French intelligence uses the Lafarge Cement Factory for espionage purposes in Syria, says Spanish documentary

Madrid, (ST) – A documentary prepared by the Spanish state radio and television revealed that the French intelligence services used the cement factory, established by the Lafarge Company in northern Syria, as a cover for a network of spies it established to fight the Syrian state.

According to the documentary, a group of journalists managed to travel to northern Syria, accompanied by the investigation team, and revealed the existence of an abandoned cement factory owned by the French company “Lafarge” for the construction sector. Investigators and experts collected thousands of documents in Syria, Jordan, Dubai and Paris about the factory’s reality and the role of French intelligence in it.

The investigation sources stated that the Western intelligence services did not have any secret agent in the country in those years, and it was necessary for them to recruit (reliable sources) to rely on in collecting information.

The sources pointed out that the French state had been asking its intelligence services for several years to establish links and relations with strategic companies, until Lafarge was selected, whose factory became the first spy network ready to operate in Syria for the benefit of French intelligence.

According to the statements of Christophe Jomart, Director of the French Military Intelligence Service during the period from 2013 to 2017, the security director of the Lafarge group, Jean-Claude Villard, was able during the period between 2008 and 2015 to recruit workers in the factory in order to establish a spy network in Syria and Western countries and to relay on them as informants and agents to support armed militias.

The sources added that Villard began financing terrorist groups such as ISIS, Jabhat Al-Nusra and the so-called Free Syrian Army in order to undermine the government in Syria, and Western countries rushed to provide these terrorist organizations with money and weapons to use them against the Syrian state.

The sources pointed out that, according to the estimates of the French judicial police, the financing of the Lafarge Cement Company for terrorist organizations in Syria amounted to between two and seven million Euros. “ The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs was aware of the relationship between the company and the terrorist organization (ISIS) and its funding for it”, the sources added.

“Many executives and partners in Lafarge are now on trial before French courts on charges of financing terrorism in Syria, after public opinion discovered what happened, and this investigation revealed secrets that some wanted to hide, especially officials in the French state”, the sources said.

Raghda Sawas