If France is a land of illusions – a beautiful and seductive country that offers many of life's greatest pleasures and sits atop a crime-ridden, drug-ridden world full of violence – then the past week has been a rude awakening for these dual reality provided.
The Olympic flame arrived on French soil last week in the ancient port city of Marseille, as cheerful crowds thronged the beautiful harbor. Peace was discussed in the run-up to the Games, which start in July. But the flame also reached a city whose northern districts are the epicenter of France's drug trade, where 49 people were killed and 123 injured in drug-related shootings last year.
Tuesday's cold-blooded killing of two prison guards on a major highway in an ambush that freed Mohamed Amra, a mid-range prisoner under investigation in Marseille for possible links to a drug-related murder case, shocked France. This, just 80 miles from the capital, was a methodical execution in broad daylight on the main road from Paris to Normandy. The methods were in keeping with the brutality of a booming narcotics market.
Senator Jérôme Durain, a member of the Socialist Party and one of two authors of a Senate committee report on drug trafficking in France completed this week, was not shocked by the killing. “The world we found was one of limitless violence involving people, often very young people, who have no conscience and have lost all sense of the value of life,” he said in an interview. “This fits perfectly.”
He said that “corruption is starting to spread because there is so much money,” implying that it was possible that the ambush was facilitated by compromising the security services.
Bruno Le Maire, France's finance minister, said in March that the drug trade in France is now worth about $3.8 billion a year, but other estimates range as high as $6.5 billion. The amount of ecstasy and amphetamine seized by customs will increase by 180 percent in 2023, French customs said.
In total, almost 93 tons of drugs were seized last year, worth $927 million, according to the French customs annual report. Cannabis, which is illegal in France, is the most commonly seized drug, followed by cocaine, the Senate report said.
There is no hard evidence yet that the extraordinary sophistication of the ambush that freed Mr Amra, 30, who is known as “The Fly” and disappeared along with at least five attackers, reflected his possible status as a drug gang star. He has been convicted 13 times for crimes such as extortion and assault, and the Marseille case involves narcotics, but he has not been convicted of drug-related charges.
In testimony before the Senate, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin emphasized the link between the killings and drug trafficking. “Senator Durain, you are cautious about the connection between this undignified attack on the Eure toll booth and the drug trade. I have no such caution. There is a link. It is obvious.”
He added that “the greatest danger to our national unity is drug trafficking,” and urged the country to do “a hundred times more than we have done so far.” He described the report on drugs in France by Senator Durain and Senator Étienne Blanc of the centre-right Republicans as completely correct.
“We all need to wake up. We must fight drugs, which are never festive, always deadly,” Mr Darmanin said. “No one should have to make a single argument in the future to accept their consumption.”
It was an extraordinary call to action. In the interview, Senator Durain said France has joined forces to effectively fight terrorism, but has never done so to combat narcotics trafficking, which costs many more lives. This had to change, he said.
As the hunt for Mr. Amra continued, Interpolan international organization that helps police forces worldwide share information about fugitives and crimes has issued a red alert against him – essentially an urgent request from France for help in finding Mr Amra, raising the possibility that he may be a border has been crossed.
In Marseille, which President Emmanuel Macron visited with great fanfare in March to announce an attack on what he called the “terrible scourge” of drug trafficking, the situation has continued to deteriorate, Senator Durain said.
“When it comes to all-out gang warfare and violent competition for outlets, Marseille leads the rest of the country, even as the insidious grip of drugs spreads to smaller cities,” he said. The government operation, which has expanded to several French cities and smaller towns, is called 'Clean Sweep'. It has had minimal impact, Senator Durain added.
Police have identified the two main rival gangs in Marseille as 'Yoda' and 'DZ Mafia', and they attribute around 35 of the 49 murders last year to the fierce battle between them for control of outlets. Pascal Bonnet, a deputy criminal investigation officer in charge of France's southern region, told Le Monde newspaper earlier this year.
In northern Marseille and other struggling neighborhoods across the country, where North African immigrants struggle to integrate into French society, school dropout rates are high, violence is common and access to jobs is scarce. Through groups on WhatsApp and other social media, offers of $5,500 to drive a car in a drug deal or up to $200,000 for a murder can prove irresistible.
“There are home delivery services in Marseille for cannabis or cocaine that promote themselves on social media and are even sold as a regular business,” said Senator Durain. “People in private WhatsApp groups call them 'Uber-hash' or 'Uber-coke', it's that common.”
Mr Amra's background is unclear. He grew up in Normandy. His most recent conviction this month was for a burglary, but he appears to have close links to Marseille's criminal underworld. On September 26 last year, a judicial tribunal there requested that he be placed in isolation in connection with a drug-related murder case involving a burned body found in a car in southern France.
The investigation into the crime found that although Mr. Amra was imprisoned, “from behind bars, he continued to communicate with the outside world through a line opened in his sister's name,” Le Monde reported on Tuesday.
A series of government ministers pledged on Tuesday to recapture Mr Amra and bring to justice the killers who freed him, but the longer the search for them continues, the more embarrassing it will become for Mr Macron at a delicate moment in the approach to the murder. the Olympics.
On a deeper level, the bloody debacle, combined with the release on the same day of the Senate report on the drug trade, appeared to have opened a vigorous debate about why government efforts to tackle the drug problem have proven so ineffective. This in turn will almost certainly lead to renewed political confrontation over the issue of social exclusion and poverty in the poorer neighborhoods and suburbs of major French cities.