A toy, but not just any toy.
Saturday February 10, around 1:30 p.m., guards at the Perpignan prison discovered a fake pistol in the bag of a six-year-old child who had come with his mother to visit his father in the penitentiary visiting room.
According to the description given by the Independent, the toy is a very realistic copy of the Glock used by the Regional Intervention and Security Teams (Eris) of penitentiary centers.
Also in the bag was a removable magazine with ammunition.
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According to our colleagues, the child had just passed the metal detector when the supervisor decided to check his bag.
If the supervisors initially thought it was a real weapon, it turned out to be fake after verification.
Frédéric Jeunot, regional representative of Force Ouvrière Justice for the Occitanie region, did not fail to salute the agent for his “vigilance” and his “professionalism”, while denouncing an “unacceptable” intrusion.
“Escape attempt with hostage taking”
The inmate whom the young boy and the woman were to visit is a Bosnian, convicted of three cases of gang theft and aggravated theft, releasable in 2026. If no suspicious object or other clue was found in his cell, he was transferred to another sector of the prison, with a raised escort level.
The entire penitentiary center was also searched “to guarantee the safety of staff and other stakeholders”, indicates Pierre Grousset, delegate of the UFAP-UNSa union.
Leaflet Local office CP Perpignan dated 02/10/2024
Published by Ufap Unsa Justice Perpignan on Saturday February 10, 2024
According to him, “the only reason to bring an imitation weapon into detention is for an escape attempt with hostage taking,” he said in a press release.
“We put the gun to the head of a staff or a worker.
It’s almost a hostage-taking,” he told RTL.
Following this discovery, the child's wife was interviewed by the duty officer.
She defended herself by indicating that it was “a gift given to her son that she would have put in her backpack”, indicates the secretary of the UFAP to our colleagues, who also indicate that The next day, officials found box cutter blades in a package thrown over the prison wall.