{"id":2811,"date":"2025-01-04T05:01:11","date_gmt":"2025-01-04T05:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/friscotimes.org\/?p=2811"},"modified":"2025-01-04T05:01:11","modified_gmt":"2025-01-04T05:01:11","slug":"france-drugs-small-towns-html","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/friscotimes.org\/?p=2811","title":{"rendered":"In France, Drug Traffic Spreads to Small Towns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For centuries in Morlaix, a city of cobblestones and creperies on the Breton coast of France, the best-known dealers were the ones who traded in linen during the Renaissance and built a number of <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baiedemorlaix.bzh\/en\/discover\/timbered-pondalez-houses\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">unique half-timbered houses<\/a> in the middle of town.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The new dealers are another story.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">France, long a major European market for illicit drugs, is experiencing a new eruption of concern over its domestic drug trade, and the violence that often accompanies it. In the past few years, experts say, the trade in illicit drugs has become more noticeable in France\u2019s small and medium-size cities, bringing a measure of insecurity to places that had once felt sleepy and safe. Morlaix, with its population of about 15,000, is among them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe are confronting a tide of cocaine \u2014 a new thing,\u201d said Jean-Paul Vermot, the mayor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On a recent morning, Mr. Vermot gave a tour of Morlaix, pointing with pride to its quaint marina, the City Hall balcony where Gen. Charles de Gaulle <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"http:\/\/www.le-chiffon-rouge-morlaix.fr\/2020\/11\/de-gaulle-a-morlaix-le-21-juillet-1945.html\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">delivered a speech<\/a> in July 1945 and the 18th-century tobacco factory that has been transformed into a cultural center.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He also showed the park bench where, he said, a group of young dealers three years ago threatened to kill him and burn down his house. He showed a public housing complex where he said drug deals were recently made in the open before a police crackdown. He showed a door of a residence still riddled with bullet holes, a recent effort by a group of young dealers to intimidate another young man in debt to them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Faced with what <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.senat.fr\/rap\/r23-588-1\/r23-588-1-syn.pdf\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">has been called<\/a> the \u201csimultaneous explosion\u201d of supply and demand for illegal drugs, French officials nationwide are embracing proposals to crack down on traffickers. Conservative politicians have taken to blaming casual consumers, including marijuana smokers, for supporting a deadly industry at a time when some governments in the Americas and Europe have decriminalized or legalized cannabis.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Whether it all amounts to a new French war on drugs remains to be seen, given the country\u2019s bout of political instability. France\u2019s center-right national government collapsed last month after bitter disagreements over the 2025 budget. A new government, of a roughly similar political bent, was announced just before Christmas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Its interior minister, Bruno Retailleau, is a holdover from the previous one and a tough-talking architect of the proposed antidrug plan. Its justice minister, G\u00e9rald Darmanin, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.leparisien.fr\/politique\/gerald-darmanin-on-va-isoler-en-prison-les-100-plus-grands-narcotrafiquants-28-12-2024-HMAFIEI2ZVD2FJRQAZYIBGA2B4.php?ts=1735894291306\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">recently said<\/a> he wanted to put the 100 biggest drug dealers who are currently incarcerated in solitary confinement, \u201cas one does with the terrorists.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It is clear that any future conversation about drug policy will not be limited to the traditional hot spots in the suburbs of Paris or in Marseille, France\u2019s second-largest city and a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0067116\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">legendary bastion<\/a> of organized crime.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Now, more than ever, the talk is of drugs in \u201cLa France profonde,\u201d or \u201cdeep France,\u201d those slower-paced places where some essential part of the nation\u2019s soul is believed to reside. In May, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.senat.fr\/travaux-parlementaires\/structures-temporaires\/commissions-denquete\/commission-denquete-sur-limpact-du-narcotrafic-en-france-et-les-mesures-a-prendre-pour-y-remedier.html\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">a French Senate report<\/a> found that \u201cthe intensification of trafficking in the rural areas and the moderate-sized cities\u201d had been \u201caccompanied by an outbreak of violence particularly spectacular and worrying, sometimes making citizens experience veritable war scenes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Retailleau has said that French drug trafficking has the country on the verge of \u201cMexicanization,\u201d a phrase that appears to imply a loss of government control over public safety, the corruption of public officials and the increasing prominence of drug gangs in public life. Some experts consider the language <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.20minutes.fr\/societe\/4119786-20241106-narcotrafics-bruno-retailleau-raison-parler-mexicanisation-france\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">to be exaggerated<\/a>. But many acknowledge that a number of harrowing episodes far beyond the big cities are a new cause for concern.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In October, a 5-year-old child was <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lefigaro.fr\/flash-actu\/trafic-de-drogue-a-rennes-l-enfant-touche-par-balles-risque-une-infirmite-permanente-20241107\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">shot twice<\/a> in Pac\u00e9, a small town near Rennes, during a drug-related car chase. In November, a 15-year-old boy was shot in the head during a drug-gang shootout in Poitiers, a city of 90,000 people in the center-west of France.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Le Parisien newspaper reported last month that five people had been identified as suspects in an <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.leparisien.fr\/faits-divers\/trafic-de-stupefiants-cinq-hommes-mis-en-examen-pour-lenlevement-et-la-sequestration-dune-femme-de-77-ans-09-12-2024-4IAKD5F2KFGILEVADEWD2DWEBQ.php?ts=1733825115954\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">armed kidnapping<\/a> of a 77-year-old woman in June in Tr\u00e9voux, a town of 7,000 people north of Lyon, as part a drug-related extortion scheme targeting her son.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-4\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">All of these episodes have been dwarfed by the recent trouble in Marseille, the old Mediterranean port gripped of late by gangland turf battles that have claimed scores of lives in the past three years, and have seen <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/france\/20241008-radicalised-by-crime-teen-hitmen-take-marseille-s-grisly-drug-violence-to-new-level\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">the rise<\/a> of a generation of teenage contract killers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In November in Marseille, Mr. Retailleau and the justice minister at the time, Didier Migaud, who leans left, laid out plans to fight the drug war. Among them was a proposal for a national prosecutors\u2019 office and special courts dedicated to organized crime; additional police officers; and the appointment of a new \u201cliaison magistrate\u201d in Bogot\u00e1, Colombia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But in a visit to Rennes after the shooting of the 5-year-old, Mr. Retailleau also laid <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bfmtv.com\/politique\/vous-qui-fumez-des-joints-qui-prenez-des-rails-de-coke-il-a-le-gout-des-larmes-et-surtout-du-sang-a-rennes-bruno-retailleau-s-adresse-aux-consommateurs-de-drogue_VN-202411010528.html\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">some of the blame<\/a> on users: \u201cYou who smoke joints, who take rails of coke,\u201d he said, \u201cit has the taste of tears and, above all, of blood.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A wide range of illicit drugs is available in France, but cannabis and cocaine dominate. Lawmakers find the latter particularly troublesome.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-5\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In France, and in Europe generally, cocaine trafficking <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jean-jaures.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Trafic-drogue-Fourquet.pdf\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">began to take off<\/a> in the late 1980s, when the drug market in the United States became saturated, and U.S. officials began cracking down more severely on cocaine. A <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.euda.europa.eu\/publications\/european-drug-report\/2024\/drug-situation-in-europe-up-to-2024_en\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">European Union Drugs Agency report<\/a> from last year noted that European seizures of cocaine now exceeded those made by the United States.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-6\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">J\u00e9r\u00f4me Durain, a French senator who is an author of the Senate report and president of a Senate investigative commission on narcotics trafficking, said the spread of the drug trade to smaller towns was the inevitable result of big-city gangs seeking to expand into new markets. Technology has helped, he said, with the rise of \u201cUberization,\u201d which allows people in the countryside to order drugs with cellphones.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt\u2019s like how 30 years ago, when I was young, there were McDonald\u2019s in Paris,\u201d Mr. Durain said in an interview. \u201cNow you have them everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Vermot, the mayor of Morlaix, said harder drugs had become more prevalent there. Recent police surveillance of a known dealing site, he said, identified users from all walks of life. \u201cHeads of businesses, workers, functionaries, artisans and people living on the margins \u2014 we truly had the whole range of society who came to buy, with this new phenomenon of the presence of cocaine,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-7\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Vermot noted that Morlaix\u2019s public housing was well cared for and well integrated into neighborhoods with wealthier residents. This is not the case in some of France\u2019s biggest cities, where poor people clustered in the banlieues, or suburbs, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.institutmontaigne.org\/en\/expressions\/life-frances-banlieues-overview-and-battle-plan\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">can feel cut off<\/a> from the center of town and the economic mainstream.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In a close-knit city, he said, this also means that he is quick to hear complaints from neighbors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cLiving together actually allows us to mitigate, to lessen, to avoid a certain number of social problems,\u201d he said, including when young dealers start trouble.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-8\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Morlaix is far from a city paralyzed by crime. In a country that strictly limits access to guns, its problems can seem almost quaint by American standards. Its residents are aware of the problem, but not everyone supports a crackdown.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Aur\u00e9lien Cariou, 48, a night watchman, said he suspected that the proposed drug policies were an expression of prejudice against racial minorities, who tend to live in France\u2019s poorer neighborhoods. Getting tough on cannabis, in particular, he said, seemed like an excuse \u201cto knock the heads of Moroccans and Algerians.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-9\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Daniel Ricoul, 55, the owner of a cosmetics store in the town center, said the government needed to address delinquency with a heavier hand. \u201cIt\u2019s necessary to be firm,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Durain, the senator, is, like the mayor, a member of the Socialist Party. He said he had spoken to a number of left-leaning mayors around the country who agree with many of the proposed changes to the system because they know there is a problem. If there is buy-in for the proposals from the left and the right, it could give a pending drug-fighting bill legs in a badly polarized legislature that cannot seem to agree on much else.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Vermot, the mayor, said that some of the city\u2019s problems had subsided with a recent wave of arrests. But he knows he is in for a long-term struggle. He said he liked some of the ideas that would give law enforcement more tools to go after dealers and traffickers. But he is worried that conservatives seeking to rein in France\u2019s ballooning debt will cut social programs that serve to keep drug-world trouble in check.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Still, he said: \u201cWe have to be honest. It\u2019s a problem. And we have to continue to confront it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-10\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">S\u00e9gol\u00e8ne Le Stradic<!-- --> contributed reporting from Paris.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For centuries in Morlaix, a city of cobblestones and creperies on the Breton coast of France, the best-known dealers were the ones who traded in linen during the Renaissance and&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":391,"featured_media":2812,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.5 - 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