the essential
Six men and three women, aged 22 to 53, were tried on Friday June 28 by the Albi Criminal Court for their participation in the drug home delivery network “Le Petit Albigeois” (formerly “Candyshop81”). Very compartmentalized and particularly lucrative traffic, organized from the Toulouse region via encrypted messaging applications.
More than a hundred kilos of cannabis and cocaine sold in a few months in the Albigeois region, with sales of up to €20,000 per day: the drug delivery network “Le Petit Albigeois”, previously known as “Candyshop81”, has established itself in recent years as one of the main “Uber shit” in the north of Tarn.
A well-oiled cash machine but which came to a halt, at least temporarily, with the arrest last month of around fifteen people in the Albigensian metropolitan area. Among them, six men and three women, aged 22 to 53, were tried on Friday June 28 by the Albi criminal court.
The result of a long investigation conducted since September 2023 by police officers from the Albi police station, in conjunction with their colleagues from the Toulouse anti-narcotics office (OFAST). While several delivery drivers from the network had already been arrested and tried last year, their surveillance work and the technical means used (phone tapping, vehicle geolocation) have this time made it possible to uncover the detailed functioning of the traffic and identify the main players at the local level.
The “nanny” lived next to the police station
The latter were all simple customers at the start, recruited by traffic sponsors via classified ads to become delivery drivers, order pickers, conveyors or “nannies”. Everyone received their instructions daily via a messaging application, such as Telegram or Whatsapp.
Thanks to convoys carried out at night, at least twice a week, the narcotics were collected in neighborhoods of Toulouse (La Reynerie, le Mirail, Bagatelle) or in other cities in Haute-Garonne. According to a female driver who is one of the nine defendants, the suppliers were always masked. Once they arrived in Albi, some of the merchandise was then dropped off at the home of a “nanny”, whose sole function is to store narcotics at her home. The woman who held this position for “Le Petit Albigeois” between February and May 2024 is a 53-year-old woman, under reinforced guardianship and who lives just 100 meters from the Albi police station…
The rest of the drugs were delivered by the couriers to “order preparers”, responsible for detailing, weighing and packaging the drugs before handing them over to the delivery men. This “work” was carried out in recent months in apartments near the Albi-Ville train station or in the cellars of a building on Square Michelet, in the Breuil district. Each of them processed several kilos of drugs per month. They were also responsible for collecting and counting the money from sales, which they then handed over to the couriers so that they could take it back to Haute-Garonne, to addresses provided by the sponsors.
During the trial, the lawyers of the nine defendants insisted on the social or financial fragility of their clients, simple “little hands” of the traffic, interchangeable and most of whom have a clean criminal record. The deputy prosecutor Matthieu Colomar acknowledged that the latter, “lured by the gain”, do not have the usual profile of delinquents but that they “acted with full knowledge of the facts”. All were convicted by the court (read below).
Sentences ranging from 18 months to 4 years in prison
The nine defendants tried on June 28 for their involvement in the “Le Petit Albigeois” network were all convicted by the Albi criminal court. The “conveyor”, a 42-year-old mother, participated in trafficking from December 2023 until her arrest last month. She played a “central” role according to the public prosecutor by going to collect the drugs in Haute-Garonne and by acting as a link between the different Albigensian “employees”.
She was sentenced to 4 years in prison, 1 of which was suspended with probation. With obligations of care, work and a ban on contact with the co-perpetrators. Another 27-year-old escort, who had started last January, was sentenced to a similar but slightly lower sentence (3 years in prison, 1 of which was suspended with probation).
The “order preparers” received mixed sentences ranging from 18 months to 3 years in prison. Here too, they had to provide care and work and were prohibited from contacting the other parties involved in the case. A 23-year-old woman from Carmausine, already involved in major cocaine trafficking in the north of Tarn, was sentenced to 30 months in prison. The request for a combined sentence made by her lawyer was rejected by the court.
The nanny under reinforced guardianship, who only moves with a walker and who needs daily care, is the only one of the nine defendants who was not placed in pre-trial detention until the trial. With a sentence of 2 years in prison, including 1 year with a probationary suspension, she is also the only one who did not go to prison at the end of the hearing, even though the public prosecutor had requested a warrant filing against him.
