“There is not, at least not in very large quantities, drugs circulating between Senegal and France”. On Tuesday, French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, on a ministerial visit to Dakar, after talks with his Senegalese counterpart, wanted to cut short the “rumor” about an intense “constituted traffic” of drugs between the two countries. The Senegalese Minister of the Interior Antoine Félix Abdoulaye Diome spoke for his part of a “really marginal” question and spoke out against the “clichés” conveyed on the part taken by his compatriots in drug trafficking, in particular crack Paris.
“But we need to talk more about the few people – it’s really only a few people – who are involved in trafficking, especially in Paris”, declared the French minister while affirming that Paris and Dakar already had “an excellent cooperation” on the subject.
Ten euros a dose of crack
Crack trafficking and consumption in Paris is a highly publicized issue in France. Gérald Darmanin asked in July that crack, a smokable and very addictive derivative of cocaine called “poor man’s drug” because of its cost (10 euros per dose) – be eradicated from Paris “within a year “.
The involvement of Senegalese has been reported in various media. French columnist Eric Zemmour, presidential candidate for 2022, said in May 2021 that “all crack traffickers (were) Senegalese” in Paris.
“There may be Senegalese living in France who are prosecuted for certain offenses as there may be French people living in Senegal prosecuted for offenses of this nature”, reacted Antoine Félix Abdoulaye Diome. “There are often clichés that must be broken,” concluded the latter.