Overview

• The Versailles BRI arrested the 49-year-old in the 15th arrondissement after days of surveillance, intercepting his car while it was halted near Pasteur.
• Prosecutors say he had been on the anti-narcotics office’s priority list with two arrest warrants and had evaded capture since 2012.
• He was previously sentenced in Paris to 15 years in 2023 and 9 years in 2017 for large-scale cannabis trafficking offenses.
• The convictions stem from operations including a 740‑kg shipment tied to a hijacked helicopter and seizures of 322.62 kg in Vincennes and 569 kg in a separate import case.
• Investigators report he lived clandestinely abroad using false identity papers and shuttled between Morocco, Spain and France, and he now has ten days to contest the judgments.