The fight against organized crime in Corsica must “further be intensified”, diagnoses a circular from the Ministry of Justice published on Monday, which aims to better combat settling of accounts, arms trafficking and money laundering on the island, target of a “strategy of control”. “The criminal phenomena in action represent a constant threat to the balance of the political and economic life of the island”, explains the text, signed by the Keeper of the Seals, Eric Dupond-Moretti, to justify this “adapted judicial treatment” in Corsica.
This “circular relating to territorial criminal policy for Corsica”, presented by the Minister on Monday in an interview at Corse-Morningreaffirms the “relevance” of the priorities set more than ten years ago in the circular published by Christiane Taubira in November 2012. But it requires several changes, while the level of settling of accounts, in particular, remains “particularly worrying”.
Criminal intelligence, witness protection…
Corsica is the region of metropolitan France with the highest homicide rate, at 0.38 per 10,000 inhabitants in 2021 – more than double the national average. From 2005 to November 2022, according to the Ministry of the Interior, 177 assassinations or attempted assassinations were classified as suspected or proven settling of accounts on the island. In terms of settling accounts and extortion, to enrich judicial proceedings, the circular calls for “developing the use of criminal intelligence”, “encouraging the use of protective devices for witnesses or intensifying exchanges” of information between the JIRS (specialized interregional jurisdiction) public prosecutor’s office in Marseille, which deals with cases of organized crime, and the public prosecutor’s offices in Corsica.
Concerning “the proliferation of weapons of all categories in Corsica”, “a major concern”, the text encourages the prosecutors to require “more widely” the confiscation of weapons, even legally held, “by persons subject to legal proceedings “.
The circular also calls for the fight against drug trafficking to be made “a major axis”, while they “have considerably increased and generalized” in Corsica. It invites the public prosecutor’s offices to “put traffickers at a distance from their territories as often as possible in order to curb the strategies of control observed”. Finally, the Chancellery wishes to “reinforce the fight against money laundering” and “fight more effectively against corruption”, with in particular “the continuation of the proactive and ambitious policy of seizures and confiscations of criminal assets”.