Story By: Joseph Golder, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
A Paris police unit facing some 20 investigations and accused of extorting drugs and money from dealers as well as planting them on “suspects” is to be partially disbanded amid widespread outrage.
The 150-strong CSI 93 police unit, that operated in the underprivileged Seine-Saint-Denis department on the outskirts of the French capital Paris, is facing numerous investigations by the Inspection Generale de la Police Nationale (IGPN), which is France’s internal affairs body.
French media report that six officers have been arrested on suspicion of theft, false imprisonment, transporting and using drugs, voluntary violence by a person holding public authority, and faking police reports. They are currently being held by the IGPN.
According to French newspaper Le Parisien, “10 percent” of the 150-strong unit could be involved but other investigations are still ongoing. For Le Monde, these charges are just the “tip of the iceberg” and dozens of other officers are subject to some 20 investigations by the IGPN.
There is also CCTV video footage widely published in French media allegedly showing one of the CSI 93 police officers who has been arrested throwing drugs at the feet of a man during the summer of 2019 before arresting him.
Two young men are said to have filed a complaint with the IGPN in June 2019 saying they had been illegally beaten and arrested. Le Monde reported that one of the men claimed police had thrown cannabis on the ground next to him before arresting him.
The men also claimed police destroyed a phone that was used to film the incident. CCTV is said to confirm the two men’s version of the events.
After the drugs were thrown at his feet, one of the men is quoted in local media as saying: “Then two police officers took my legs and pulled me back so that I would fall flat on my face on the ground.
“All the police officers then jumped on me, squashing me, asphyxiating me, strangling me, and hitting me and from that point on I didn’t understand anything anymore.”
Since their complaint, there have reportedly been many more over the course of the last year.
The CSI units were created in numerous French department from 2003 to 2008 with the goal of increasing security and supporting regular police during periods of unrest and to tackle organised crime.
CSI 93 was set up by then president Nicolas Sarkozy in 2008 who controversially suggested cleansing the minority suburbs “with a Karcher” – a company renowned for their high-pressure cleaning equipment.
The primary investigations are said to have been going on for a year and involved the CSI 93 being suspected of organised crime with their cars and offices being bugged and officers phones being tapped.
Le Parisien report that another CSI 93 cop is to go on trial in November for beating up a drug dealer. The victim claims he was “kicked in the head and tasered on his genitals at least three times” while being transported by van to the police station.
Yassine Bouzrou, the lawyer of the man who alleges police officers tasered his genitals, says it was “an act of torture.”
K9 units have also been deployed to search for drugs in police lockers, and this reportedly also includes searching IGPN offices. French media report that IGPN officers have found cannabis hidden near the CSI 93 car park.
The head of Paris police, Didier Lallement, had earlier announced plans to completely overhaul CSI 93.
But according to the latest reports, the CSI 75 unit from Paris proper will for the time being oversee the Seine-Saint-Denis area as CSI 93 is at least partially disbanded.
This scandal comes at a time when French police are subject to intense criticism and scrutiny amid allegations of widespread racial profiling, brutality, and racism.
Thousands of protesters have marched in the country’s streets in demonstrations that have on occasion turned violent.
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