While the war between drug traffickers is intensifying in Rennes (Ille-et-Vilaine), the Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, will be visiting this Friday 1is November 2024. Beyond the demands of the Rennes police, this is an opportunity to give a voice to members of the police.
Read also: Why is Brittany no longer escaping the “white tsunami” of cocaine?
“All territories are flooded”
For this gendarme*, in post for three years in Brittany, three axes explain this “major development. Today, all territories are flooded by drugs. First, supply networks have changed and diversified. Before, we would buy our product in an urban area like Lorient or Brest. From now on, large suppliers from Rennes, Nantes and Lille are setting up with their teams, their structures and their henchmen.”
Read also: Crack use intensifies in the West
“Worsening violence”
The second axis is the increase and worsening of violence: “We have seen the emergence of modes of operation of drug traffickers such as “Marseille barbecues” [technique criminelle qui consiste à brûler des corps, souvent dans une voiture, pour faire disparaître des preuves NDLR]. » The settling of scores with an increase in violence is increasing: attempted narchomicides in Quimper last April and between Quimperlé and Auray in January.
Busy Atlantic crossings
Last axis: the maritime sector, “with cases currently under investigation as in Brest, involving up to 300 kg of drugs. They could be cargo ships, small sailboats or guys crossing the Atlantic solo, but loaded. THE drop-off works well too: you abandon the bundle at sea and it is recovered with a code, like an Amazon package! »
In prison too
A prison source* confirms that trafficking has also intensified in prison, as in the Brest remand center (Finistère): “It really changed after Covid. The quantities have increased: before, the drugs were mainly passed through visiting rooms. Today, large packages are delivered by drones, even in broad daylight. We don't follow: they are always one step ahead of us. This increase in traffic generates more tension and violence. Before, traffickers had commercial agreements. Not anymore. »
New behaviors
During a trial in March 2024 at the Quimper court, several gendarmes, including one injured during a 30-kilometer chase in Finistère, described new behaviors, like this driver who had a rail prepared for him. cocaine by his passenger. “The fight against drugs is desperate, concludes a police officer from the Bac (anti-crime brigade). You eradicate one traffic, it pushes back two the next day, next door. »
“Taking charge of neighborhoods”
For his part, this Breton prosecutor in charge of the fight against narcotics has seen the context change in recent years with “ an increase in cocaine trafficking and consumption, insufficient police resources to truly tackle the problem and the takeover of neighborhoods by certain people, in silence and with the use of firearms.”
* For security reasons, the people cited in this article prefer to remain anonymous.
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