Former boss of the fight against drugs, François Thierry was acquitted this Friday, September 27 by the Rhône criminal court. He was accused of having organized a false custody of a trafficker recruited as an informant.
The Lyon criminal court acquitted François Thierry this Friday, September 27. The former drug boss had been on trial since Monday for organizing the false custody of a drug trafficker recruited as an informant.
The measure was “procedurally irregular” but there was “no fraudulent intention” because it was “taken in agreement with the Paris prosecutor’s office”, declared the president of the Rhône criminal court Éric Chalbos, who is went against the requisitions of the attorney general.
Four years in prison required
Four years of suspended prison time had been requested earlier in the day. The former top cop’s lawyer pleaded for acquittal, saying it was a simple “irregularity”.
In his indictment, Advocate General Vincent Auger denounced a “police and legal disaster” fueled by the “megalomania” of François Thierry, against whom he also requested a definitive ban on holding public office, with immediate effect.
The former head of the Central Office for the Suppression of Illicit Drug Trafficking (Ocrtis), aged 56, has been appearing since Monday for “forgery by a person holding public authority” and destruction of evidence.
A delivery of 6 tonnes of cannabis resin
He was accused of having drawn up a false police custody report to justify the extraction from prison, in April 2012, of his main informant, Sophiane Hambli.
This maneuver allowed this big trafficker to follow, remotely from a hotel room, the arrival of six tons of cannabis resin on a Spanish beach, a delivery monitored by the police intended to dismantle the resale networks in France .
Only 1.9 tonnes were subsequently seized and, at the start of the procedure, François Thierry was indicted for complicity in drug trafficking, charges ultimately dropped, the prosecution having found no proof of embezzlement.
