This is not a small sentence thrown in the air since it was repeated twice by the magistrate. Tuesday April 4, the public prosecutor of Rennes Philippe Astruc had just announced the arrest of a man suspected of being the author of the double murder of Maurepas when he spoke more generally of the fight against drug trafficking in reindeer.
If it remains to be confirmed, the thesis of a settling of scores against the background of drug trafficking is the most likely to explain the automatic weapon fire which cost the lives of two men aged 28 and 34 on the slab of the Gros Chêne on March 28. A 23-year-old man was arrested in Mayotte. Still in police custody, he is the main suspect in this bloody burst which also left one seriously injured. On the spot, the inhabitants oscillated between dread and resignation in the face of this increase in violence which is hitting their neighborhood. With a question. What is the police doing to prevent this traffic being carried out under the eyes of children and local residents?
Security forces mobilized in the demonstrations
Long “spared” by these armed interventions, Rennes has seen the situation deteriorate in recent years. In 2022, a man had been stabbed to death in this same neighborhood but calm seemed to have generally returned, until this double homicide. In trying to explain this renewed violence, the prosecutor evoked the context of social mobilization against the pension reform. “It can be observed that the very strong mobilization of the police services in law enforcement missions since January has only penalized us in securing and dealing with drug resale areas”, declared Philippe Astruc.
Before adding a few minutes later. “For two months, the police of Rennes have been mobilized almost every day on operations to maintain order, they are no longer in the neighborhoods. I keep it simple but the reality is this. They cannot be in the oven and in the mill. It is not the first explanation but it is an element to have in mind to understand why we have this aggravation ”.
On demonstration days, “it’s open bar”
Are the protests preventing the police from fighting drug trafficking? We asked them the question. “On demonstration days, in the neighborhoods, we don’t set foot there. We’re all in columns, lined up to maintain order. The guys know that. On those days, it’s open bar, everyone can come and buy, they won’t be disturbed, ”says an agent.
Head of the SGP Unit union, David Leveau recognizes that the words of the prosecutor illustrate “a reality” suffered by the police. “When you are in République picking up cobblestones, you cannot be in Maurepas. The social movement is such that all colleagues are called to the demonstrations, sometimes even without having been trained there”. Several local police officers are off work after being injured during social movements.
The question of “after the demonstration” can also be questioned as it mobilizes investigators often “for nothing”, according to the agents. It is so difficult to prove that so and so has thrown projectiles, used violence or damaged furniture that the announced arrests usually end in a simple silent interview. “We arrive with 62 people arrested and 61 who are released. We have 46 Camille Dupont and we have not progressed, ”continues David Leveau. The pseudonym “Camille Dupont” is used by demonstrators who do not want to disclose their identity. The ultra-left groups also recommend that they do not take identity papers or telephones with them.
“We do a lot of work on narcotics”
The union official, however, believes that the work on the ground to fight against drug trafficking remains “very important”. “We do a lot of work on narcotics. The tensions that exist between groups of traffickers are also linked to that. We reduce their territory, we put pressure on them, ”says the trade unionist.
In the discourse of the police, we hear above all weariness in the face of court decisions that they sometimes consider too light. “It is not because of the demonstrations that we have armed settling of accounts. The problem is that the guys are no longer afraid. At 12, they do the chouf (watch) for 100 bullets a day but you can’t do anything against them. You can put so many reinforcements, it’s no use if the guys are released. Sometimes you hook up a guy who’s dealing and the next day you find him in the same place. He laughs in your face. Even the fixed fines, they do not pay them”, denounces an experienced agent.
Majority of cases cleared
This alleged judicial laxity is however firmly denied by the prosecutor, who likes to recall that “71% of the settling of accounts in Rennes that has occurred since 2018 has been elucidated”. Several people have already been sentenced, sometimes to prison, in trafficking cases, but they were often in a state of recidivism.
“The worst would be if a phenomenon of impunity could set in. That traffickers can fight weapon in hand for territories or market shares without the public authorities coming to sanction with firmness. We have a deterioration of the situation in Rennes. But as you have seen, the judicial response was firm”.