Interview. Is the port of Saint-Malo a gateway for drug traffickers?

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Tuesday November 5, 2024, we took advantage of the visit of Amaury de Saint-Quentin, the new prefect of Brittany, to Saint-Malo (Ille-et-Vilaine) to ask him a few questions.

You have just taken up your duties. How was your first week in Brittany?

She was very impacted by the news with all these subjects linked to drug trafficking. The two people attacked with a knife in Rennes. The accident which left two dead on the roads near Vitré. And then, the Rave party, started without authorization, which degenerated with the community of travelers. Complicated weekend. Busy week.

What was your program in Saint-Malo?

I started my day with an interview with Gilles Lurton, the mayor of Saint-Malo. I was thus able to assess the major issues facing the district. The mayor’s expectations.

I met the agents at the sub-prefecture. Then, I had a working meeting with the police, gendarmes and intelligence who are in contact with the territory to assess the situation. I noted particularities of the territory: domestic violence, delinquency and drug trafficking.

I saw business leaders. I ended my day with professionals from the agricultural world.

During your various discussions, what topic came up repeatedly?

That of housing. It’s job-related. We have a low unemployment rate, around 3 to 4%, however businesses are having difficulty finding workers. I know Brittany modestly, but I was surprised to see young professionals having great difficulty finding accommodation.

They are forced to look for accommodation further and further away, in the hinterlands. I leave with the conviction that we will find concrete and rapid solutions. Otherwise, it will quickly become a bottleneck.

What solutions are you thinking of?

Earlier, the mayor of Saint-Malo mentioned the real joint lease. Clearly, a structure finances the cost of land by leaving the share per square meter to be borne by the future buyer. It’s very interesting, but it only concerns 10% of investments. We must find other intelligent solutions like this and get out of the way we know.

“We found 40 kg of cocaine on a farm”

Earlier, you talked about drug trafficking. Large ports like Le Havre, Cherbourg and Marseille are heavily monitored. A Senate committee says that traffickers rely on small or medium-sized ports. Is that of Saint-Malo a gateway for drug traffickers?

The goal is not to stigmatize Saint-Malo. Objectively, I don’t have any figures. Large cities are affected by this phenomenon, now medium-sized cities like Saint-Malo too and even rural areas. Recently, 40 kg of cocaine were found on a farm in the depths of Morbihan.

It is not a gateway, as we can hear. Saint-Malo is a port like any other in Brittany. It is a place of trafficking, but no more and no less than others. Saint-Malo is in the same situation as many medium-sized towns in Brittany and in the west of France.

Particularly because we have young people in our territory. Even if drugs are not exclusive to young people. I am desperate to see these young people in these neighborhoods of Maurepas and Blosne involved in drug trafficking. There is a very strong desire on the part of state services to work on substance.

Moreover, recently, the border police (PAF) were reorganized in Saint-Malo?

It’s much more than a reorganization. For three weeks, we have had 21 more civil servants assigned to the Saint-Malo PAF. It’s huge. There were around thirty of them, there are now 58. This is the first territory with this reinforcement of personnel. Their mission includes border police but also drug trafficking entering and leaving the port but also on the coast near the port.

“We must anticipate more and be educational”

The south of Spain is hit by terrible floods. In Saint-Malo, we are exposed to the risk of marine submersion. Are you worried about experiencing a disaster one day on our coast?

Worry is not the word. The challenges of today are not those of yesterday in the face of major climate changes. I was confronted in Corsica in August 2022 with a kind of tornado. She arrived at 8 a.m. Something crazy. Very violent and very brief. Five people died.

The analyzes did not predict this tornado. We are going to be confronted with more and more such events. My conviction is the need to organize ourselves in view of these growing threats and risks. Review the scope of the rules regarding town planning police.

We must anticipate more and be educational. There is fundamental work to be done very early, particularly in schools: to make young people aware of these developments without frightening them. We must explain to them that tomorrow we could have: major droughts, significant rainfall, strong winds and marine submersion. I have no fear but a feeling of responsibility.

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