Michel Neyret, 55, the bouffant-haired and charismatic Lyon detective, was arrested at home along with his wife and is being held in custody.
Michel is suspected of paying off his informants with batches of confiscated drugs; police claim that Michel then worked with the criminals to resell the products. He is being questioned about corruption, international drugs trafficking and money-laundering. Michel, however, is regarded as a hero for his success in cutting drug crime and stopping jewelery heists in the Lyon area. He appears regularly in the media to talk about Lyon's success in busting crime; he was also a script adviser on a recent feature film about Lyon gang crime. Three other senior officers were also arrested in swoops from Lyon to Grenoble and the investigation spread to Cannes on the French riviera. Others linked to organized crime were in Lyon and Cannes including a man in his 30s believed to have provided Michel with luxury cars, including a Ferrari and a Rolls Royce.
Judges working on the case said they were investigating links between the police and French organized crime as well as potentially the Italian mafia. The trafficking is said to have involved hard drugs transported from South America, linked to a Paris-region cocaine ring dismantled by police last November. Judges are investigating Swiss bank accounts allegedly used to channel profits. Michel and his lawyers contest all the allegations. Police all over France were stupefied at the arrests.
If a web of corruption is uncovered at the top of the French force, it would be a major scandal. The interior minister Claude Gueant said that if the allegations are true, it would be "immensely painful" for the French police.
The investigation comes just as Nicolas Sarkozy's inner-circle has been hit by a series of political party-funding corruption investigations - including contributions from the L'Oreal heiress Lilianne Bettencourt who a judge has ruled to be suffering dementia and Alzheimers and incapable of making decisions - putting the country in a state of soul-searching about sleaze.
Cara - Tuesday
Isn't it amazing, Cara, how some of the dirtiest cops look terrific on paper? They pull more quality arrests than their peers because they're paid not only for protection but for shutting down the competition. Great deal: Glory and the cash.
ReplyDeleteFolks I knew who hung around with the cops involved in the NYC filming of "The French Connection" (released 1971) were not surprised when it later came out that all the drugs seized in that famous 1962 bust had been stolen from the NYPD property room.
Viva [fill in the blank]!!
To drag out the oft used statement, "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely", and apply it to this case is too easy. The police have the power to investigate and arrest but too many don't have the power to step back from the temptation offered by the kind of money that comes from selling drugs.
ReplyDeleteI imagine that the police in France are no better paid than the police in any other country. The drug squad loses cops to drugs and to money much more often than is reported. How does an undercover detective pretend to be a dealer, most of whom sell drugs to pay for their own addictions, without the necessity of sampling some of the product?
Michel, if guilty, has more than a few fellow-travelers across the world. He must have money because he clearly uses the same hairstylist as Donald Trump.
Well, I think this is pretty normal stuff. The police in my big urban city were also under scrutiny. Several were arrested yesterday in a parking-ticket scam.
ReplyDeleteL'Oreal donations should embarass the heck out of Sarkozy for other reasons. I believe the founders were supporters of the Nazis and participated in some pretty violent acts. Someone wrote a book about those connections.
kathy d. yes I read that book and it put me off of buying L'Oreal for years.
ReplyDeleteStill try not to buy 'her' products...cop corruption isn't new but as Beth says it COSTS to use Trump's stylist :) nice one Beth :)! Cara