The drug trafficker “Coluche” was arrested last February when he had been living in Marrakech for many months. He is currently being extradited to France.
He is a “figure” of Ile-de-France drug banditry who has just been caught on the other side of the Mediterranean. According to information from BFMTV, Mohamed Amine Y., 36, was arrested on February 14 by the Moroccan authorities at the request of French justice.
Described as a “major drug trafficker” and originally from Argenteuil (Val-d’Oise), this thirty-year-old nicknamed “Coluche” or “DZ” was arrested while he was in Marrakech. He was imprisoned pending extradition to France.
Two convictions in his absence
In March 2023, a European arrest warrant was issued against him by an investigating judge at the Pontoise judicial court and he was the subject of an Interpol red notice.
“Coluche” was then sentenced in his absence by the judges of the Pontoise court to sentences of eight then five years in prison in October and December 2023, in particular in the context of complicity in the importation of narcotics.
His name appeared during two investigations, carried out by the anti-narcotics office (Ofast) of Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine) and the judicial police branch of Cergy. These resulted, on June 16, 2022, in the seizure of a ton of cannabis pollen, whose estimated resale value exceeded 10 million euros, during a raid in a garage in the next to the town of Viarmes (Val d’Oise).
A coordinated arrest
At the time, five suspects were arrested, including a truck driver of Bulgarian nationality, in a commercial activity zone. But “Coluche” could not be located.
Responsible for tracing the trail of this drug trafficker, the investigators of the national fugitive search brigade (BNRF) of the national directorate of the judicial police approached their counterparts from the national security in Morocco, before finding his trace in Marrakech .
“This trafficker had already been convicted in July 2011 for drug trafficking. He is suspected of having laundered part of his earnings in the purchase of real estate in his town of Argenteuil,” explains an official.
Once back in France, Mohamed Yamine Y. will have to be retried in these two cases.
Stephane Sellami with Mathias Fleury
