Le Figaro Nice
To feel observed is one thing.
Being stared at by a few hooded young men dressed in black is another.
Even more when one of them holds a hammer in his hand.
Some speak of a
“climate of insecurity”
.
In the city of Bon Voyage, road to Turin, northeast of Nice, the weather is constantly stormy.
At the foot of the gray towers, the atmosphere is both heavy and electric.
Three knocks suddenly ring out in this late spring morning.
And then silence.
It is not lightning but the man with the hammer which has just struck the concrete of a staircase.
This is a ritual - which however has nothing religious despite the fact that the district is nicknamed
"
the Church
"
.
The dealers of tower 21 Mercantour now know that customers are waiting.
There are already seven of them, huddled together in front of the building, barely hidden behind a pyramid of mailboxes.
Men only.
The youngest is barely of age, the oldest must be around sixty years old.
It looks like a GP's waiting room.
All that's missing is a coffee table and a few somewhat dated gossip magazines.
The discussion begins.
“They have to get excited, the “schmitts”
(the police, editor's note)
won't be long”
, attacks one of them.
“They won't come today, I think they're at Les Moulins
,” replies another, a packet of crisps in his hand.
“Have you seen the video
?
In my opinion, whoever filmed is going to get smoked”
, abounds a third.
A few days earlier, the deputy of the Alpes-Maritimes and president of the Republicans, Éric Ciotti, had published on Twitter a sequence shot by a resident of the sensitive district of Les Moulins, at the other end of the city.
In this one, two men wander in the middle of the street, weapons in hand.
Drug traffickers, arrested the same day and indicted.
After about ten minutes, two dealers appear.
The dress code is the same.
Only the eyes are visible.
The first has the jogging pockets full of sachets of cocaine, the second of cannabis resin.
Two lines are formed, powder “sniffers” on one side, stoners on the other.
At the
"
Church
"
, drugs are sold like the priest distributes the host.
The transaction is done calmly, without urgency and above all under the noses of a few impassive inhabitants.
The latter are not accomplices but resigned, even frightened.
Such is the ordinary chronicle of the disintegration of a district, as it exists in the four corners of France, delivered into the hands of delinquency and drug trafficking.
Read also“We must avoid a Marseille-style drift”: after the broadcast of a video of armed men in Nice, three individuals arrested
We are the victim of a mafia like in the towns of lower Sicily
A local resident
Moreover, at 21 Mercantour, some still refuse to resign.
Some tenants are fighting for the crowing of the rooster to replace the "
Arah
! "
“, this shrill cry that the dealers use to warn each other when the police arrive.
Created in 2019, the Mercantour collective now brings together around ten families.
“We have so much to say, but insecurity remains the number one problem.
We are terrified, help us
,” begged the collective in one of the letters it sent to Le
Figaro
.
A meeting is quickly organized.
Not in the city because
“too dangerous”
.
“Anonymity is our ultimate protection, reprisals can be extremely serious.
We risk vandalism and more serious, threats, being injured or killed”
, assures Antoine *, a tenant of this “infernal tower”.
It is therefore around a coffee in the city center that the young man, aged about thirty, testifies.
“We are victims of a mafia like in the towns of Lower Sicily
, he laments.
The small dealers of a few years ago have given way to violent, disrespectful and armed gangs.
They are there 24/7. They set up chairs at the entrance to the tower and are seated from morning till night.
The housekeeper says nothing to them and passes the broom between their chairs so as not to disturb them.
Still according to him, the
"scum"
would also play the
"physiognomists"
, and would
"filter"
at the entrance of the building.
“If they don't know you, they ask you where you're going, pat them down and ask you to open the bags.
They even follow you to the door of your home
,” continues Antoine.
Read alsoThe mayor of Nice announces an action plan for the city of Moulins, plagued by dealers
Several months ago, the dealers had written anti-Semitic, racist and anti-police tags at the entrance.
They remained for several days before they were erased, it's scandalous
A tower dweller
In addition to the traffic, in addition to the incessant ballet of customers at all hours of the day and night, in addition to the threats and pressure exerted on the inhabitants and the climate of terror which reigns in the city, the collective denounces the deplorable state of the Mercantour tower.
“The stairs are dirty, the floors are in a terrible state, everything is full of tags and graffiti, some meaning nothing, others displaying the prices of drugs.
And others the license plates of unmarked police cars, without anyone doing or saying anything,
the tenant chokes.
Several months ago, the dealers had written anti-Semitic, racist and anti-police tags at the entrance.
They remained for several days before they were erased, it
The latter also conjures up ceilings
“covered in cigarette burns
,” mirrors that haven’t reflected anything for years, and even apartments overrun with bedbugs and cockroaches.
Abused by dealers, the building's two elevators are said to be regularly out of service.
“A month ago they broke down at the same time.
It was a Friday, we immediately notified a convenience store, but he only came on Tuesday morning
, ”says Denise *, a 72-year-old tenant who has lived on the top floors for twenty years.
“I am very scared here.
I have never been attacked or threatened directly, but it is constant anxiety
, ”she confides to
Figaro
.
Like other residents, Denise and Antoine would like to leave the tower.
Their low incomes do not allow them.
“We are prisoners of 21 Mercantour”
, laments Antoine, who lives on small missions of
Four arrests of traffic managers
Contacted, the authorities explain that
they "know well"
the ambient insecurity in this tower.
“The problem of 151 route de Turin, and more broadly, of the route de Turin, is widely understood”
, underlines Xavier Bonhomme, the public prosecutor of Nice.
The local crime treatment group (GLTD) in charge of narcotics, which the latter set up in June 2020, is working on this identified deal point “with the aim of obtaining
actionable information”
, details he.
The arrests are
"daily"
, insists the prosecutor again.
Read alsoNice: faced with drug trafficking in Les Moulins, first deputy Anthony Borré asks for help from the army
In January, an operation carried out in the Bindweed district and the arrest of several people made it possible to establish that “
these same individuals were also supplying narcotics”
to the Bon Voyage tower on the road to Turin, a stone's throw away.
Proof that an annex of Bindweed, a neighborhood plagued by drug trafficking, is established in this low-rent housing (HLM).
“Since then, the Bac services have been very present there in order to prevent new dealers from settling there permanently
,” says Bernard Gonzalez, the prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes.
Residents say they see no police set foot on the ground.
"Regularly, the police arrest dealers who try to occupy the place left vacant"
,
The Bon Voyage tower in Nice
Go to slideshow (5)
It is in this sense that he specifies in
Figaro
the arrest of four individuals suspected of participating in the management of traffic in the tower, at the beginning of March.
In June 2022, they allegedly beat up two minors used as dealers.
These young people would have kept part of the booty from the sale of drugs.
Two customers also suffered the same fate when they complained about the size of the resin bar purchased.
Of the four men arrested, three have been remanded and imprisoned pending their trial scheduled for April 19.
I have people in front of me who don't want to meet me.
I fear that this is only instrumentalization for political purposes!
Anthony Borré, first deputy mayor of Nice and president of Côte d'Azur Habitat
For its part, the town hall of Nice and its first deputy in charge of security, Anthony Borré, are not unaware of the concerns in this tower.
Especially since the latter is now the president of Côte d'Azur Habitat, the social landlord who manages it.
On several occasions, the Mercantour collective wrote to him, supporting photos.
Anthony Borré and his services answered them, wishing to meet them.
Frightened by possible physical reprisals but also by the termination of their contract, the inhabitants have always declined.
“And then, what would change
?
They already have all the elements for several years
!”
, laments a resident.
Anthony Borré is annoyed by this refusal.
“I have people in front of me who don't want to meet me.
I fear that this is only instrumentalization for political purposes
!
When we talk about the mafia in which Côte d'Azur Habitat would be associated, I think that these are people who are not very well informed.
In its plea, the Mercantour collective wishes to underline
"the complacency, passivity and complicity of certain agents of the lessor who say nothing, do not bring up any information"
, assumes another resident.
Read alsoDrug trafficking: in Nice, the distress of the inhabitants of the Moulins district heard by the authorities
From his windows, he even says he observes certain employees
“to have one with the dealers”
.
On his shots, he surrounds the different protagonists to prove his assertion.
“I do not accept that these people speak of my agents like that
, answers Anthony Borré.
I have always been available to exchange.
It is essential for me to have an interlocutor in front because I am fed up with this world of anonymity in particular on social networks.
The collective's Twitter account, in private
"so as not to be found by dealers"
, justifies one of the managers, repeatedly attacks the first deputy.
"I know this traffic and I keep alerting the prefect about this case"
, defends Anthony Borré.
In the meantime, the service continues.
And tomorrow, like every other day of the week, the three hammer blows will sound.
(*) The first names have been changed.
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