SHARE
COPY LINK

CRIME

French drug boss arrested in Moroccan hospital

A notorious French drug baron who skipped bail in March this year has been re-arrested in a Morocco hospital where he is being treated for a serious facial wound, security sources told AFP on Monday.

Drugs, bank notes and weapons seized by French police.
Drugs, bank notes and weapons seized by French police. Illustration photo: KENZO TRIBOUILLARD / AFP.

Sofiane Hambli, a 46-year-old Franco-Algerian, used false papers to check himself into a hospital after suffering a 20-centimetre gash following an assault with a machete or sword in Tangier, the sources said.

“Once he’s recovered, we’ll go to get him,” one of the sources told AFP, confirming information first reported by the L’Obs magazine.

Originally from the eastern French town of Mulhouse, Hambli is considered one of the biggest importers of cannabis to France and has a long criminal record, as well as a history of escaping from detention.

The man known as the Chimera was named in an international search warrant this year after skipping bail last March in France, having been accused of organising the import of four tonnes of cannabis.

The Parisien newspaper reported at the time that he made €2.4 million from the transaction, but never delivered the drugs to his
buyer “who is thought to have wanted revenge”.

Hambli denied the accusations.

He is also known to have been an informant for France’s anti-narcotics police and was involved in the import of seven tonnes of cannabis in a 2015 operation that was being monitoring by authorities.

One of his associates, Moufide Bouchibi, a 41-year-old Franco-Algerian sometimes called the “king of hash,” was sentenced in France to 16 years in prison last month for drugs offences.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

CRIME

French cinema boss on trial for sexual assault

The head of France's top cinema institution Dominique Boutonnat denied sexually assaulting his godson as he went on trial Friday in a case that has led to calls for him to step down.

French cinema boss on trial for sexual assault

The trial comes as French cinema reels from a renewed #MeToo reckoning that has seen several big names, including acting legend Gerard Depardieu, accused of sexual abuse.

READ ALSO: French actor GĂ©rard Depardieu to be tried for sexual assault in October

Activists have denounced Boutonnat’s continued leadership of the National Centre of Cinema (CNC), whose role includes overseeing measures to curb sexual violence in the industry.

His godson accuses him of trying to masturbate him during a holiday in Greece in 2020 when he was 19.

“I looked at him to find my godfather and that’s when I saw someone completely different… It was someone using me to masturbate,” the godson, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the court.

Boutonnat responded in court that it was his godson who had initiated the situation and kissed him.

“I feel bad about leaving an ambiguous situation, but to say there was a sexual assault is false,” he told the court.

He was placed under investigation in February 2021 but still reappointed by the government as head of the CNC in July 2022.

Training to prevent abuse has in recent months become obligatory for films seeking public funding via the CNC.

The CNC told AFP that the case against Boutonnat came from “the private sphere” and had no relation to its activities.

SHOW COMMENTS