Having fled to Morocco for 24 years, he is acquitted in France because his case file burned
Prosecuted for taking part in a major cannabis trafficking operation between Morocco and the Paris region, Ahmed A. had been sentenced to six years in prison. The Versailles Court of Appeal ultimately acquitted him after an essential part of the proceedings was destroyed.
The case began in October 1999, when an anonymous tip led the Hauts-de-Seine judicial police to a major network trafficking hundreds of kilos of cannabis. The goods were purchased in the Rif, transported by boat to Spain, and then taken by convoy to the Paris region.
Around ten suspects were arrested and tried, but Ahmed A. escaped the police at the time by fleeing to Morocco. According to Le Parisien, he was described in the proceedings as the network’s logistician, notably responsible for finding the vehicles, GPS devices and binoculars needed for the operations.
On Bladi.net : Morocco arrests Paris Kalashnikov killer after years on run
Investigators also attributed a role to him in organizing the imports. Conversations entered into the case file notably referred to 130 kilos of cannabis seized in Algeria and 700 kilos thrown into the sea by smugglers during a crossing of the Mediterranean.
Ahmed A. was finally arrested on April 4, 2023, at Orly Airport, nearly 24 years after the investigation began. Forewarned of his arrival, police arrested him as he presented a false passport issued in the name of Eddy Merabet. His return came as Morocco had become much less safe for fugitives wanted in France.
An acquittal leads to the collapse of the entire proceedings
The case had been divided between two courts. Some of the facts were examined in Paris, while the rest fell under the jurisdiction of the Nanterre Criminal Court. But part of the Paris case file was destroyed in a fire, making it impossible to rule on that first aspect. Ahmed A. was therefore acquitted in Paris in March 2024.
That same year, however, the Nanterre Criminal Court sentenced him to six years in prison for acts connected to the same network. His lawyer, Me Tarek Koraitem, challenged the conviction on appeal, arguing that the Paris and Nanterre proceedings were based on the same body of evidence and could not be separated.
On Bladi.net : Morocco Drug Trafficking Haven: 218 French Criminals Hiding
The defense invoked the principle prohibiting a person from being tried twice for the same acts. The Versailles Court of Appeal accepted this reasoning: the acquittal handed down in the Paris case, itself caused by the disappearance of the documents in the fire, prevented the proceedings in Nanterre from being maintained. The six-year prison sentence was therefore overturned, and Ahmed A. was definitively acquitted on September 9.
