The State has just announced new measures to fight against violence in Martinique. An additional gendarmerie squadron will reinforce the police in the coming days, the island’s prefecture announced on Tuesday evening, just days after a shooting that left several people injured. A prefect dedicated to security will also be appointed to the territory in early December for a five-month mission, in accordance with announcements made by the prefect last week.
“An exploratory mission of judicial police and criminal intelligence specialists” will arrive on Martinique territory next week, the state services also specified. This team will be made up of three soldiers: the head of mission, head of the CRIMORG office of the SDPJ, accompanied by the head of the special investigation techniques section (SDPJ) and an analyst from the Central Criminal Intelligence Service (SCRC- GN). These experts will have the mission of “analyzing the criminal phenomenon, supporting the general command of the gendarmerie and targeting the areas of work to be prioritized”.
Three new brigades in 2023
The shootings that occurred in two nocturnal leisure establishments on the night of Thursday to last Friday in the town of Rivière-Salée during which eight people were injured, justify the dispatch of these reinforcements, according to the prefecture. This support was also requested directly by the prefect of Martinique, Jean-Christophe Bouvier, from the French Minister of the Interior and Overseas, Gérald Darmanin.
Serge Letchimy, President of the Executive Council of the Territorial Collectivity of Martinique (CTM), welcomed “the government’s decision to bring a gendarmerie squadron to Martinique, i.e. 80 additional gendarmes”. This one-time reinforcement of the gendarmerie forces must be completed in 2023 by the installation of three new brigades in Martinique, announced Gérald Darmanin during a visit to the island at the beginning of October. The fight against drug trafficking and the circulation of firearms are a priority in Martinique where 25 homicides have been committed since the beginning of 2022.