Rabat – A Moroccan national was sentenced to 10 years in prison in a French court on Friday after being convicted of heading a drug trafficking ring.
The convicted Moroccan national is allegedly on the run from French authorities and currently resides in Morocco, according to French media.
The 33-year-old male was sentenced to the maximum prison sentence for the charges given that are considered of “particular dangerousness.” He was also sentenced to pay a fine of €2 million, reports indicate.
The case, largely referred to in French press as “the trial of the Boute-en-Train housing estate,” includes 11 other men and one woman, aged between 25 and 39, who are all undergoing trial for eight days for trafficking cannabis and cocaine in 2020 and 2021 in two French cities.
The cartel operated a “drug supermarket” at the gates of Paris, open 24 hours a day. The criminal acts were “the most successful version of urban trafficking,” according to a French prosecutor.
The Moroccan national is also accused of murdering the head of a rival clan in 2019, but he continues to escape French justice despite the multiple arrest warrants against him.
Despite his absence, “he’s everywhere in the case, he’s everywhere at the hearing,” noted prosecutor Edouard Le Boulanger in his closing remarks.
“As soon as there is a question of the Zouhairi family, everyone is silent,” Le Boulanger said.
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