a man sentenced to five years in prison in Marseille

The Marseille Criminal Court sentenced Lucas Tocheport to five years’ imprisonment for the attempted fire at a restaurant in Centuri, Cape Town. For justice, these facts which date back to July 2020 are part of the clash between two rival gangs with, in the background, the double assassination of Bastia-Poretta in 2017.

Five years in prison.

This is the sentence handed down on Wednesday December 18 by the 7th chamber of the Marseille criminal court against Lucas Tocheport.

Prosecuted for “attempted fire” and “criminal conspiracy”, the 24-year-old man was also fined 10,000 euros, as well as a five-year ban on carrying a weapon and traveling to Corsica (at the time of his liberation).

For the president of the jurisdiction competent in the fight against organized crime, this “particular file is part of the opposition between the Guazzelli and Codaccioni teams following the murder of Jean-Luc Codaccioni and Antoine Quilichini in Poretta, in 2017”, report our colleagues from La Provence, present at the hearing.

The investigative services present Lucas Tocheport as close to the son of Jean-Luc Codaccioni. Named after his late father, the latter – currently incarcerated in another case – is suspected of being at the head of a criminal team to which the accused belonged.

The facts for which Lucas Tocheport appeared this Wednesday date back to the night of July 19 to 20, 2020. They took place at the A Macciotta restaurant, in Centuri, in Cape Town.

Shortly after two o’clock in the morning, an attempted fire was noticed by one of the daughters of the owners of the establishment. The latter had been awakened by a strong smell of gasoline and had surprised, from her window, a man spraying the terrace. The latter then fled. A few minutes later, a car was found burned near the village.

On site, investigators found DNA prints, including those of the defendant (convicted in 2022 for throwing molotov cocktails during a high school demonstration in Corte). On the stand this Wednesday, Lucas Tocheport contested the facts with which he is accused concerning this attempted fire.

In his requisitions, the prosecutor also made the link between this attempted fire and the double assassination in Bastia-Poretta on December 5, 2017. Presented as figures of local organized crime, Jean-Luc Codaccioni and Antoine Quilichini had been killed shot on the airport square.

According to the prosecution, this double assassination was part of a revenge of the “heirs of the Brise de Mer gang” orchestrated by the brothers Christophe and Richard Guazzelli whose father, Francis, had been assassinated in November 2009. The double murder of Poretta would have been the answer.

The A Macciotta restaurant belongs to the family of the partner of Richard Guazzelli, sentenced to 25 years in prison at the Poretta trial last June. Like his brother Christophe (sentenced to 30 years in prison), he appealed the verdict.

For the representative of the public prosecutor, cited by La Provence, “Jean-Luc Codaccioni junior cannot directly attack the Guazzellis and therefore attacks the financial interests of their relatives”he declared in his indictment at the hearing this Wednesday, before asking for five years in prison against Lucas Tocheport. A sentence confirmed by the court judgment.

“It is a conviction which is based only on theories, on police constructions and on the basis of a file which poses more questions than it provides answers.”

Jean-François Vesperini

Defense lawyer

Contacted this Wednesday evening, Me Jean-François Vesperini, lawyer for the defendant, reacted to this court decision:

“It is a conviction which is based only on theories, on police constructions and on the basis of a file which poses more questions than it provides answers. From this point of view, I find the sentence severe. In fact we were only interested in a pseudo-context and this was also felt during the debates during which we did not really question my client about the elements of the case. We have swept under the carpet all the inconsistencies in the file and there are many of them to confirm a thesis, a police scenario. We will probably appeal.”

Last July, Lucas Tocheport was arrested in Calvi during a road check. He was sentenced to six months in prison for identity theft. As part of his indictment in January 2023, by an investigating judge of the Jirs de Marseille in this same file of the “attempted fire” du restaurant de Belturi, he was then placed under judicial control with a ban on traveling to Corsica. A check which had therefore been revoked following this conviction for identity theft. Since then, Lucas Tocheport has been incarcerated at Baumettes prison, in Marseille.

On December 6, he was also indicted, with three other men, in the case of the assassination of Marc Lafay on March 8, 2024 in Ajaccio.