Four police cars set on fire in retaliation

Four police cars were set on fire during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday in front of the Cavaillon police station, in Vaucluse, a town where an anti-drug “clearance” operation is underway.

“The entire national police force is mobilized, the Ministry of the Interior is mobilized to respond to this attack. We are going to redouble our presence in the city of Dr Ayme and in all the cities of Cavaillon,” declared to journalists on site the interdepartmental director of the national police, Emmanuel Desjars de Keranrouë.

He estimated that the action was probably “retaliation for police action” against drug trafficking in this town of just over 25,000 inhabitants. As part of this “clearance” operation in recent weeks, 25 people have been taken into police custody, “20,000 euros seized, 15 kilos of cannabis, 6 kilos of cocaine, around ten weapons, long weapons, handguns also seized,” he said.

“It happened at 4:50 a.m. this morning, the three police officers present were terrified,” said the departmental deputy of the Alliance police union, Grégory Lorient.

Thanks to the rapid intervention of the firefighters, there was no damage inside the police station and no injuries were reported. None of the three officials present were injured and “the five individuals who were in police custody in the police station jails were transferred to the Avignon police headquarters,” the Vaucluse prefecture said in a press release.

“An adjacent business and accommodation were affected, but the residents were able to re-enter it,” according to the prefecture, which also recalls “the context of increased pressure on drug trafficking in Cavaillon” in recent weeks.

The incidents that occurred during the night “reinforce the determination of state services to eradicate drug trafficking and return to the inhabitants of Cavaillon the public tranquility to which they are entitled”, underlined the prefect Thierry Suquet, condemning these facts “ with the greatest firmness.

The four vehicles, two “screen-printed” police vehicles and one unmarked, are still parked in front of the police station, whose facade has been blackened by the flames, AFP journalists noted on site.

Members of the scientific police work in the security perimeter installed in order to collect “traces and clues that could allow us to lead us to those who did this,” according to Mr. Desjars.

The investigation was entrusted to the organized and specialized crime division of Avignon on the charge of “destruction, deterioration or degradation of property by means dangerous to people, committed due to the quality of the person holding the authority public,” declared Avignon prosecutor Florence Galtier. The penalty for these offenses is 20 years’ imprisonment and a fine of 150,000 euros, she stressed.

In the afternoon, the Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau himself announced the dispatch of CRS 81 after this “attack” which appears to him to be “a new illustration of the drift that our country is facing” . “The State will not allow itself to be intimidated and we will intensify our fight against narco-banditry,” promised the minister in a press release.

The CRS 81, based in the north of Marseille, is a variation in the south of the CRS 8 unit, created by the former Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, to fight against urban violence in particular. Deployable 24 hours a day, the members of these republican security companies are called upon to support local forces during urban violence, demonstrations that degenerate or to secure major events. They can also provide assistance in operations targeting drug trafficking.