It’s not new. Since May, handgun or weapon fire has shaken the Planoise district in Besançon (Doubs). The latest, a shooting, Sunday around 8:40 p.m., left no less than 22 bullet holes with a caliber of 7.62 mm in the stairwell of a building, without causing any victims. Also, the Besançon prosecutor’s office announced on Wednesday that it had opened a flagrant investigation for attempted murder in an organized gang following this series of heavy weapon fire in the district, the scene of a turf war for several months. between dealers.
“It cannot be insignificant that these shootings take place in this area where since May 2022 a series of shots with handguns or weapons of war demonstrates the fact that rival clans are vying for control of this place of deal notoriously known to drug addicts, ”noted the prosecutor of Besançon, Etienne Manteaux. The number of bullet holes and the caliber of ammunition indicate that the “individuals were particularly determined and dangerous”, added the magistrate during a press conference.
“Possible traces of DNA”
A vehicle used by the criminals was identified by the investigators and then found in Poligny, in the Jura. This vehicle had been stolen at the beginning of the month in Beaune, in Côte d’Or. Several sets of license plates were discovered inside. The exploitation of possible traces of DNA and fingerprints are in progress. Investigators have also identified an apartment likely to be used by criminals as a rear base, in the Planoise district. An assault rifle, replica of an AK47, and ammunition were found, as well as a narcotics press.
The apartment invested in the early morning by the investigators of the judicial police, assisted by the Raid of Strasbourg, was empty. But a 41-year-old man, very unfavorably known to justice with 25 convictions, from the Saint-Etienne region, showed up at the apartment at the time of the search. He was arrested and taken into custody.
As a reminder, last month, a judicial investigation was opened after two shootings which left one dead in this same neighborhood. Between November 2019 and March 2020, two rival gangs clashed for control of drug trafficking in this Republican reconquest district (QRR): 18 shootings left one dead and 11 injured.