{"id":366237,"date":"2026-03-30T18:08:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T18:08:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/366237\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T18:08:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T18:08:25","slug":"murder-trial-opens-over-alleged-masonic-lodge-crime-network-in-paris-paris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/366237\/","title":{"rendered":"Murder trial opens over alleged masonic lodge crime network in Paris | Paris"},"content":{"rendered":"

Twenty-two people have gone on trial in France<\/a> on charges of murder and other serious crimes centred on a masonic lodge accused of running hit squads.<\/p>\n

Thirteen defendants \u2013 including former intelligence agents, soldiers and businessmen \u2013 face possible life sentences. Prosecutors allege the group carried out murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault and criminal conspiracy on behalf of a mafia network inside the Athanor lodge in the Paris<\/a> suburb of Puteaux.<\/p>\n

At least four Freemasons<\/a> from the lodge\u2019s roughly 20 members are among those in the dock. Other defendants include four officers from France\u2019s DGSE foreign intelligence service, three police officers, six executives, a security guard, a doctor and an engineer. Most of the accused, whose ages range from 30 to 73, have no previous criminal record.<\/p>\n

The alleged ringleaders are Jean-Luc Bagur, Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Vaglio and Daniel Beaulieu, all members of the lodge, alongside Beaulieu\u2019s righthand man S\u00e9bastien Leroy, accused of carrying out or organising the violence through a network of hired attackers. All four face life imprisonment if convicted.<\/p>\n

The case was triggered by a failed contract killing in July 2020, when two members of France\u2019s parachute regiment were arrested in possession of weapons near the home of the business coach Marie-H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Dini. They told investigators they believed they had been asked to murder Dini on behalf of the French state, targeting Dini on the grounds that she worked for the Israeli spy agency the Mossad.<\/p>\n

Investigators discovered a link to Bagur, 69, a business coach rival of Dini\u2019s and the lodge\u2019s \u201cvenerable master\u201d. Investigators say Bagur asked the fellow Freemason Vaglio to arrange to have his rival \u201celiminated\u201d for a fee of \u20ac70,000 ($80,600).<\/p>\n

Vaglio, a 53-year-old entrepreneur, allegedly acted as the intermediary between the alleged ringleader and a hit squad led by Beaulieu, a retired officer of the domestic intelligence service (DGSI).<\/p>\n

Leroy, the alleged leader of the hit squad, admitted in police custody that he and his associates carried out most of the Athanor mafia\u2019s assaults, robberies and killings \u2013 including the murder of a racing driver. Over time, the crimes ordered by the Freemason mafia escalated from petty revenge attacks to homicide.<\/p>\n

In one alleged case of industrial espionage, Leroy\u2019s gang is said to have assaulted a businesswoman in the street and stolen her computer. In 2019, the car of one of Bagur\u2019s associates was set alight after she uncovered evidence of financial fraud within his company.<\/p>\n

In 2018, the body of the racing driver Laurent Pasquali was found in a forest. French media reported that he had been killed, allegedly over an unpaid debt to associates of Vaglio.<\/p>\n

Leroy, who left the military to become a security guard, told police he believed he had been acting on behalf of the government. He claimed Beaulieu had \u201cmanipulated\u201d him, raising the prospect of him becoming an informant for the DGSI spy agency.<\/p>\n

Dini\u2019s lawyer, Jean-William V\u00e9zinet, said: \u201cWhat my client found terrifying is the fact that the key figures in this case \u2013 police officers, former DGSI agents and Freemasons \u2013 are precisely the people who are supposed to act for the good of society.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is unclear what evidence prosecutors will be able to obtain from Beaulieu, after an apparent suicide attempt in police custody left him disabled and with \u201cimpaired concentration\u201d, according to his lawyer. The trial is expected to last at least three months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Twenty-two people have gone on trial in France on charges of murder and other serious crimes centred on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-366237","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}