The wave of attacks in mid-April included prisons that were hit by gunfires, as well as cars and homes of staff who were targeted in arson attacks.
French Justice Minister Gerald Dalmanin has announced that the suspect has been arrested in connection with multiple attacks committed against French prisons.
“May the law and the Republic win the merciless battle against drug trafficking,” he added.
RTL said that “a wave of massive arrests” took place not only in the Paris region, but also in early morning Marseille, Bordeaux and Lyon.
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“The French Republic is facing the issue of drug trafficking and is taking steps to significantly disrupt the criminal network,” he said.
Anxiety can also be linked to prisoner activist groups.
The letter “DDPF” – the acronym “Défense Des Droits Des Prishniers Français” (defense of French prisoners’ rights) continues to be tagged on attack sites.
“We are not terrorists. We are here to protect human rights in prison,” the group said.
Speaking to French Media Europe 1 on April 15, Dharmanin was asked why he believes it is a drug gang, not the “super-left” attacking the prison.
Dharmanin said he “excludes nothing”, but when people “dismiss Kalashnikov” in prison, it is “Moudas surgery of delinquency, your criminal who may pay thousands of euros to do something like that”.
“Social media is currently creating these kinds of imitation moments that are aimed at testing key territories of the country and pushing the nation back, terrifying prison officers and seeking strikes, and raising debates about whether the Justice Minister is going too far with his firmness,” he said.
“So despite the threat, we’re not going to backtrack.”
Last year, French Home Minister Bruno Reciroe warned that the emergence of a “narctic environment” poses a serious threat to the country.
The fatal shootout on November 1, 2024 in Poitiers, the former safe French town of Poitiers, historically known for its medieval church, shocked the country, resulting in the death of a 15-year-old boy who was shot in the head.
The shootout involving hundreds of people was the latest in a wave of drug-related crime that turned cities like Poitia, Rennes and Marseille into battlefields.
In Poitiers, Retero raised vigilance regarding the rise of these “narcotic environments” and compared the situation to the growing controls that drug cartels have in Mexico.
Retailleau said it faces two choices: “There’s a general mobilization or the country’s Mexicanization,” or it puts the formation of gang-controlled “enclaves, ministates and Narco imports” on French territory at risk.
