It is a beautiful villa of around 140 m² in the 15e district of Marseilles. It stands on a plot of almost 450 m² where there is a swimming pool and even a poolhouse, a shed for storing equipment. It is reached by the small impasse de la Discorde, a stone’s throw from the housing estates of the northern districts. An island of tranquility in an area with a bad reputation. This is where a couple of drug traffickers lived before their arrest and final conviction in 2022. The man, a legal recidivism, was sentenced to seven years in prison for transporting and importing cocaine. The woman, to eighteen months suspended for non-justification of resources. But, more importantly, justice confiscated their home, with an estimated value of around 500,000 euros.
This house is the latest jewel of the Agency for the management and recovery of seized and confiscated assets (Agrasc). Its board of directors must decide in mid-March on the social reassignment of the villa. Normally, it should be allocated to Marseille associations to accommodate battered women. Before that, it will still be necessary to carry out some work: the former owners have, in fact, removed the roller shutters, the taps and the electrical outlets… It must be said that in general confiscation is particularly badly experienced by offenders and criminals.
“virtuous circle”
The idea of a social reassignment of confiscated property has been gaining ground since 2018, when Italy offered to give France the Parisian housing of a mafioso, on the condition that it be reused for social purposes. The law of April 8, 2021, carried by the Keeper of the Seals, Eric Dupond-Moretti, who wants to make it a showcase for his action, later endorses the principle. Thus, he handed over the keys at the end of January, in Coudekerque-Branche (Nord), of the first confiscated and reassigned building. A plaque was even affixed to mark the solemnity of the event. The building was taken from a slum landlord and will be reused, following extensive work, by the association Habitat et humanisme, to house families. “It’s a virtuous circle starting from the seizure of the property from criminals until its social reattribution, said the Minister of Justice. This is the case in Coudekerque. The building is now intended for people who experienced the same misfortune as those who lived there before, but who will be able to live in decent conditions. »
“I went to see on the spot, in Italy, with the Minister of Justice, Marta Cartabia, how buildings confiscated from the Mafia were made available to associations, for example in the field of reintegrationhe says. If we hit the wallet, it’s not the same thing at all. It’s a real punishment. » Nicolas Bessone, director of Agrasc, agrees: “Those heavily sentenced confine their appeal to the penalty of confiscation. This is proof that the confiscation works”does he want to believe.
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