Gérald Darmanin wants to “hit” the traffickers “in the wallet”

During a trip to Marseille on Thursday, the new Minister of Justice also declared that he wanted to “increase the penalties against those who threaten and corrupt state agents”.

Gérald Darmanin continues the after-sales service for his ads. The new Minister of Justice, visiting Marseille, said Thursday January 2 that he wanted “hit the wallet” drug traffickers who now have enough means to “corrupt” state agents or threaten them. He also told journalists he wanted to “means against money laundering”following interviews at the Marseille judicial court.

The minister stressed that “prison sentences are not completely dissuasive for the biggest offenders (…), sometimes sentenced to decades in prison without stopping their trafficking”. The minister particularly mentioned “confiscation of ill-gotten assets, money, cars, real estate”in France and abroad. He thus announced that he would go “around January 20” in the United Arab Emirates, where certain identified drug traffickers thrive, in order to“improve judicial cooperation”.

“This issue of money laundering must be the most important, because we can hurt traffickers even before they are convicted”insisted Gérald Darmanin, recalling that“a law exists which allows seizures before a judgment”. This law passed last May already sought to improve the effectiveness of systems for the seizure and confiscation of criminal assets. “When organized crime has enough resources to have parallel telephone networks, to have financing circuits abroad, to be able to put money into (…) real estate, catering, (.. .) and to be able to corrupt agents or threaten them, (…) we are in a tipping point for the Republic and we must collectively wake up.”

The minister thus said he wished “let us increase the sentences of those who corrupt and/or threaten these state agents”. He declared his intention to give “instructions in the criminal policy circular to prosecutors so that attacks, threats and corruption against public officials are prosecuted with the greatest firmness” et “particularly condemned”.

Returning to his controversial proposal to strengthen isolation in detention “of the 100 biggest drug traffickers”Gérald Darmanin explained that he wanted to do “a sort of 'starter' program”d’“show apartment”as in real estate. “I note that when these narcobandits are placed in solitary confinement, a certain number of targeted assassinations have stopped”he argued, explaining that he had asked the prison administration to “give him the 100 requested profiles”so that then “we can show this model apartment, which I hope we will generalize to all those who continue their prison traffic”.