Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced this Wednesday morning that 6
“Place Net XXL”
anti-drug operations are underway simultaneously in Paris (in Seine-Saint-Denis and Hauts-de-Seine), in Marseille, in Lyon, Lille, Clermont-Ferrand and Dijon.
These operations have
“resulted in 867 arrests so far and the seizure of numerous weapons and significant financial resources.
We are not giving up
,” said the Minister of the Interior in a publication on the social network X.
After the raid launched on March 18 in Marseille, 82 individuals were arrested in the northern districts of the Marseille city.
In a surprise visit the next day to La Castellane, Emmanuel Macron announced that he would extend the operation to around ten towns in order to
“put a stop to drug trafficking”.
Also read: At La Castellane, a week after Macron's visit, the police maintain the pressure
An operation over several weeks
According to the prefecture, 900 police officers, gendarmes and customs officers were mobilized on the first day of the operation in Marseille and Bouches-du-Rhône.
Three days after the launch of the operation, 22 kilos of narcotics had been seized, 71 people taken into police custody, more than 385,000 euros in cash or assets and four weapons seized.
During a trip to Roubaix on Monday morning, Gérald Darmanin already announced “more than 187” arrests and hoped for up to 850. The Minister of the Interior reaffirmed his desire to extend the operation to
“several weeks”
in the major cities of France.
Last week, Minister of Justice Éric Dupont-Moretti recalled that
“drug trafficking is everyone’s business.”
“The few oblivious bobos and bourgeois who think they can smoke hash on Saturday evenings must realize this,”
he denounced.