After Marseille last week and other cities before, “XXL net space” operations are increasing in France. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced that “several” operations of the same type, against drug trafficking, had been launched in France on Monday.
“More than 187” people were arrested as part of the “Place Net XXL” anti-drug operations in Marseille last week and Monday morning in several cities in France, announced Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin. “As I speak to you, there have been more than 187 arrests,” he declared during a trip to Roubaix.
This figure includes the operation carried out on March 19 in Marseille, as well as simultaneous operations Monday morning in the Lille metropolis, in the Lyon metropolitan area, in Dijon and in the Paris region, notably in Sevran (Seine-Saint-Denis) and Colombes (Hauts-de-Seine), said his office.
“We have a target of 850 people to question,” said Mr. Darmanin. “We are about a quarter of the way to that goal,” he added. “Our collective job is to show all residents, and especially those in working-class neighborhoods, that security is for them.”
900 law enforcement officers for an operation
These operations come after that launched last Tuesday in Marseille by President Emmanuel Macron who visited the site. During his trip, President Macron promised that around ten operations of this type would take place in France in the coming weeks.
According to the prefecture, 900 police officers, gendarmes and customs officers were mobilized on the first day of the operation in Marseille and Bouches-du-Rhône.