not only that of Michel Neyret, 60, former No. 2 of the Lyon PJ believed to have slipped into mob rule. Continued (among others) for “corruption”, “influence peddling”, “breach of confidentiality”, “drug trafficking”, “sealed diversion” and “criminal association”, the former star of the gang also embodies the drift of a long tolerated system. Three other policemen appear with him (see interview below cons) prosecuted for having endorsed his police methods “borderline”.
Through the particular case of Michel Neyret which risks ten years in prison, the Paris trial will also be that some police methods, which allowed the PJ Lyon to achieve its best catches. A time, not so long ago, when sprains to the criminal procedure code were common, with the disorder still image management of informants by police. “Practices which have always existed and are still appropriate,” provides counsel Michel Neyret, M th Versini-Bullara, who promises that his client “explain clearly the reality of what was happening.” Back on a case become the symbol of the incestuous relationship between cops and thugs.
in early 2011, the business started by Neyret a routine investigation into a drug trafficking 111 kilos of cocaine were found in the apartment of a Saudi princess in Neuilly-sur-Seine. The suspects placed on listening, a man prides itself insistently to have a mole in the PJ Lyon. He is so talkative that the drug squad in Paris not long to recognize Commissioner Michel Neyret. At the time, the deputy director of the PJ Lyon is known as the white wolf, and not only on the Rhone. For twenty years he led the Brigade of Research and Intervention (BRI) in Lyon, the prestigious “anti-gang”. Within the home, many still in his best memory feat of arms: the arrest in 2003 of three escapees from the prison Luynes (Bouches-du-Rhône) after an anthology tracks, operation worth it to be decorated with the Legion of Honour.
So when the name appears Neyret incidentally on plays, narcotics investigators are not very comfortable. This is the boss of the Paris PJ, Christian Flaesch himself, who finally decided to transmit listens to justice. “A settling of accounts between the Paris police headquarters and central management of the PJ,” squeaky one of the protagonists of the file. The new investigation is assigned to the General Inspectorate of Services (IGS), the police fonts.
The man who boasts about so called Michel Neyret Gilles Benichou. Early fifties, this mobster second area is known for years by police. Alternately department manager at Carrefour, representing in the ready-to-wear and business in advertising, he was sentenced to nine times between 1996 and 2009, including tax evasion facts, transport of counterfeit currency, extortion, and fraud. A time recorded officially as an informant, Benichou was disbarred in 2000, due to “unreliability and motivations unrelated to the interests of the service.” But fifteen years after been blacklisted, it continues to rencarder Michel Neyret. “It was an informant who brought me information on some files, explain the Commissioner in custody. This is someone who knows the Lyon environment. It gave me a whole bunch of elements that allowed me to have a vision on some issues. “ Very close, the two men see two or three times a week and talk on the phone almost every day. But the plays, the informant seems to get the police much more information than it gives. From one of his relatives is in question in a case, Gilles Benichou requests information commissioner to his friend, who hastens to consult the STIC file (criminal records) or the wanted persons (FPR).
“An aggressive and effective policy”
How far is Michel Neyret went to retain its source? The “daddies”, the former Commissioner has rubbed dozens during his career, making his best business through their precious pipes. A “aggressive and effective policy of inquiries,” assumed to face magistrates. “There is not a big folder of drugs or steering that is performed without informants, has long said Michel Neyret. The big deals are 80% initiated by informants. “ But ” performance worship, “ in his words, will push the police to come dangerously close to its source, leading him to take a trip to Morocco or a Cartier watch to 30 000, offered to his wife. “By pure friendship,” assert Michel Neyret.
But the General Inspectorate asks that handles that. Gilles Benichou is he an informant with whom Neyret develops a ratio of “pure commercial interest” ? Or a friend with which it maintains relations of trust? In its order for reference, Judge Patrick Gachon underlines the “some ambiguity” between the two men. “There Neyret at Michel will go very far in intelligence, even cozy up so outrageous with some thugs, defends his lawyer. The objective is to allow the police to make a good profit, but the best business does not fall from heaven. “
Read also “Everyone knew the methods of Michel Neyret”
“We’ll have you served you before”
the management of informants by the police, in particular their method of remuneration is a key to the Neyret case. In PJ services, there has long existed a remuneration system occult more or less tolerated. The practice allowed by Neyret in custody, was to divert some of the drugs seized to pay directly snitches. Many plays in the file appear to show that the practice, formally prohibited, seems rooted in morals. Like the time Neyret laments to a colleague PJ Grenoble that the BIS was unable to divert 10 or 15 kilos in seized more than a tonne. Another time, on the eve of a large dragnet, he warned his successor at the head of the Brigade de recherche et d’intervention: “You know he’ll have you used before, eh ? “ Two months later no different. “Do not hesitate. If you ever make a big entry, you think the police … friends. “ ” Sure, sure, “ retorted a young commissioner on the phone. “I know that such practices have existed at one time in the police, all police know, will defend it face police IGS. I have understood that following requests from Mr Neyret that these practices could still be ongoing. “
But Neyret these breaches of law were justified by the daily surveys. “Informants need an advance to infiltrate a network, he said. I was trying to put some flexibility in rigor “ Two options were then privileged to divert drugs. Or when entering, before being put under seal, at the time of its destruction. How far was this generalized system? Since 2004 all informants must be formally registered at the Central Office of sources (BCS), to clarify their status. But Neyret case, like others currently involving some police methods, shows that this framework of relations between cops and snitches is far from enough.
read also A more transparent game, but the excesses persist
“Now it is more villain than the other”
A meeting will precipitate the fall of the Commissioner Neyret . In late 2010, Gilles Benichou presents his cousin, Stephane Alzraa. At only 30 years, the man has the reputation of being a top-flight swindler, suspected to brew millions, thanks to the carbon tax scams (see page 8). Admitted to the commercial register in Israel as “international negotiator” in the areas of coal and oil, Stéphane Alzraa was convicted in France on five occasions between 2003 and 2011. This is his account now, that will enable Michel Neyret . “I wanted to be an informant,” he later explained to “beef carrots”, stating want “infiltrate the networks of financial crime.” A defense which did not convince the judge Patrick Gachon. On listening, woman Neyret, “fully aware of her husband’s villainous relations” as the magistrate speaking Stéphane Alzraa as malignant that “fuck the state” and “made in false invoices”. But Commissioner continues to protect him, asking his colleagues, magistrates and even Interpol.
Between Neyret cop Alzraa the thug, the limit is increasingly blurred. We now see them around a bottle of champagne in bars and nightclubs Lyon. Neyret and his wife are even invited several times in the villa Alzraa in the inland Cannes. There is also this stay in a four star hotel in Cannes in May 2011, paid in cash by Stéphane Alzraa, including masseuses. But Nicole Neyret not stand the escapades of her husband. “I wanted a healthy guy and now it is more villain than others, she complained to Gilles Benichou. But stop. He is obsessed by money, there’s the money, the money, the money. “ For Judge Gachon is proof of ” illicit relations maintained for several years with Michel Neyret his informants. “ The Commissioner fallen, he did not budge. It evokes some “blunders” but swears he always acted in the interest of the service. “Does A one day crossed the yellow line? No “ slice unsurprisingly his lawyer. The trial is scheduled to last until May 24
No comments:
Post a Comment