A weekend of unrest and violence in Mâcon. If calm returns this Monday, January 20, “won’t it start again in the coming days?”asks the mayor (LR) of the city of Saône-et-Loire, Jean-Patrick Courtois, at the microphone of Ici Bourgogne.
During the night from Sunday to Monday, fifty additional CRS were deployed to deal with possible new excesses. Jean-Patrick Courtois wants to go further: “What I hope is that the laws which are applicable to terrorism, which have shown all their positive effects, are applicable to drug trafficking”declared the right-wing councilor Monday on France Info. He refers to the words of the Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau who, visiting Le Havre on January 13, assured that “we are going to rearm ourselves as we did 10 years ago with the rise of terrorism”.
On January 28, the Senate must study in session, after an accelerated procedure by the government, a transpartisan bill to “Get France out of the trap of drug trafficking” as well as an organic bill aimed at creating a status of national anti-narcotics prosecutor. “There will be a headquarters for intelligence, for interministerial internal security forces to better coordinate. There will be specialization of the judicial chain with the creation of a specialized national prosecutor's office. There will also be other instruments against money laundering, against corruption… In short, we will forge a new legislative arsenal”explained Bruno Retailleau, from Le Havre, about these texts.
Three public buildings damaged and cars set on fire
The chosen one always says to himself “remounted”less than 48 hours after the events of the night from Saturday to Sunday, in the sensitive Saugeraies district. Violence “against a backdrop of drug trafficking”specified the prefecture, citing the words of prefect Yves Séguy who visited the site on Sunday morning. A first assessment “reveals three degraded public buildings” as well as “three police vehicles damaged”indicates the prefecture. Seven light vehicles were also set on fire. An excavator and trash cans were burned.
-Calm returned on Sunday at 5 a.m. and the prefect lifted the operational center which had been activated at 2 a.m. “in order to follow the evolution of the situation in the presence of the mayor of Mâcon and representatives of the services concerned”. The prefecture issued several orders from Sunday 8 a.m. to Tuesday 11 p.m. to “the ban on the possession and transport of weapons, all categories combined, ammunition and objects which could constitute a weapon concerning the municipalities of Mâcon, Sancé and Charnay”.
A person arrested
For now, a 19-year-old young man has been arrested in flagrante delicto and placed in police custody, informed the public prosecutor of Mâcon Anne-Lise Furstoss. The public prosecutor's office opened a blatant investigation into the charges of “damage and destruction of property by fire in an organized gang, criminal conspiracy with a view to committing this crime, violence against persons holding public authority with weapons and participation in a armed gathering.
The investigation was entrusted to the departmental service of the judicial police of Saône-et-Loire which “is actively continuing investigations with a view to determining the exact role of the person placed in police custody and also in order to identify any person who may have taken part in these actions”according to the prosecutor.
