“Victory against narcobanditism,” the Minister of Justice, Gérald Darmanin, congratulated on X.
“Minister of the Interior, I obtained the arrest in Morocco of one of the biggest drug traffickers in our country, Félix Bingui, known as +Le Chat+,” he recalled.
“Today, as Minister of Justice, I very sincerely thank the Moroccan authorities for having initiated the extradition process, which will finally allow French justice to try him,” he added.
According to one of the sources close to the matter, upon his arrival at Place Vendôme, the minister worked “discreetly” with his Moroccan counterpart to obtain this extradition agreement.
The alleged leader of the “Yoda” clan was arrested on March 8 in Casablanca on an arrest warrant from a Marseille investigating judge for “importing narcotics in an organized gang, transport, detention, acquisition, transfer of narcotics, association of criminals (…) laundering and non-proof of resources”.
In April 2024, during a hearing at the Rabat Court of Cassation, he agreed to be extradited to France.
“Mr. Bingui has accepted his extradition and we hope that the magistrates responsible for the case will approach the subject with serenity and complete independence, while respecting the rights of the defense”, commented to AFP his lawyer, Me Philippe Ohayon .
Félix Bingui, who spent his entire “career” in trafficking in Marseille, regularly traveled back and forth to Morocco until the outbreak, in February 2023, of a “war” with the rival “DZ Mafia” gang. , the moment from which he had no longer left this Maghreb country.
This territorial war for control of juicy deal points – up to 80,000 euros in daily turnover in certain places – between the “Yoda” clan and the “DZ Mafia” group has bloodied France’s second city.
-In 2023, 49 deaths linked to drug trafficking were recorded in the Marseille city, including seven minors, which was a record.
In 2024, the number of these narchomicides has decreased significantly, reaching 24.
This announcement comes while Gérald Darmanin is traveling to the United Arab Emirates, where several other network heads have found refuge, with the aim of strengthening judicial cooperation, particularly in the fight against drug traffickers.
An extradition agreement between the Emirates and France was signed in 2007, but only a handful of people have been extradited.
The Franco-Algerian Abdelkader Bouguettaia, alias “Bibi”, arrested for the first time at the end of 2023, released then arrested again, is awaiting a decision concerning his extradition.
Already sentenced in his absence to nine years in prison in France in 2023 for the importation of a container containing 599 kilos of cocaine intercepted in Antwerp, he is suspected of being the “organizer” of the importation of 2.5 tons of cocaine which were to be delivered to Le Havre.
Another drug trafficker, Abdel Karim Touil, was also arrested in Dubai and then released, and managed to reach Lebanon, where he was arrested again. He was extradited to France in July.
