the former narcotics boss, François Thierry, acquitted

The attorney general, who had requested four years, denounced a “police and legal catastrophe” fueled by the “megalomania” of François Thierry.

François Thierry, former drug boss, was acquitted this Friday in Lyon in a trial relating to fictitious police custody in 2012, involving a drug trafficker recruited as an informer. The Rhône criminal court judged the procedure “irregular”, but without “fraudulent intent”, because it was taken “in agreement with the Paris prosecutor’s office”, according to the president of the court, Éric Chalbos. This decision goes against the requisitions of the attorney general, who had requested a four-year suspended prison sentence and a definitive ban on holding public office.

Coordinated drug delivery

François Thierry, aged 56, former head of the Central Office for the Suppression of Illicit Drug Trafficking (Ocrtis), was accused of “forgery by a person holding public authority” and destruction of evidence. He was accused of having drawn up a false police custody report to justify the extraction from prison of his informant, Sophiane Hambli, in April 2012. This action would have enabled Thierry to coordinate, remotely, a delivery of drug.

The commissioner acknowledged the facts, arguing that the decision had been taken in consultation with the Paris prosecutor’s office, although these magistrates denied having been informed of a fictitious investigation. Thierry risked up to fifteen years of criminal imprisonment for these acts, which are part of a vast affair surrounding the methods of Ocrtis, which he directed between 2010 and 2016.

Case of the seizure of seven tonnes of cannabis

François Thierry is also indicted in another part of the case, investigated in Bordeaux, concerning the record seizure of seven tonnes of cannabis in Paris in 2015. The investigation revealed that the drug had been introduced into France as part of of a “supervised delivery” organized by Octris, with the help of Sophiane Hambli. Thierry is suspected of having facilitated the importation of this merchandise without fully informing the judicial authorities. This scandal led to the dissolution of Octris, replaced in 2019 by Ofast (Anti-Narcotics Office).