The new Minister of Justice Gérald Darmanin hammered it home again this Thursday. He wants to “clean the prisons”, and place the 100 most dangerous drug traffickers in solitary confinement in order to prevent them from continuing their trafficking or sponsoring assassinations from their cells.
At the same time, at Fresnes prison (Val-de-Marne), proof was once again made of the need to strengthen this famous seal between the prison environment and the outside world. According to our information, a kilo of cannabis resin, 45 iPhone brand phones but also 21 SIM cards, packets of CBD leaves, electronic cigarettes, screwdrivers and even decoders for watching Amazon TV were discovered there this Thursday around 11 a.m.
But they were not found in prisoners' cells or in a exercise yard this time. They were hidden in pallets of food, confirms the Créteil prosecutor's office, requested this Friday.
All the material was precisely in boxes of grated cheese, intended to be sold to prisoners via the canteen system. The pallets had just been delivered by Transgourmet, a food wholesaler located nearby, in Valenton (Val-de-Marne). The company supplies food to thousands of restaurants and school canteens, as well as numerous places offering collective catering, including prisons. When contacted, the company's management did not respond.
The discovery of the drugs and the iPhones was made by Fresnes supervisors. In view of the importance of the facts, the Créteil public prosecutor's office decided to entrust the case to the Val-de-Marne departmental judicial police service (SDPJ 94) and its group specializing in drug cases.
This is not the first time that drugs and phones have been found inside Fresnes prison but much more rarely in such quantities. In March 2023, a drone left a package containing 70 g of cannabis resin, an iPhone and a charging cable in one of the courtyards before being intercepted by prison staff.
In October 2022, a drone landed again in a promenade, with three packages containing four mobile phones, USB charger cables and two bars of soap resembling cannabis. At the end of 2021, a supervisor was arrested after trying to introduce cannabis resin into the establishment.
