A total of 315 homicides or attempted homicides linked to drug trafficking have been recorded in France since the start of 2023 in police zones, an increase of 57%, reported Monday the Director General of the national police (DGPN), Frédéric Veaux.
“We are witnessing an increase in violence linked to drug trafficking,” noted Veaux during his hearing in the Senate by the commission of inquiry into “drug trafficking in France”, specifying that 451 victims of these acts had been counted during this period.
“As of November 13, 2023, we noted 315 homicides or attempted homicides between criminals” in the police zone, an “increase of 57% compared to the same period in 2022,” added Veaux. There were “451 victims” of these homicides or attempts, of which “30% were under 20 years old,” he continued.
“Everywhere in the territory”
This violence “is a way for the criminal enterprises that control this trafficking to establish their influence or increase it, by trying to recover markets,” explained Frédéric Veaux. “It is also a method of retaliation, which unfortunately leads to the logic of vendetta, the end of which we never see.” This violence extends to “medium-sized towns, almost everywhere in the country”, he underlined.
During the night from Saturday to Sunday, a fifty-year-old father was killed in Dijon, while he was sleeping in his bed, a “collateral” victim of bursts of gunfire aimed at a deal point located just below his home.