Faced with criticism of the effectiveness of anti-drug operations known as “XXL Net Square”, Gérald Darmanin affirmed Thursday that more than half of the 1,357 people arrested were “objectives” previously identified by the courts.
There were a total of 1,357 arrests, including 751 "judicial objectives", i.e. people arrested at the request of judges and not during checks on public roads, detailed the Minister of the Interior traveling to Dijon.
VIDEO - “Clearance” operations: Darmanin announces 1,357 arrests
While some doubt the ability of these operations to target network leaders, the minister assured that they put “notorious traffickers aside for the long term”. “Most of the arrests correspond to people who have records”, mainly for drug trafficking, and result in “a lot of removals and committal warrants”, he said, referring to justice for details.
Other operations planned for next week
Six “Place net XXL” operations, which involve numerous agents on the ground, are underway in Marseille, in the North, in the Paris region, in the Lyon metropolitan area, in Dijon and Clermont-Ferrand and others will follow next week in other cities,” detailed the minister.
Beyond these “proximity” operations which aim to dismantle the deal points, Gérald Darmanin plans to go soon to the Maghreb and the United Arab Emirates to seek “in international cooperation those who run these networks”, “the big shots ".
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Before these so-called "XXL" operations, the first smaller-scale "Place Net" operations had been carried out in several cities, including in Dijon after the death of a man killed in November in his bed by a stray bullet aimed at a point of deal. The operation left the local population and some police officers skeptical. The unions particularly regret the arrest of “coal miners”, the small drug dealers, who were quickly replaced.