From the Var to the Meuse, from Guadeloupe to Tarn-et-Garonne, from the Doubs to the Pyrénées-Orientales, elected officials present at the Congress of Mayors told how they are confronting the scourge of drug trafficking.
In fact he didn’t notice anything. “I pass by these boxes every day, but without knowing what is happening there, without knowing what they are for”said, still stunned, Jérémy Giuliano, mayor of Val, a town of 4,400 in the Var interior. He finally understood “carousel” when 190 police arrived last May to carry out a major operation. Inside the garage, rented in the heart of the usually quiet city, police discovered highly sophisticated equipment for producing large quantities of methamphetamine. Fifteen people were arrested. “The investigators explained to me that everything had to do with the Mexican carteltold the council members. But how could a Mexican cartel set up shop here?”
It’s a question many mayors have asked themselves in recent months. Clermont-Ferrand (Puy-de-Dôme), Carhaix (Finistère), Béziers (Hérault), Nîmes (Gard) and even Compiègne (Oise)… Week after week, drug trafficking is eating away at parts of France, sometimes far from major urban centers, such as in Marseille, where the brother of a drug trafficking figure was just shot dead in broad daylight. Another tragedy that prompted Emmanuel Macron to convene a meeting at the Elysée, Tuesday 18 November, between relevant government ministers and those involved in the fight against drug trafficking.
This topic was also discussed in the halls of the Congress of Mayors, held from Tuesday to Thursday in Paris. “We really need help”launched elected officials, like a cry from the heart, during a roundtable dedicated to “the mayor’s place in terms of security”. “We are really facing a phenomenon that is happening little by little, region by region, analyzes Gérard Fillon, president of the association of mayors’ departments of the Meuse. In our own country, this started in Verdun, then Bar-le-Duc, and is now affecting smaller towns, such as Saint-Mihiel, Commercy… This is a topic that comes up frequently.”
“In Besançon, shots were fired in front of shops, involving Anne Vignot, the environmental mayor of the town of Doubs. This is intimidation, a mafia system. Drug trafficking is sweeping France, this is something very serious.
“We kill the younger generation, and what’s more, we threaten them.”
Anne Vignot, environmentally conscious mayor of Besançonat franceinfo
Faced with this scourge, mayors sometimes experience difficulties in ensuring calm in public spaces. Meanwhile, Jean-Philippe Bésiers chose to invest in video surveillance. “We already have around forty cameras, we have just installed six more cameras, especially to fight drug traffickingdetails the unlabeled mayor of Castelsarrasin (Tarn-et-Garonne). They will go into use at the end of the month. We install them in specific locations.” But security comes at a cost and the bill came to 72,000 euros.
Apart from that, the mayor of the city, which has a population of around 15,000 people, asked dog handlers to regularly go around and “bother” human traffickers. “I can tell you everything about traffic: schedules? End of day. Cars? We have the plateshe assured. One day a car was checked. Someone from town whose parents I know. In his trunk there was a scale for weighing narcotics.”
Many elected officials say the fight against drug trafficking requires increasing resources. Louis Aliot, Mayor of RN Perpignan (Pyrénées-Orientales), believes that the most effective thing would be to return police officers to the field. “We have a permanent presence at a number of points where drug dealers are destroying the life of the neighborhood. This works as long as the police are there. But hey, the traffickers go somewhere else”noted the vice president of the National Rally. He also asked for the possibility for Satpol PP to issue fines to consumers “to hinder ordinary people”. Lastly, he wanted to convey his opinion regarding opening various businesses in his city.
“Barbershops and night shops are certainly the most common teeth whitening businesses in our cities.”
Louis Aliot, RN mayor of Perpignanat franceinfo
Héric André also called for more resources “police officers who can intervene”. The mayor of Vieux-Fort, in Guadeloupe, was confronted “daily” about drug trafficking. “We are a coastal city, we have no borders.” But he only had to deal with two city police officers. “We need at least double that number. We were told it was up to us to recruit, but this requires sacrifice! And city police officers don’t have the ability to check identities or conduct investigations.”
“I am asking for help from the state to prevent such rapid progress. We must act now, otherwise things will get worse like in certain big cities.”
Héric André, mayor of Vieux-Fort, Guadeloupeat franceinfo
“We feel helpless, because at the Satpol PP level there is no power”stressed Jérémy Giuliano, mayor of Val. When his team discovered human trafficking, they had to call the gendarmerie to intervene. “There was a search, and then nothing happened. It took monthsregretted the council member. On the part of citizens, there is total incomprehension, the perception of complete inaction from the state. I regret the ineffectiveness of public power in this matter.” He also regretted the slow response to crime. “We arrest people, we summon them to court, but it’s only been four months. In the meantime, it just goes on.”
The mayor remains the chief judge of the municipality. And faced with the professionalization of human traffickers, certain elected officials “want to be trained furthersaid Gérard Fillon, mayor of Beurey-sur-Saulx, on the Meuse. We do it with associations that fight drugs, we study what drugs are in circulation. We organized a thematic meeting regarding this.”
“We learn the terms, we adapt, we identify elements of young people’s language. This allows us to identify things, to see what typical behavior there is.”
Gérard Fillon, mayor of Beurey-sur-Saulx, on the Meuseat franceinfo
In Besançon, Anne Vignot stressed the need for prevention, in addition to police action. “We must approach this problem from all angles”demanded the environmentally conscious mayor, who warned of the need to support parents by providing information and identifying young people experiencing difficulties as quickly as possible. “But what we are really missing are addiction treatment centers (HSAs), such as in Strasbourg or Paris, to meet and support consumers towards treatment protocols.he believes, criticizing the government for not granting his request. We need to address all levels of addiction. We cannot allow people to inject themselves on the streets.”
Selected environmentalists also complained about the reduction in subsidies given to associations acting for prevention. “We have to explain to us how we do without this structure”he emphasized. Because to overcome drug trafficking requires coordination of all actors: justice, police, prefecture, associative world… “If you isolate actions to attack the drug trafficking system, it won’t work. We have to put in place a system of governance that the whole of society has to deal with.”
