“Five years after its launch, the national anti-narcotics plan presents mixed results”… In the fight against drug trafficking, certain priorities of the 2019-2023 anti-narcotics plan have not been implemented, with “not very long-lasting effects” and without “sustainable results”, estimates the Court of Auditors in a report made public Tuesday evening.
“Five years after its launch, the national anti-narcotics plan presents mixed results“, explains this 90-page report. At the time, the “plan stup'” contained six objectives: improving traffic knowledge; intensification and rationalization of field activities; increasing the fight against the underground economy and the money laundering circuits of drug trafficking; strengthening the seizure of criminal assets; the development of international cooperation and the strengthening of service capacities.
Develop the fight against money laundering
Concretely, this effort was “interrupted”, judge the magistrates of the Court of Auditors. Particularly on the dismantling of deal points: the harassment of these places of sale has allowed, in two years, a decline of 25% in the total number, but remains today “stabilized around 3,000 points in total”.
In addition the “shelling” is difficult to maintain over time for several reasons: maintaining deal points in areas that are difficult to access by security forces, reconstitution of new points in areas close to harassed points or even reduction of hours on public roads devoted to the fight anti-delinquency for the benefit of contact with the population, notes the report.
The same goes for the fight against money laundering, “insufficiently developed”. The annual amount of money laundering from drug trafficking is estimated by the Ministry of Finance at 3.5 billion euros, the report recalls. Gold, the Anti-Narcotics Office (Ofast) only has seven investigatorsout of the 200 staff at central level, trained on this issue which nevertheless constitutes “one of the most effective levers to fight against trafficking”.
What recommendations?
For the Court of Auditors, the new plan, “which has not yet been finalized”, “will require tighter steering” particularly faced with a change in sales methods: 37% of regular transactions are carried out by delivery, via orders via social networks or the internet. To cope with these developments, the Court of Auditors further estimates, “the number of cyber investigators must be increased”.
The report also recommends “strengthen anti-corruption measures“, of “strengthen technological means of investigation” and of “secure port enclosures”.
