After a trip on January 1 to Montargis, to salute the work of the police during the end-of-year holidays, Gérald Darmanin went to Marseille, where he returned to one of his favorite themes: the fight against drug trafficking.
Arriving at the site of the new CRS 81, deployed in November, the Minister of the Interior first inaugurated a plaque before having a drink with the troops of this barracks which will soon be renovated and enlarged for an amount of 30 million euros. Gérald Darmanin ended up commenting on a year of fight against drug trafficking in Marseille, a year during which 49 people died in clashes between competing narconetworks, a record.
“Marseille’s results in the fight against drug banditry are good,” France’s top cop first welcomed, recognizing that there remained “a lot of work.” According to data from the prefecture, there are 90 deal points in Marseille compared to 160 counted two years ago.
DZ Mafia, Yoda and home delivery
“Today, there are neighborhoods free of deal points, this leads to turf wars and this creates the situations that we experienced during the year 2023,” added the minister, specifying that “75% of these assassinations were the facts of a struggle between two rival clans, the DZ Mafia and Yoda. Two clans against which the police carried out two major series of arrests at the end of last year in Marseille, in France, and abroad. Around forty people were arrested in total.
The other side of the coin is the reorganization of the networks, which in the face of police harassment are investing more in home delivery systems for drug users. It is “a first victory to have put the traffickers in the shadows”, rejoiced Gérald Darmanin who announced that he now wanted to take action against this form of trafficking which is very visible on social networks. “We have already strengthened the internet police and will carry out systematic checks on those who deliver,” indicated the minister without wanting to give further details.