Guadeloupean culture and traditions are in danger. Drug trafficking gangs are trying “to destabilize the foundations of local society”, in the opinion of Eric Maurel, the attorney general of Guadeloupe. We knew the archipelago was the gateway for cocaine to Europe. The magistrate also alerts us to criminal activities which are also developing locally, at an alarming rate and level.
The Attorney General of Guadeloupe, Eric Maurel, gave an interview to France Inter last December, in which he discussed the risk of a “growing control of drug trafficking gangs on Guadeloupean society“Their influence is growing, at the same time as their activities are becoming more structured, notes the magistrate, who fears the impact of what he describes as “mafia organizations“.
The fact is now known: the Antilles are drug transit territories, between a producing Latin America and a consuming Europe. This reality was the subject of a report produced by the Court of Auditors, on the activities of the anti-narcotics office (OFAST) and the security forces, assigned to the fight against drug trafficking, for the financial years 2018 to 2023.
Moreover, these anti-trafficking services regularly carry out seizures on both sides of the Atlantic. One of the last dates back to December 30, 2024, when more than 2 tons of cocaine coming from Guadeloupe were intercepted at the port of Le Havre. Two men are indicted in this case; perhaps they will lead to their accomplices, for a dismantling of the network by maneuver.
But the Antilles are not just transit sites, warns Eric Maurel: traffickers are developing a local cocaine market. Local gangs are created, organized, deployed locally, he asserts, citing in particular the “Section Criminal”.
In addition to drug cases, these gangs are behind numerous cases of armed robbery, gold trafficking, and even arms trafficking, which are all sources of financial contributions.
Precisely, the increase in crime calls out to all legal actors in the Guadeloupean archipelago, such as the public prosecutor of Pointe-à-Pitre Caroline Calbo. “In Guadeloupe, there are weapons absolutely everywhere, and we see kids of thirteen, fourteen years old, walking in the streets with firearms.“, explains Eric Maurel.
Criminals, whose gangs are increasingly structured, are then able to integrate associative and charitable structures, acquire businesses, or even find a place in the artistic world of urban music. . all this with the aim of laundering their dirty money, buying social virginity and approaching young people who are easy to influence.
“These organizations have branches in mainland France, in Germany, almost everywhere in Europe (…) they have links with criminal organizations in the Caribbean Sea“, declared the Attorney General of Guadeloupe in the columns of our colleagues.
This situation results in an increase in precariousness in Guadeloupe. More and more crack users, in particular, are wandering the streets, suffering from medical, psychiatric and social problems.
But these wandering souls are only the tree that hides a forest of consumers from all levels of society, adds the magistrate. The latter announces that the police, gendarmes and customs officers regularly carry out significant seizures of goods intended for the local market; he talks about quantity of cocaine “out of proportion to the population” from Guadeloupe, but also from Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthélemy.
Extreme vigilance and a collective response are required. They are the responsibility of the judicial authorities, but also of the public and political authorities and of each citizen. For Eric Maurel, Guadeloupe is “at the crossroads“.
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