the essential
As the shooting in Poitiers on Thursday shows, drug trafficking causes multiple settling of scores. Increasingly young victims are dying from this violence, sometimes killed by adolescents of the same age. What is the reality of the situation and the solutions envisaged?
5 seriously injured Thursday in Poitiers including a 15-year-old teenager between life and death and two others barely older. A 5-year-old child hit in the head by a Kalashnikov last week near Rennes. A 19-year-old young man hit in the liver by a gunshot in Clermont-Ferrand on Friday. A man shot dead with a weapon in Valencia on Friday. Recent news stories have placed shootings and violence linked to drug trafficking at the heart of public and political debate.
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Shooting in Poitiers: a brawl breaks out between dozens of people, five seriously injured including a 15-year-old minor between life and death
The Minister of the Interior wants to take control of the situation and fears that we are at “a tipping point”. “The narco-rabble no longer has limits,” declared Bruno Retailleau, worried about a “Mexicanization of the country.” The violence has spread and is no longer limited to the outskirts of Marseille, Paris and Lyon.
To break up the drug ecosystem, we are going to deploy a response on all fronts. It will be long, but we will win this war. https://t.co/wG3w7MNeB8
— Bruno Retailleau (@BrunoRetailleau) https://twitter.com/BrunoRetailleau/status/1852463222978404762?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
“The drug market and the ultraviolence it generates have become almost uncontrollable,” a police officer told Le Parisien. “There is not a day without a shooting,” he laments
A change in crime
Some police officers believe that there has been a change in organized crime, particularly at the time of Covid-19. We would see a rejuvenation of all those involved in drug trafficking, at all levels. And, above all, an explosion of violence. “Execution has become the rule,” assures a police officer to Le Parisien. “Before, we shot in the air or in the legs to intimidate, today we kill,” he analyzes.
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Shooting in Poitiers: victims, link with drug trafficking… what we know about the tragedy which left 5 injured including a teenager in absolute emergency
Despite these alarming signals, there are reasons for hope. In 2023, according to statistics from the Ministry of the Interior, 418 settling of scores, homicides or attempted homicides linked to drug trafficking took place in France. In July 2024, there were “only” 188 compared to 225 at the same period the previous year. A slight decline at the national level and, above all, a lull in Marseille, one of the territories most affected by these problems. Since the DZ Mafia gang obtained a monopoly on drug trafficking, “narchomicides” have been in sharp decline.
The executive promises more resources, hopes to tighten the law again but seems in need of solutions. Enough to relaunch another debate, that of legalization and decriminalization? Some on the left would in any case like to highlight its effectiveness in putting an end to violence linked to drug trafficking, particularly with the example of Portugal in mind. Emmanuel Macron, for his part, displays his firmness against drugs and refuses to change the legislation on narcotics.
