For three days, the Assize Court of Bouches-du-Rhône will travel a bit, to grapple with what justice has considered a bridgehead of the Calabrian mafia in France.

Antonio Magnoli answers for his participation in an international drug trafficking. The sailboat "Relambi" was boarded on June 8, 2015, off the island of Saint-Martin, with 79 cocaine buns on board for a total weight of 89 kilos.

The goods were intended for criminals domiciled in the Alpes-Maritimes, Italy and Spain, in connection with the same mafia.

Antonio Magnoli, 60, a native of Antibes - his brother Rocco and his nephew have already been tried in Marseille -, had raised the incompetence of the Marseille court and asked to go to the assizes. Nothing says that his choice will be happier upon arrival. He will however be assisted by two renowned criminal lawyers, Me Frédéric Monneret and Me Jean-Marc Darrigade.

The Magnoli brothers are presented by French justice as "a team of seasoned criminals". They are reputed to be very established on the Côte d'Azur, near Vallauris.

But for justice, Antonio Magnoli, even if he denied his belonging to the Calabrian mafia, was " particularly silent in his statements" and "gave no verifiable explanation, both on his movements and his associates ". Above all, the judge has so far considered that the project he says to be his import of fruit and vegetables from his native Calabria " is in no way supported".