The managing director of a company which distributes taser pistols in France is being held by police following revelations that Olivier Besancenot was being kept under surveillance by private detectives employed by his firm. Antoine Di Zazzo is a former police officer who decided that there was money to be made in selling the machine which discharges a high voltage electrical charge into anyone who looks the wrong way at a cop.

According to reports on French TV and from the LCR Besancenot’s phone was tapped and he was being watched by a group of private detectives who were also former police officers. In addition four serving cops are being investigated by an internal disciplinary unit. One line of enquiry is that Besancenot’s public criticisms of the weapon may have irritated company bosses and they called in some favours from old mates. Just like in The Wire.

Interior Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie has said that this sort of thing is “unacceptable”, presumably because they are supposed to do it in work time rather than freelancing. It would be much easier in New Labour’s dystopian future Britain where Alliot-Marie’s counterpart Jacqui Smith today announced plans to record every website visit and mobile phone call made in the country.