It was a week of criminal chronicle where horror and banality intertwine. For a few days, at the end of October and beginning of November, tragedies related to drug trafficking occurred from one side of France to the other. A 5-year-old boy injured in the head by a stray bullet in Rennes; an 18-year-old man and a 22-year-old man killed during two attacks near nightclubs in Drôme; A 15-year-old boy died from a gunshot to the head in front of a kebab in Poitiers.
These events served as a trigger for a martial political communication from the Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, describing “turning point” the French situation regarding drug trafficking. A declaration of urgency, reinforced with new combined words (“narco-scum”, “narco-enclaves”), then announcements, on Friday, November 8, aimed at updating the legal arsenal to fight organized crime.
Was this fall week a turning point on its own? The statistical elements and the analyzes of specialized researchers, in reality, outline the contours of a situation that little by little has been getting out of control in recent years. Criminal organizations are expanding their territorial influence to exceed the limits of cruelty, in the context of a booming illicit market, driven by greater demand, particularly for stimulant products.
“The significant deterioration of the situation is marked by violence linked to the rapid increase in trafficking and a very high availability of narcotics”analyzes Christian de Rocquigny, acting head of the Anti-Narcotics Office (Ofast). He emphasizes, echoing the notes of the specialized services, that “This deterioration occurred at a time when cocaine was massively flooding the Atlantic coast”with seizures of 5.6 tonnes in 2013, 17 tonnes in 2017, 26 tonnes in 2021, ahead of a record figure expected in 2024.
Therefore, for more than ten years the influence of drug trafficking has acquired an unprecedented scale, reinforced, in the post-Covid-19 period, by the development of distance selling means and the rise of drugs. synthetics. “Parallel to the entry of cocaine, which generates record profits, new, more violent criminal methods have also arrived in our territory”continues M. de Rocquigny. TO “lever” progressive, already documented, which has found, in recent months, a particular acceleration as the protagonists of trafficking gain strength.
You have 69.86% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
