“We are not yet a narco-state, but if we let it happen we will become one,” warns Senator LR Étienne Blanc

While the Ministry of the Interior fears a “Mexicanization” of France, the rapporteur of the commission of inquiry into drug trafficking confirms growing corruption and calls for action before things become “irreversible”.

“We are not yet a narco-state, but if we let it happen we will become one”warns Étienne Blanc, LR senator from Rhône and rapporteur of the commission of inquiry into drug trafficking, Saturday November 2, on franceinfo. A brawl against a backdrop of drug trafficking left five injured Thursday evening in Poitiers (Vienna) and a child was seriously injured by bullets last week in Ille-et-Vilaine.

Following these recent shootings, the Minister of the Interior denounced a “mexicanisation” of the country. Étienne Blanc does not seem shocked by these comments and assures that he “It's time to react”. If he maintains that “the fight is not lost”the right-wing senator nevertheless notes that “a whole series of signs suggest that things could become irreversible”.

Étienne Blanc thus ensures that we “beginning to see a range of signs that corruption is spreading” and that “the nerve centers of the State, public power, are beginning to be attacked.” This can be seen, according to him, “in the police, when a file is consulted and information is given to drug traffickers; in prisons, when prison officers let in drugs or phones; in customs, when information is given; and in ports, dockers move containers for a fee”.

Senator Les Républicains regrets that for several years “we allowed drug trafficking businesses to prosper”so much so that they “became absolutely incredible in power”. He estimates “the turnover of drug trafficking in France is 6 billion euros”. “With this colossal power, drug traffickers can corrupt, use service providers to kill, to threaten and all this is going out of control”he laments.

Étienne Blanc states that these sums “considerable” had time to be “bleached” and injected into “real economy companies”, “apartments and cars”. To counter this phenomenon, he puts forward one of the proposals made in his report on drug trafficking, namely “the injunction for unexplained resources”. “If a person who has an apartment, a large car or stock market securities cannot demonstrate that he acquired them legally, then his assets are confiscated”he explains. The senator considers in fact that the “the real sanction in matters of drug trafficking is the confiscation of the proceeds of this drug trafficking”. “We have to get these billions of euros in turnover”says the parliamentarian.

The senator from Rhône is also in favor of the creation of a national anti-narcotics prosecutor's office. This would, according to him, make it possible to have “a contact person who can carry out all services and operations” and who can have “authority over both the tax authorities, the judicial institution and the police to carry out powerful operations”.