Felix Bingui enters the glass field, close-cropped hair, blue sweater and white t-shirt. His face has modified for the reason that final photograph of him circulating within the press, courting from 2017. His options have aged, his muscle mass has elevated. Together with his gaze fastened on the president, he listens impassively to the reminder of the alleged info. He seems this Monday earlier than the seventh chamber of the legal courtroom of Marseille pour his role as presumed leader of the “Yoda” clana legal group established within the metropolis of La Paternelle (14th arrondissement) like its rival crew, the DZ Mafia. Between the 2 bands, the struggle may have been 49 deaths in 2023.
The one nicknamed “The Cat” shares the field with two different males whereas on the benches, 14 further co-defendants seem underneath judicial supervision. Two others are lacking, underneath arrest warrant, and one of many defendants can also be absent for this primary day. One after the other, typically masked, they arrive to the stand to calmly take heed to the fees. All are suspected of getting participated within the group, provide or money laundering drug trafficking. Particularly the community supplying the “La Fontaine” level of sale, within the metropolis of La Paternelle between August 2021 and June 2023. This oven, stamped “ the hit on Yoda », generated as much as 800,000 euros in turnover per day in response to the authorities.
“We’re influenced”
After a morning of proceedings, Félix Bingui, a local of Alès, returned to his private journey marked by an extended legal document. The 36-year-old man has been convicted 13 occasions, together with a number of occasions when he was a minor, for driving with no license, violent theft and fraud. A drift that he attributes to those associations on the time. “Within the neighborhood, we’re influenced,” acknowledges Félix Bingui. In 2017, he was sentenced to 4 years in jail for his involvement in drug trafficking carried out by the Carmes gang (2nd arrondissement), then he acquired two and a half years in 2019 for possession of weapons.
In jail, he explains that he’s stepping into the enterprise of buying, reselling and renting autos, imported from Switzerland. An exercise carried out from her cell, the president remembers with irony, which might have allowed her to build up a nest egg of round 50,000 euros, in response to her testimony. Then he labored between 2020 and 2021 in an O’Tacos fast-food restaurant earlier than deciding to dwell close to Marbella, in Spain, together with his companion and his three kids, now aged 12, 11 and eight years previous. And this, regardless of his ban on leaving the territory. “I now not preferred myself in France,” explains the daddy, who testifies to having been the sufferer of an armed theft at a fuel station in Romans-sur-Isère within the firm of his brother-in-law. A “laborious blow” which precipitated his need for elsewhere.
Life in Dubai and hashish dependancy
After a number of months in Spain, he separated from his companion and tried life in the United Arab Emiratesexplaining working within the concierge sector. In accordance with the heritage investigation, cited by the courtroom, Félix Bingui can also be the proprietor of a number of actual property properties in Dubai, together with two villas bought off plan. In June 2022, he units down his luggage at Moroccononetheless in the identical sector of exercise in response to his statements. It’s at Casablanca that he will be arrested in March 2024, whereas he was the topic of an Interpol purple discover, then extradited to France. Within the field, he mirrored on his a number of months of detention in “very troublesome” circumstances. “I used to be positioned in solitary confinement, with forty-five minutes of phone time per week,” he explains, as emotionless as ever.
On his arrival in France, he frolicked in Toulon jail earlier than being transferred to the Vendin-le-Vieil high security prison. Though he can do sports activities and actions, he suffers from the glass visiting rooms and the gap from his household. Since his incarceration in Morocco, he has not seen his kids. “That’s what was hardest for me,” breathes Félix Bingui. His voice is so low that the president repeatedly asks him to talk into the microphone. Depending on hashish and cigarettes for a number of years, he claims to have switched to digital cigarettes for a while.
« Distinction »
On this case, Félix Bingui denies the info, particularly this label as community head. “He doesn’t merely contest the info, he additionally contests the best way during which the investigations have been carried out,” explains his lawyer Mr. Philippe Ohayon. “I’m struck by the distinction between what is claimed and what’s within the file,” he continues.
The council additionally deplores that the sound techniques of autos and resort rooms, main proof within the case, have been carried out by a trio of investigators at present indicted in the Trident affair. His request for added info aimed toward having the law enforcement officials seem in courtroom was not accepted by the choose. The listening to is scheduled to proceed till June 5.
