On April 9th, at the break of dawn, the sky over May-sur-Evre in Maine-et-Loire turned blue with the flashing lights of the gendarmerie vehicles that descended on this small rural town of 3,970 inhabitants, located 11 km north of Cholet. After over a year of surveillance, wiretapping, and monitoring social media, 120 military personnel from various barracks in Maine-et-Loire and neighboring departments arrested sixteen individuals connected to a virtual drug distribution point that supplied drugs to the entire region and beyond. The majority of individuals involved were young adults, many of whom still lived with their parents. The alleged mastermind behind the network, Johan B, celebrated his 25th birthday in pretrial detention, where police found a rifle, 14,000 euros in cash, and a money counting machine in his home.
During the raid on the homes of the suspects, significant amounts of drugs and weapons were seized. Thibaut V. (29 years old) had 31 kg of cannabis, 615 grams of cocaine, and cutting equipment in his possession. Tom S. (20 years old) had 60,000 euros, a bulletproof vest, and a loaded Glock pistol at his residence. He was responsible for managing the money and supplying the delivery drivers. One key aspect of this distribution network was that it operated entirely remotely. Customers from the region placed orders online at the “Zanzi shop” and received their drugs through a delivery person. Payments were made in cryptocurrencies or in cash. A fleet of vehicles carried out daily delivery rounds that, according to the Angers public prosecutor, could generate up to 10,000 euros per day. For customers located too far away, drugs were simply sent by mail, even as far as Lithuania and Mexico.
Following their impactful raid on April 9th, the gendarmes confiscated 160,000 euros, 41 kg of cannabis, 760 grams of cocaine, and weapons of category A and B. Among the seized items were three Kalashnikov magazines and 134 cartridges found with Julien L. (38 years old), who was in charge of the stock and customer service. Six of the sixteen individuals arrested, the least implicated, have already faced the justice system. They all accepted a procedure of prior recognition of guilt and received sentences ranging from eight to twenty-four months of imprisonment, sometimes with probation or sentence adjustments. The oldest among them was 58 years old, while the remaining ten individuals, comprising nine men and one woman aged 19 to 38, were brought before the criminal court in Angers on April 12th. They were placed in pretrial detention awaiting their trial scheduled for July 10th.
