The unmarked cars registered in Bouches-du-Rhône did not go unnoticed early yesterday morning in front of the home of the mayor of Menton.
Yves Juhel was arrested and taken to the Auvare barracks, where he was placed in police custody, according to a source close to the case.
According to another source, his home and the town hall were searched. A raid during which a dozen other people suffered the same fate, including his wife.
At the same time, on the other side of the Mediterranean, according to a police source, Mathieu Messina, the former head of the ports of Menton, former deputy in charge of Finances of the City, was also arrested and taken into custody in Corsica.
Extended police custody
Last night, the hearing of the mayor of Menton was adjourned around 6pm. But the investigators are not finished with him. Yves Juhel was supposed to sleep in Auvare.
And her hearing is due to resume in the morning. As for Mrs Juhel, she was released on Tuesday evening.
Some of the people arrested could be brought before an investigating judge in Marseille during the day to face charges.
Menton ports affair
These police custody cases are part of the case of alleged embezzlement and alleged money laundering in the case of SPL, the local public company for the ports of Menton.
Mathieu Messina is suspected of having embezzled more than 700,000 euros from the Ports’ accounts in suspicious and lavish expenses, revealed in a damning audit: hotels, travel, clothing, luxury leather goods, caviar, truffles, champagne…
Several reports to the prosecutor
Reports had been made to the public prosecutor of Nice, from October 2023.
“The facts reported, which may in particular be classified as embezzlement of public funds, are the subject of investigations conducted by the Nice judicial police service,” Damien Martinelli had indicated.
The investigation opened for embezzlement of public funds, abuse of corporate assets and money laundering is now in the hands of the Jirs of Marseille: the jurisdiction specializing in major financial crime.
Financing the 2022 campaign
Investigators are also seeking to determine whether candidate Juhel benefited from the SPL, while the financial agent during the 2022 municipal elections is increasing alerts on outstanding campaign invoices?
“The campaign overruns were paid by the ports” swore three different sources, very close to the case, when the political-financial scandal broke. Yves Juhel has always fiercely defended himself against it.
His lawyer, Philippe Soussi, insists: “I refrain from making any comments on current police custody, except to remind everyone of the principle of the presumption of innocence.”
The opposition’s revolt is being organized
Stéphanie Jacquot-Maurin, former deputy mayor and former vice-president of Carf, the urban community of the French Riviera, now a municipal councillor in the opposition to Yves Juhel, challenges the other elected officials.
“I call on my colleagues on the municipal council to dissociate themselves from the mayor of Menton, even if, of course, the presumption of innocence exists,” begins the elected official who is one of those who reported the matter to the courts in the “Messina” case.
Stéphanie Jacquot, daughter of François Jacquot, former secretaries of the Friends of Yves Juhel and “initiator of articles 40 on campaign accounts”, turns to Hugues Moutouh: “I believe that the mayor no longer has a place in managing the city and I am asking the Prefect to set up a special delegation so that Menton can regain its serenity.”
