“As I speak to you, there have been more than 187 arrests. » The announcement from Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin was made this Monday during a trip to Roubaix. After Marseille last week, the metropolises of Lille and Lyon, but also Dijon and the Paris region were the scene of heavy-handed police actions as part of new anti-drug operations called “Place Net XXL”.
Objective claimed by Gérald Darmanin: 850 people to be questioned. “Display” more than anything else, however, deplores a member of the National Association of the Judicial Police (ANPJ) to 20 minutes. “If it’s to feed the statistics without there being a criminal response behind it, we don’t really see the point,” he denounces.
“We want to put blue on public roads”
This association, which brings together judicial police officers, has for several months continued to alert the ministry about the figures policy which, according to it, “reduces efficiency”, particularly within the judicial police (PJ). “We want to put blue on public roads and it would be a good thing if the number of investigators was correlated,” he explains. In addition, police reform has added administrative layers that burden the formerly more fluid operations of the PJ. »
Result, fewer police officers on the investigation site, according to the ANPJ. “Dismantling a point of deal requires three to six months of work to understand how it works, to gather evidence and convict the guilty. This requires in-depth investigation. »
“Lack of evidence”
According to our information, the public prosecutor’s office in Lille was also informed very late of this “XXL net square” operation. “The minister wants to remind people that the State can go everywhere, that’s good and that reassures the population. But we risk congesting the courts with people who will not necessarily be convicted due to lack of evidence,” laments the police officer.
In the North, where nearly 900 police officers were mobilized, the prefect reported 74 arrests Monday morning, stressing that the operation was “multi-delinquency”, with a focus on narcotics. Half a kilo of heroin, four weapons and 70,000 euros had been seized at the time of the minister’s visit, announced Thierry Courtecuisse, interdepartmental director of the national police, anticipating future “property seizures”.