Ex-French policemen on trial

MARSEILLE: Former police officers accused of stealing drugs, cash and cigarettes from criminals in the Marseille underworld went on trial Monday, with a prosecutor calling the alleged corruption a "cancer".

All but two of the 18 accused, aged between 37 and 60, were present at the trial’s opening when their lawyers predicted that the case against them would collapse quickly. Prosecutors say the 18 engaged in shake-downs of drug dealers and resellers of smuggled cigarettes, taking cannabis, money and cartons of cigarettes.