Eight tons distributed for nearly a million euros between Israel, France and the Netherlands via a network recently tried in Paris: khat and its chewing leaves, a little-known narcotic, generates a well-established international traffic.
The Paris Criminal Court has just sentenced six men in this case - born in Somalia, Ethiopia and Israel - to prison sentences of up to five years, two of which were suspended. They were found guilty of importing, exporting and trafficking this euphoric product banned in France, as in most European countries.
Beyond this issue, Gilbert Beltran, interregional director of customs in Parisian airports, describes for AFP "a regular traffic with channels that are rather well organized, coming from khat production countries or countries where khat is legal". Because "it is not considered everywhere as a narcotic product", he emphasizes.
It is a plant that is chewed "either in a spirit of relaxation or to get to work," explains to AFP Céline Lesourd, a French anthropologist notably recognized for her work on khat in Ethiopia. Consumption is authorized there and very widespread, as in a large part of East Africa, where the shrub mainly grows, and in the southwest of the Arabian Peninsula.
In Ethiopia, the leaves are "chewed on any occasion, a wedding, a mourning, a religious festival, it's really a time for reunions, for discussions," continues the researcher who wrote "Power khat" (Presses universitaires de France). "Elsewhere, it's a niche consumption, really nestled in the diasporas," particularly East African ones.
– Picking and cocktails –
Paris airports, especially Charles-De-Gaulle, are the main gateways for khat in France: 4.9 tonnes were seized there in 2023 out of the 7.2 tonnes intercepted in France by customs, the latest data available. For comparison, 12 tonnes of cocaine and 69.6 tonnes of cannabis were seized by customs in France in 2023.
Transport by plane - 25 kilos per suitcase in the case judged this week in Paris - is preferred, because the leaves must ideally be chewed within 24 hours of picking, the effects then fading, according to Céline Lesourd.
Traffickers "bet" on the fact that a mule "among hundreds of travelers, it can pass," Gilbert Beltran says. Or "we lie to the mules by telling them 'it's legal here'," he explains.
"I didn't know it was illegal in France," a TikToker known in Israel, one of the mules arrested by the police on March 14, 2023 during the raid in the Paris region that led to the trial, assured the press in her country. In Israel, khat is legal. "They even make cocktails with it, a must-have for certain evenings in Jerusalem," says Céline Lesourd.
– TikTokeuse and tachycardia –
According to the sources of the trial held in Paris, nine people were arrested in flagrante delicto, putting an end to an illicit trade that had been going on for almost eight months since 2022.
Mules were flying out of Israel with suitcases full of these shrub leaves. The cargo was delivered to the Paris region, bound for the French capital, the Netherlands, or even Belgium.
According to the fifty or so convoys traced (nearly 300 suitcases in eight months, at the rate of two commercial flights per week), the total traffic was estimated at eight tons. With a global turnover projection of between 800,000 and 1.6 million euros. This is a far cry from the 10-kilo postal packages seized episodically, which the French regional press reports on.
The TikTok star and two other Israeli mules were not part of the recent Paris trial, having previously pleaded guilty, receiving sentences that included house arrest under electronic surveillance and suspended sentences.
The resale of khat shipments by traffickers ranged from 20 to 40 euros for 200 grams, a quantity corresponding to a bouquet and one or two shots.
"As it is a psychostimulant, you have risks of tachycardia, high blood pressure, as with all amphetamines there can be somatic damage," warns Hervé Martini, an expert at the Addictions France association, to AFP.
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