Lyon. “The Professor”, big drug lord in prison because of an incredible mistake

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Abdel Karim Touil, nicknamed “ The Professor » was finally imprisoned.

This Lyonnais of Tunisian origin has just been sentenced by the Bordeaux court for drug trafficking. Under an Interpol red notice, he was arrested by the police last March in Lebanon.

The epilogue ofa stalk of this drug lord started in January 2020, after the delivery of 720 kilos of cocaine to the wrong address.

15 years in prison for a mistake

Abdel Karim Touil, nicknamed “The Professor”, was wanted after a improbable error during a large shipment of cocaine in France. A stock of 730 kilos of white powder had been delivered to a company in Montussan, in Gironde, instead of Montluçon in Allier. Packages estimated at several tens of millions of euros for resale, hidden in a cargo of wood from Brazil.

A wrong delivery address cost Abdel Karim Touil a 12-year prison sentence by the Bordeaux court in October 2023, despite his absence, in absentia.

According to The World“The Professor” filed an opposition to be retried, following his arrest in March. It was finally sentenced to 15 years in prison last week, still by the Bordeaux justice system. He now sleeps behind bars.

The Professor had found refuge in Dubai

The 38-year-old Franco-Tunisian drug trafficker had already been arrested at the end of October 2023 in Dubai, after a visit to the United Arab Emirates by the French Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin.

But in January 2024, the Lyonnais had been released by local authorities. According to The ParisianParis had not completed the extradition request on time. Abdel Karim Touil, considered by the French authorities as one of the most important French drug traffickers, had thus escaped the Anti-Narcotics Office (Ofast) for a few more months.

His arrest by the Lebanese authorities last March finally put a real halt to the journey of drug lord. The man was imprisoned in Beirut, then extradited at the end of July.

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