“I am terribly ashamed”: two brilliant students who recently moved to Nîmes receive drugs from the USA
Les deux prévenues, en plus d'une peine de prison, doivent verser la somme de 2 800 euros aux douanes. Illustration Midi Libre – SYLVIE CAMBON
Les deux jeunes femmes de 25 ans, brillantes étudiantes parisiennes venues passer une année sabbatique à Nîmes, ont également réalisées des logos, des flyers et des vidéos publicitaires pour le compte des dealers.
They do not have the usual profile of defendants found in the dock for drug trafficking cases at the Nîmes Criminal Court. One graduated top of her class in finance in Paris, the other has a degree in architecture and urban planning and is due to start a Master's in communications in the coming months. Both are 25 years old and have never made a name for themselves in the justice system. However, last September, they were arrested for receiving packages of drugs from the USA, which they were transporting between Nîmes and Arles.
Sextape, escorting and rape
A profile that intrigues Valérie Ducam, president of the criminal court, where they appear this Tuesday, October 15. “You are well integrated, you have studied extensively. How did you get there ?”, she wonders. In the defendants' box, the two young women who are also a couple, talk, with tears in their eyes, about a financial spiral after a family dispute. “My partner's ex sent a sex tape of them to my mother-in-law. She then decided to cut off our finances. And she was the one who paid for most of our rent in Paris. So we tried to move, but it was at the time of the Olympic Games. The rents were exorbitant. We were drowning in debt,” explains one of the defendants. At first, they decide to do escorting to pay the bills. "But my partner was raped and she attempted suicide…", the young woman continues, between two sobs.
Flyers, logos and advertising videos
They then left the Paris region and settled in Nîmes, “where rents were cheaper”. And that's where they were allegedly recruited by drug traffickers to receive packages from the USA. “But you explained that you also created logos for them, as well as flyers and advertising videos ?”, the president raises. “Yes because we were losing a lot of packages, due to the fact that they were intercepted by customs. So I was forced to do this for free to compensate”, she explains, acknowledging that, as a consumer, she also helped herself to the merchandise at times. A response that does not fail to make the president react. "You talk to me about this as if you were talking to me about a job as a cashier. You measure the seriousness of the facts ?". "Yes, Madam President. But I am not a trafficker", she replies, head down. “However, it is because there are people like you that trafficking is spreading”.
I feel dirty. I carry the weight of guilt.
In the defendants' box, the couple breaks down. And recounts the trauma they experienced during their forty-five days of incarceration at the Nîmes remand center. “I am shocked by the detention,says the second defendant, who has been quiet until now. I am so ashamed, Madam President, I feel dirty. I carry the weight of guilt“. Their lawyers, Mes Mélanie Bargeton and Victoria Morgante, are asking for a reduced sentence for the two students. “They are showing an honesty that is rarely seen in this type of case. Because of a family dispute between one of the defendants and her family, they find themselves without food, and without jobs because they are still students. “It doesn't justify what they did, but it explains the complicated situation they find themselves in” , argues Me Bargeton. They are sentenced to eighteen months in prison, twelve of which are suspended, and must pay the sum of 2,800 euros to customs. The six months in prison will surely be adjusted and served in a Parisian court, where they were escorted back after the hearing.
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