in Villeurbanne, drug trafficking is once again raining bullets

Le Figaro Lyon

“They never really left you know”. At the foot of the Tonkin building, where a young man known for drug trafficking fell on Monday, the residents seem as resigned as the road workers who perpetually sweep the autumn leaves from the ground. After a few months of respite following large-scale police operations in the spring, bullets once again rang out between the towers of this district of Villeurbanne, which has become a very profitable deal point in the Lyon metropolitan area. Wedged between the Tête d'Or park, the student district of La Doua and the transport hub of Charpennes, it continues to attract buyers, despite the misdemeanor fines issued by the police.

“It’s all over the neighborhood!” exclaim two residents, on the other side of the slab. They recount the anecdotes of their fight, literally, to evacuate the dealers who had been trading for several years in their building lobby. “We chased them away! We had some bread”mimes the first. “We were fighting,” continues the second, a black belt in karate. “There were about ten of them from morning to evening inside the halldescribe the two sixty-year-olds. They broke the door to get in, broke the garages, heckled, peed in the alley, it smelled like shit even in the apartments”. When the landlord put in cameras, they were torn down. Even false ceilings were used to hide the drugs being sold.

Clean place, really?

Elected officials and police officers recognize the temporary effectiveness of the “Clear Place” actions carried out a few months ago. “It's always interesting to make seizures of drugs and weapons, that's always less in circulation, but we're emptying the ocean with a teaspoonwhispers a Lyon police officer. This is not what will stem traffic in a district like Tonkin.”. The prefecture, for its part, ensures its continued attention, with 110 arrests carried out by the police this year in the neighborhood. But the CRS buses, in reinforcement since the spring, have not really helped to prolong the respite. “Anyway now they have the scooters, they deliver”resume our two fighting sixty-year-olds.

“We are faced with a new drug trade, which is no longer a substitute economy for local people, but a business”observes for his part Cédric Van Styvendael, PS mayor committed since his election in 2020 alongside the State for the security of the neighborhood. The “Place Net XXL” operation in the spring notably made it possible to seize several dozen kilos of drugs, criminal assets and above all to close deal points following legal investigations.

This is the case of that of rue Jacques Brel. Particularly profitable, it had been the subject of a fierce fight, peppering the district with several settling of scores. Some 200 police officers, including the Raid, were deployed for the occasion in spring 2023. They had to do it again six months later. One of the basement entrances used by drug dealers is today blocked by a heavy chain to prevent their return, while rehabilitation work is underway on the building.

The hydra of drug trafficking

But given the financial windfall, several points of sale, run by young men from outside the neighborhood, are still established in Tonkin. You can recognize them by the armchairs positioned here and there, surrounded by torn cigarette papers, even in front of a children's play area. Although he does not say he is particularly worried, this father asked his wife to change her working hours so that she would no longer come home after dark while she was subjected to stares and remarks from the dealers. The residents, who only agree to speak on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, have become accustomed to meeting these threatening glances. They tell of the raids that move the drug dealers on a street and the “saaps” of hash found on the sidewalk as they escape.

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“When you manage to close a point or bring down a network, it leads to rivalries and others are interested in it”slips a police source. This was the case on the other side of Lyon, at La Duchère during a particularly deadly year 2022. “Drug trafficking is a liberal business and as long as there are customers, there will be suppliers”asks Étienne Blanc, senator from Rhône and rapporteur of a parliamentary commission of inquiry into the matter delivered shortly before the dissolution. Its report establishes that 240,000 people in France are affected by this underground economy generating 3 billion euros in annual revenue and which now manages to corrupt clerks and police officers.

“No limits”

If our interlocutors refuted the term “mexicanisation» from the Minister of the Interior, they recognize unbridled violence in Lyon as in Marseille. “These are organized gangs employing people who have no limits and for whom the question of life or death no longer has any value”comments Cédric Van Styvendael, who has doubled the municipal police force and quadrupled the surveillance cameras in his town since his election. The recent shootings in Valence make a police source fear a rise in methods and criminal groups in Marseille: “they are trying to take market share”she analyzes. If the vacant commissioner position has been filled and the specialized field brigade promised by Gérald Darmanin in his time should arrive by the end of the year, investigative resources will therefore be needed to bring down these networks.

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On the legislative side, Étienne Blanc is now carrying a transpartisan bill, favorably received by the Minister of Justice. Among the proposals, the introduction of repentant or infiltrator statuses offered to thugs spotted during investigations to bring down networks. And the seizure of goods purchased with drug money, sometimes very far from the gray cradling the towers of Lyon, like these luxurious Dubai apartments bought by a Lyon bigwig convicted last week for importing cocaine.