International Journal on Criminology Volume 3, Number 2, Fall 2015 | Page 30

Organized Crime Behind Bars
According to Bruno Hauron, deputy assistant to the chief of security in the
prison system management at the time, “the mobile phone is, above all, an extremely
useful tool in planning an escape—in the past, prisoners sent letters with coded
messages, or signals from the prison windows to their accomplices outside. With a
mobile phone, they can instruct the getaway motorcyclist waiting at a certain place,
report their position within the prison, or order tools to be delivered to them.” 18
The use made of the mobile phone in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier and in many
other prisons, reveals a far more serious problem—that at least one organized entity,
and maybe others in other French prisons, are working from within the custodial
system and radiating to the outside world. According to the staff cited above, the
organization must have benefited from internal complicity obtained, as one might fear,
through corruption and threats.
The dismantling of a drug trafficking ring in Marseilles and Salon-de-Provence,
announced on September 30, 2009, found that it had been directed from inside the
Baumettes prison. This was also the conclusion reached by the judge during the trial of
another drug trafficking organization in the 15th arrondissement of Marseilles, which
ended on September 28 of that same year. Once again, operations were directed from
prison using mobile phones. 19
For one former prisoner, Abdel Hafed Benotman, author of two books on his
time inside, corruption is rife in French prisons. “In a lot of jails there are teams of two
or three prison guards operating more or less like gangs in uniform. They start off very
simply, with a light touch, putting out feelers and slowly but surely building links and
contact networks... Others are in it for the fascination inspired by the biggest gangsters
inside. They can hand out any number of sweeteners—free girls and booze are always
on tap for the right guys in the bars and clubs they own.” 20 This, at least, is the story that
transpired from the case of two guards from the Ajaccio custodial center, convicted
in 2003, and who, according to the Public Prosecutor of South Corsica 21 had been
involved in “organized corruption.”
Now, where there is “corruption” there is also the corruptor, and the “organized”
nature of the said corruption implies the existence of organized groups in at least two
French prisons. When the escapes we have already spoken of are taken into account,
prepared as they were with care, clearly employing the necessary means, connections
and close coordination between internal and external agents, the conclusions that
follow are inescapable.
On October 9, 2004, “Le Gominé” a notorious gangster imprisoned at La
Santé prison, escaped from a clinic in Paris where he had been taken for a medical
examination. Le Gominé is an armed robber whom DNA tests have also implicated
in a number of rapes. In early September, a police officer who interviewed him with
18
Le Figaro, February 2, 2004.
19
Trossero, Denis. La Provence, October 3, 2009.
20
Le Figaro, February 2, 2004.
21
Libération, September 24, 2003.
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