The thirteenth “nice little evening between friends” stops at the toll for this Vendée dealer

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A young motorist from La Roche-sur-Yon (Vendée) was found guilty, Wednesday November 13, 2024, of “transporting drugs” and “laundering” by the Nantes criminal court, in immediate appearance, after having checked on the 10 November 2024 by customs officers at the Bignon toll (Loire-Atlantique) with two pads of cannabis resin under the front seat and 25 000 € in liquid stuck to his abdomen.

Arthur XXX, aged 21, was sentenced for these acts to twelve months in prison, to which were added two months in prison which had initially been suspended on October 16, 2023 by the Sables-d'Olonne criminal court (Vendée) for “offer or transfer” of narcotics. Considered “a repeat offender”, he was kept in detention following the hearing and will be banned from returning to Loire-Atlantique for three years.

On a financial level, this temporary worker who lives with his father had the €25,000 he had with him on the day of the incident confiscated and will still have to pay the same amount to the Public Treasury as a customs fine for his sole offense of “laundering”.

He will also have to pay two fines of €1,573 – the amount of his merchandise – for the offenses of “possession” and “transport” of drugs. The €550 which was found during the search of his father's home was also kept by the courts.

For these facts, the young Vendéen theoretically faced up to “twenty years in prison” and customs fines which could go up to “ten times the amount of the goods”, the president of the Nantes criminal court immediately reminded him.

A “white plastic bag sticks to his abdomen”

Arthur XXX had in fact been arrested at the wheel of his father's Clio 5, around 7:45 p.m., when he arrived at the Bignon toll and was going with a 20-year-old friend to “eat at a restaurant in Nantes”, he told the customs officers. Having “nothing to declare”, he was the subject of a “pat-down” which made it possible to find “a white plastic bag stuck against his abdomen” and carrying his “personal savings” of €25,000. THE 183.38 g of cannabis resin were then discovered by customs officers under the headquarters of the Clio 5.

“That’s a lot of savings for someone who is just a temporary worker at 21,” grumbled the president of the court about this “nice little evening with friends” which ended short.

The search carried out at the home of Arthur XXX's father will indeed make it possible to find a precision scale “with small brown deposits”, she underlined, and the geolocation of the defendant's cell phone highlighted twelve trips in one month from La Roche-sur-Yon towards “Nantes, Paris and Les Sables d’Olonne”.

The young Vendéen, however, had no “particular reason” for coming to Nantes since he has “neither family nor relatives” in the Nantes region, noted the magistrate. This young temporary worker “in the factories” also had no “business trip” which could have explained his visits.

His phone also indicated that he often visited rue Antoine-Watteau in Nantesa “known deal point” in Nantes. “The restaurant must not have been very good, because you only stayed a few minutes… Unless it was a Mc Do? » the judge mocked.

Arthur XXX had also made a “bit of a whirlwind trip” of the same type to Vannes (Morbihan) and had not stayed longer “even though there are beautiful things to see in Vannes”, the president once again regretted. of the Nantes criminal court.

“He begs for leniency from the court, but says nothing”

This holder of a professional baccalaureate in Commerce, currently “unemployed”, had therefore asked for “clemency” from the judges: his criminal record showed two convictions, one for “aggravated violence” and the other for “offer or transfer of narcotics”.

“Today he begs the court for leniencybut he doesn’t say anything,” replied the public prosecutor. “However, when we say nothing, it is because we have chosen the cause of trafficking… There is no leniency to be had for these offenses which are extremely serious: it corrupts society, generating serious violence in the neighborhoods. »

“When you're used to easy money, it's difficult to get up the next day at 6 a.m. to go to work,” added the representative of the public prosecutor's office. In these conditions he had demanded fifteen months in prisonthe revocation of the two months of suspended prison sentence in Sables d'Olonne in October 2023 and continued detention.

“This is not the typical profile of the offender: he has a marriage plan with his girlfriend,” objected the defense lawyer, Me Oona Ah-Thion. “It was probably his profile that attracted the people who asked him to do this transport. »

The friend who accompanied him that evening, who was “not at all aware” of his activities and who was “covered up” by the main defendant during his customs detentionfor his part received a simple criminal charge for “consumption” of narcotics.

The Clio 5 of the defendant's father – who works as a medical-psychological assistant (AMP) in a hospital – was also not confiscated by the courts although she could have been since she “contributed to the commission of the offence” had underlined the president of the court.

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