Four police vehicles were set on fire during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday in front of the Cavaillon police station. The police suspect “retaliation” for operations against drug trafficking carried out in recent weeks in the territory.
Several cars were set on fire during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday in front of the Cavaillon police station, in Vaucluse, requiring the evacuation of the building.
An investigation has been opened to find the people behind this incident which, according to the authorities, could be linked to the fight against drug trafficking in this territory.
• The police station evacuated
The events took place around 5 a.m., in front of the Cavaillon police station. Four police vehicles, including one unmarked, were set on fire in front of the building and the fire spread across the facade.
Inside the police station there were three police officers and five people in custody. The police station was evacuated and those in custody transferred to Avignon. At the end of the day on Wednesday, it was “fully operational”, according to the prefect of Vaucluse, Thierry Suquet.
“The facade of the police station was damaged and the building was filled with smoke, however the damage inside is relatively minor,” the Vaucluse prefecture said in a press release this Wednesday. An adjoining business was also affected and a family “had to evacuate their home due to the smoke, but was able to return to it in the morning,” added the prefecture. The incident did not cause any injuries.
• A link with drug trafficking?
In his press release, the prefect of Vaucluse stressed that “this event occurs while the police are currently carrying out particularly offensive actions against drug trafficking.” Emmanuel Desjars de Keranrouë, interdepartmental director of the Vaucluse national police, also estimated that it is “certainly” “retaliation for all the police actions which have been carried out in recent weeks on Cavaillon”, in particular an operation ” clear space.”
These operations against drug trafficking have resulted in 25 arrests and the seizure of 6 kilos of cocaine and 15 kilos of cannabis since the beginning of September, according to the prefecture.
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The Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, also stated in a press release that “the attack on the Cavaillon police station is a new illustration of the drift that our country is facing”. “A few days ago, a vast anti-drug operation made it possible to dismantle a network of traffickers and it is this operation which seems to be at the origin of the events of last night,” declared the minister, who promised to “intensify the fight against drug banditry”.
“At present, no avenue is favored and no avenue is excluded,” nuanced the Avignon public prosecutor, Florence Galtier. No suspects had been arrested as of late Wednesday, she said.
• An open investigation
The prefect declared that he had requested the deployment of a “mobile force unit”, “from this evening and for the coming days in Cavaillon, to reinforce the police security action”. Bruno Retailleau also announced the sending of the CRS 81 to Cavaillon “as of this evening”. The CRS 81 is part “new generation” CRS companies specialized in the fight against urban violence and drug trafficking.
The Avignon public prosecutor’s office informed BFMTV that an investigation has been opened for “destruction, deterioration or degradation of property by means dangerous to people, committed due to the status of the person holding the public authority of its owner or user”. The investigation was entrusted to the organized and specialized crime division (DCOS) in Avignon. The penalty for this crime is 20 years in prison and a fine of 150,000 euros.
Pauline Revenaz and Sophie Cazaux
