GAULLISTS IN THE DRUG TRADE

When the Brazilian police picked up Christian David on October 21 on drug charges and later deported him to the US another episode was added to the sordid history of the relations between the Fifth French Republic and the underOn his arrest David possessed a small armoury— a 9mm Browning pistol, a Beretta fitted with a silencer, a Smith and Wesson shortbarrelled rifle and a quantity of ammunition.

It was almost seven years ago that a French police inspector carrying out an investigation in connection with the kidnapping of the Moroccan opposition leader Ben Barka, entered a bar in Paris looking for suspects. Instead he came across David-also known as 'le beau Serge'-who was wanted on a number of charges.

David pulled out of his pocket a tricolour card bearing the initials SAC-'Service d'Action Civique'-a militant and select wing of the Gaullist movement.

The police then allowed him to fetch his raincoat. Pulling a pistol from a pocket he shot dead one of the policemen and wounded two others. It is difficult to know for sure what happened to 'le beau Serge' after that.

What is certain is that a chain of contacts enabled him to get out of France and establish himself in South America in the drug traffic as part of the 'French connection'. But it was also a Gaullist connection.

Many cases have come to light in recent years which show conclusively that the Gaullist movement, SAC has close connections with the underworld and particularly with the drug traffic.

The existence of such a political underworld is not exactly a novelty in France where gangsters and politicians have often worked hand-in-glove. This was so before the war in towns like Marseilles and during the war the Gestapo made use of criminals to hunt down political enemies.

The 'Service d'Action Civique' was formed during the final stages of the Algerian war to fight the Secret Army Organization (OAS), which was opposed to independence. It recruited a miscellaneous crew of strong-arm men, former Gestapo informers and agents, a variety of criminal types.

They formed the fighting elements in what was ostensibly a wing of the ruling party, supported by officialdom. The red, white and blue card was a useful asset for any practising criminal. On arrest he would flourish it and hope that it would give him immunity-it sometimes did.

SAC men who stewarded meetings addressed by Pompidou and other Gaullist leaders were sometimes recognized by policemen not in the know as wanted criminals. When Pompidou visited Grenoble in 1967 he was driven around by a notorious brothel-keeper who was shot a year later by a rival gangster in what known as *a settling of accounts'.

Sensitive Gaullist politicians ordered a purge of the SAC about this time to turn out the more obvious gangsters. But it was far from complete. In December last J rear came the break-up of a blackmail ring organized by Charles Lascorz, known as 'Monsieur Charley.

Lascorz ran what appeared to be a prosperous industrial consulting nrm, In tact it was a front behind which he exacted money from businessmen, some of whom had themselves engaged in shady deals. When the time was ripe he sent round a number of 'debtcollectors' who beat the victim until he paid up.

Lascorz always carried his SAC card when on business, so did his associates. One of his friends was an ex-Gaullist deputy, Pierre Lemarchand, who played an unexplained role in the notorious Ben Barka The real 'French connection' was revealed in April 1971 when US agents found about 100,000l0f heroin hidden in a minibus being unloaded at New York docks. It belonged to one Roger Delouette who claimed that he had belonged to a branch of the French secret service the 'Service de Documentation • Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage' Delouette told American police that he had been asked to collect the van and its contents by his former chief in Paris, Paul Fournier. He also Ben Barka, kldnapped in 1968. Above: The 'Service d'Action Clvique (SAC), strong arm corps ol the Gaullist party, in action against demonstrators in France. claimed that he had been asked to pick up $17,000 in counterfeit US money.

The French authorities have tried to hush up the affair as much as possible and deny that Fournier was implicated.

Another former SDECE agent, Andre Labay, was arrested in October 1971 as he was about to leave for the US with a car containing a quantity of pure heroin. He had once been involved in a business deal with the former Gaullist deputy André RivesHenrys, accused of compliçity in a big property fraud.

In the domain of French gangsterism, which flourishes on drugs, prostitution and the protection racket, SAC men continue to play a prominent part. One of the biggest Marseilles gangs, that of Antoine Guerini, was antiGaullist and worked at times with the Socialist Party, which is strong in the town. After the death of Guerini and the imprisonment of his son, the SAC gangsters decided to force the Guerini clan to pay a 'tax'.

Last October, "tax-gatherer' Constantin Tramini was shot dead in Berre, near Marseilles. There have been other 'settling of accounts' since then.

Lyons has its own full-scale scandal following the revelation during the summer that a number of policemen were running the town's brothels under the wing of a local Gaullist deputy. The SAC men in that town are known to have sheltered Christian David when he was in flight in 1966.

SAC men, or other gangsters enjoying protection in high places, organized the kidnapping of Ben Barka in 1966 with the support of sections of the French police and secret service.

A rich and powerful underworld flourishes in France with the support of its political friends. The SAC provides one of the important links. The criminals provide services for the politicians-and are obviously prepared to provide others.

Their fists and their guns are at the disposal of the in power in dealing working-class militants.

Among those who know a lot about the activities of the SAC and the links between the underworld and the political world of Gaullism, is Christian David, now in the hands of the American police. Many of his friends and protectors in France are afraid that he will not be restrained from telling the truth.

November