French Police
6 October 2012. Twelve police officers in France’s crime-ridden Marseille were charged in court Friday on suspicion of corruption, extortion and drug dealing. The prosecutor claimed that there was “overwhelming” proof of guilt. Seven were locked up and five granted provisional release. The French Interior Minister Manuel Valls announced he was suspending them and terminating their anti-criminal brigade team. Cannabis and money had been found in their lockers in their office building in the northern district of the southern French city, prosecutor Jacques Dallest said. Dallest said secretly recorded conversations in their official vehicles were “very revealing” and suggested the alleged corruption could have involved more officers than those in court on Friday. The interior ministry said in a statement, that if the allegations were proved true they would damage the honour and the probity that must be shown by those who guarantee the security of the fellow citizens.
