Retailleau evokes “a tipping point” after the shootings in Rennes and Poitiers

After a bloody shooting in Poitiers where a 15-year-old teenager was between life and death, and, a week before, the gunshot wound of a boy near Rennes, Bruno Retailleau judged on Friday that we were “at a tipping point” in the face of drug trafficking. The Minister of the Interior arrived shortly before 3 p.m. in the Breton capital, according to AFP journalists on site.

He first went to the popular district of Maurepas, the center of drug trafficking in Rennes and the scene of numerous settling of scores in recent days. The child injured by two bullets in the head last Saturday was from this neighborhood, as was his father. Bruno Retailleau was then due to meet police officers and elected officials at the Ille-et-Vilaine prefecture.

“Tipping point”

“The 'narcoracailles' no longer have limits (…) These shootings don't happen in South America, they happen in Rennes, in Poitiers (…). We are at a tipping point”the Minister of the Interior exclaimed in the morning on BFMTV/RMC. He argued that we now have “the choice between general mobilization or the “Mexicanization” of the country”.

In Poitiers, “around 10:45 p.m.” Thursday evening, he related, “It started with a shooting in front of a restaurant and ended with a brawl between rival gangs which involved several hundred people”. He mentioned “4 to 600 people” having participated or witnessed this brawl, citing “a report from the prefect”. According to the first elements of the investigation, there would be less than a hundred people involved, between “40 to 60”indicated a police source. “During the emergency intervention, several hundred people were nearby and a brawl began, with some young people pointing out others as potentially close to the alleged perpetrator”the prefect of Vienne Jean-Marie Girier subsequently clarified on BFMTV.

During this shooting, five people were injured, several seriously. According to a police source, a 15-year-old teenager was shot in the head and was between life and death. Two 16-year-olds are also among those seriously injured, according to another police source.

The environmentalist mayor of Poitiers, Léonore Moncond'huy, spoke “an unprecedented episode” in the history of this town of around 90,000 inhabitants, which “testifies to a fairly serious evolution of society”.

“Breaking the ecosystem”

Far from Poitiers, near Valence, a man in his twenties was also between life and death after being shot in the head during the night from Thursday to Friday during a shooting in front of a nightclub. Facts linked to drug trafficking, according to the police.

These events occurred a week after a five-year-old child was also shot in the head, in Pacé, near Rennes. He is still between life and death, the minister said on Friday. “The investigation is progressing”he added, promising reinforcements “as long as it takes”. The boy was in his father's car trying to flee from drug dealers.

Since his appointment to the Ministry of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau has called for the fight against drug trafficking to become “a national cause”. He wants a mobilization against drug trafficking like what was done against terrorism. “We are going to set up a “task force” to break up the ecosystem” drug trafficking, he said on Friday, emphasizing the importance of “global strategy” to try to stem the phenomenon.

Drug trafficking generates a turnover of three to six billion euros in France, according to estimates by the senatorial commission of inquiry. Next Friday, Bruno Retailleau must go with his colleague from Justice Didier Migaud to Marseille where the settling of scores between drug traffickers is particularly murderous and sordid, with the involvement of young people aged 14-15 as hired killers. The two ministers must announce several measures together.