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Boules habit blows cover of Swiss fugitive in France

A Swiss financier suspected of money laundering who was on the run in the south of France for two years has been caught playing pétanque.

Published: 1 April 2016 11:35 CEST
Boules habit blows cover of Swiss fugitive in France
Photo: Soren Oxenhave

The 62-year-old was arrested by French police on Tuesday in Saint-Raphaël near Fréjus on the Côte d’Azur, reported French newspaper Var Matin on Thursday.

Wanted by Swiss police for drug-related money laundering of several hundred thousand francs, he was the subject of an international arrest warrant after fleeing from Switzerland.

Since May 2014 he had been passing for a homeless man in Saint-Raphaël, and even took a bed in an emergency shelter, said the paper.

But he was caught on Tuesday after police were informed that a man fitting his description played the popular French game of pétanque – or boules – each afternoon at a local recreation area in the town.

“At the beginning of the week we received information that this man was often at a boules ground in Saint-Raphaël,” a police source told news agency ATS.

“After carrying out surveillance, we were able to confirm that this was the right man and we arrested him.

He acknowledged he was the subject of a warrant,” the source said.

On Wednesday he appeared before the public prosecutor of Aix-en-Provence, which will decide whether to extradite him to Switzerland.

 

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CRIME

French police search for gunmen after shootings in Paris suburb

French police were searching for gunmen after three people were killed in drug-related shootings in the Paris suburb of Sevran over the weekend.

Published: 6 May 2024 16:13 CEST
French police search for gunmen after shootings in Paris suburb

Two men were shot dead near a cultural centre in the Seine-Saint-Denis suburb, to the northeast of the French capital on Sunday evening, less than 48 hours after another fatal shooting nearby, according to authorities.

The victims of Sunday’s shooting were aged 35 and 31 and known for violence and drug trafficking, according to police sources.

One was shot in the head, with two suspects fleeing on foot, leaving the magazine of an automatic weapon and 18 spent bullet casings behind them.

The second man was hit six times.

The town of 52,000 people was on edge, mayor Stephane Blanchet told AFP, saying people were living in fear of another shooting.

“There is a huge feeling of fear, that it could start again and [that someone could be hit by] a stray bullet,” Blanchet said.

“If it had been a beautiful sunny day, there would have been more people outside,” when the latest shooting happened, he said.

In the first shooting, a 28-year-old man was killed on a nearby housing estate early on Saturday, with three others wounded.

In March, French President Emmanuel Macron announced an ‘XXL’ cleanup of drug trafficking in the southern port city of Marseille and other towns across France, including Sevran, where the drugs trade has been blamed for a spate of death and violence.

One drug dealing hotspot in Sevran was ‘eradicated’ in that operation, police said.

“We are aware that when we do that, we destabilise traffic, we create greed and sometimes there are clashes,” Paris police chief Laurent Nunez said on Sunday.

“But we will still continue,” he added.

Local La France insoumise MP Clementine Autain accused the government of abandoning some areas, and said the suburb, “did not have the police presence of other areas”.

Drug-related violence has often flared in Sevran – considered a hub of drug trafficking in France – with the then-mayor calling for UN peacekeepers to be deployed there in 2011.

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