Franklin jailed 6 years for Reunion-Mauritius zamal run
Mauritian Jean-Hubert Celerine, alias Franklin, was retried at Saint-Denis, Reunion on 6 June 2024 and sentenced to six years plus a 50,000 euro fine for cannabis trafficking between Reunion and Mauritius in 2017-2018. Extradited from Mauritius in April after a 2021 in-absentia term of seven years, he was convicted of complicity in night-time boat shipments run with accomplice Nono.
🇷🇪 Tribunal correctionnel de Saint-Denis, Reunion · Réunion
Jean-Hubert Celerine, alias Franklin, and Jeremy Decide, alias Nono, were at the
centre of a cannabis trafficking case between Mauritius and Reunion.[1]Both
men had first been convicted in absentia in July 2021 by the correctional court
of Saint-Denis in Reunion for their role in that network.[1]Franklin had then
received seven years in prison, while Nono had also received a multi-year prison
term.[1]After extradition to Reunion in 2024, Franklin was retried and
sentenced to six years in prison, a 50,000 euro fine and a definitive
territorial ban.[1]
Franklin was extradited from Mauritius on 2 April after detention for money
laundering and opposed the in-absentia judgment on arrival in Reunion.[2]His
retrial due on 2 May was postponed to 6 June because his lawyer was absent.[2]On 6 June he was again sentenced to six years after conviction for complicity in
detention, acquisition, smuggling transport and export of drugs.[2]The court
also imposed a 50,000 euro fine and a territorial ban.[2]
He was accused of moving large quantities of zamal by boat at night in 2017 and
2018 from the port of Sainte-Rose in Reunion to the west coast of Mauritius with
accomplice Jeremy-Desire Decide, alias Nono.[2]Investigators said that after
an arrest at Gillot airport in February 2018, about one hundred kilos of zamal
ready for delivery were seized from a farmer.[2]Nono, also extradited from
Mauritius, had been sentenced on 5 October to four years after contesting his
in-absentia conviction.[2]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
Charged
1
Prison
6 years
Fine
EUR 50,000
Agency type
Court
Cannabis
Herbal cannabis
Activity
Smuggling, Trafficking
Setting
Airport, Port or sea, Prison
Case stage
Sentenced
Sentence
Prison
Route
Réunion → Mauritius
Sources
L'Express (Mauritius)lexpress.muFRAvant l’expédition de Madagascar : Proximité avec Franklin d’un des suspects ayant fait la traversée Maurice-Réunion
The 6 June 2024 date is inferred because Le Quotidien dated 7 June 2024 says Franklin was re-sentenced hier; no separate judgment date is quoted.
No precise cannabis weight for Franklin's 2017-2018 shipments is recorded; the sources give only about one hundred kilos seized from a farmer and six stocks without weights, so no kg_seized is counted.
Nono's four-year sentence of October 2023 is a separate prior stage and is mentioned only for context; only Franklin's 2024 sentence is counted in figures.
The February 2025 Madagascar cocaine seizure of 16 kilos and arrests of Jean Benjamin Albert and Jean Lino are a separate non-cannabis event left out here.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in Le Quotidien de La Réunion: The Le Quotidien account dates the first conviction to July 2021 for zamal trafficking between Reunion and Mauritius for acts in 2017 and 2018.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in Le Quotidien de La Réunion: At the first trial, intermediary Laurent Mariaye said Franklin and Nono had taken delivery of six stocks of zamal between January 2017 and April 2018.
Customs officers at Roland-Garros airport arrested a 20-year-old man arriving from Paris on 10 September 2026 with 37 kg of cannabis resin and 15 kg of cocaine. The court later found him guilty and sentenced him to five years in prison with continued detention and a five-year ban from Réunion.
The Saint-Denis appeal court raised the sentences of three of four men who ran zamal from Réunion to Mauritius between July 2023 and April 2025. The former chief of staff of the Sainte-Suzanne mayor and a second defendant drew seven years each, a third five years; the fourth term stayed at four years.
The Saint-Denis criminal court convicted all twelve defendants in the Réunion–Mauritius zamal trafficking case on 12 June 2026, jailing former Sainte-Suzanne chief of staff Bertrand de Boisvilliers for four years. Laurent Mariaye drew five years, and investigators tied the network to 147 kg of cannabis seized aboard de Boisvilliers's boat.
The Saint-Denis correctional court sentenced a 43-year-old British former English teacher to two years in prison with continued detention on 10 June 2026, after customs found 16.5 kg of cannabis herb in his luggage on arrival from Bangkok. The court rejected his account that he believed he was carrying computer servers, and he also faces a 214,500-euro customs fine.
