Olivia Palin, 34 years oldis originally from Guyana. It was at the age of 24 that she left her native region to join the metropolis where, at least she hopes, her CAP (certificate of professional aptitude) in leather goods will allow her to work and earn her life. This is what happened at the beginning since she was able to work on a permanent contract, until health problems and severe back pain arose. She has to quit her job and ends up meet at the RSA. She has to live with €559 per monthbarely enough to pay the rent of the studio where she lives Chevreuse (Yvelines)a town in the southern suburbs of Paris where rents are not the cheapest.
Little by little, she accumulates rent arrears. In all, with the credit for his car and his furniture, she owes almost €17,000. There is indeed her ex-husband who sends her a little money from time to time, but the account is not there, he needs more.
Recruited on Snapchat to sell drugs
A day, on Snapchatshe comes across an ad from a man who is looking for a delivery person, man or woman, with a car and a telephone to deliver doses of cannabis. Her application is accepted but she will only be able to work after having sent her future employer a copy of her identity card and proof of address. Because in addition to deliveries, she must collect the amount of orders, which justifies the boss’s prudence.
The system is simple and full of precautions. On an encrypted messaging service, she received a photo of a car parked in Ermont (Val-d’Oise) whose registration was legible. It was behind her left wheel that the manager, as she called him, placed the goods to be delivered, wrapped in a garbage bag packaged in small packages indicating the delivery location and the amount to be collected. She picks it up, turns on her phone’s geolocation and sets off. When she is close to the delivery point, she calls the manager who alerts the customer of the imminent arrival of the package intended for them. All he has to do is wait for the delivery man to arrive. He pays, receives his package, the delivery man leaves and reports that he has just made his delivery and moves on to the next one.
She earned €4,500 over six months
Since May, Olivia Palin has been engaged in this trade. She receives €140 per day of work plus a flat rate of €50 for her fuel costs. She thinks it’s not very well paid, because she knows it’s forbidden. But she says to herself that ultimately “it’s not that serious and, given the precautions, she probably won’t get caught“. This job earned him around €4,500 over his six months of work: not enough to buy luxury items, just enough to improve his ordinary life.
She gets caught because of an accident
On November 17, luck abandoned him. On a secondary road that leads to Mortefontaine-en-Thelle (Oise)her car slides, she jerks the wheel and the car ends up on the roof. Hunters hear the noise and rush to help the motorist whom they see get out of the car, take a white and blue bag from the trunk and drive off into the woods. She will return a little later, empty-handed.
Meanwhile, the gendarmes arrive and hear the hunters who mention the episode of the bag that remained in the forest. This detail concerns them all the more as the motorist did not mention it. The soldiers combed the woods and found the bag which contained nine numbered sachets containing 108 grams of weed and 423 grams of cannabis resin. The driver is in possession of €380 in €20 and €50 notes, heavily laden with narcotics: cannabis and cocaine. The soldiers then searched his home where they discovered €880 in cash, 10.28 grams of resin and a joint.
Her ‘manager’ wanted her to hide the drugs to avoid prison
Olivia Palin is presented for immediate appearance at the Beauvais court this Wednesday, November 20. She tells the court that she is about to take training as a bus driver. Her placement in pre-trial detention since the day of her arrest weighs on her, she did not expect it, she had the impression of being useful, of helping people, of being of service. As the prosecutor suspects her of being capable, to earn more, of delivering harder drugs, cocaine or heroin, she says no. Before leaving to hide her packages in the woods, she called the manager: “I wanted him to come get me but he couldn’t, he had work. He advised me to hide the drugs so as not to go to prison“. “Don’t you feel like you’ve been taken for a pawn?» asks Marie Dufoyer, his lawyer.
For the prosecutor, “she acted in full conscience and risks doing it again to pay the big debt she has just contracted“. For him, all this deserves eighteen months in prison, including twelve months under probation with an obligation to work and a ban on appearing in the Oise. He requires six months in prison, with a committal warrant.
Sentenced to prison
Defense lawyer Marie Dufoyer asks the question: “who here can live on €559 per month? If she is incarcerated, she will lose her housing and her belongings will be stored until she is released. You have to support him to help him get through it. It only brought him €700 per month, not enough to live in opulence“.
Olivia Palin was found guilty. She was sentenced to twelve months in prisonincluding eight months under probationary suspension with work obligation and ban on appearing in the Oise and four months in prisonwith continued detention. All the seals are confiscated except his car, reduced to a wreck and for which the court does not want to assume the costs of destruction, nor of repairing and guarding the impounded car.
