PARIS — The former head of France’s anti-drug trafficking agency has been accused of playing a central role in the smuggling of tons of cannabis into France, the Paris-based Libération daily is reporting.
François Thierry, who until recently headed the main agency charged with combating drug trafficking OCRTIS (Central Office for the Suppression of Illicit Drug Trafficking) is believed to have collaborated with one of Europe’s drug traffickers, Sofiane H., who was Thierry’s informant at the time, and thus under his legal protection.
A man who Libération identifies as Stéphane V., told the newspaper that in the spring of 2014 Thierry told him to stay in a villa in southern Spain to help transit more than 19 tons of cannabis from Morocco to France.
While serving between 2010-2015 as head of OCRTIS, the equivalent of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (D.E.A.), Thierry was a frequent face on French media, often appearing with huge stashes of narcotics that had been confiscated by authorities.
Thierry, who was reassigned last year to an anti-terrorism unit of the French Interior Ministry, hasn’t responded publicly to the allegations. The Ministry refused to comment.
