Barely appointed Minister of Justice, Gérald Darmanin is increasing his travels, proposals and media interventions this Christmas holiday period. After a trip to Picardy on Wednesday, an interview on Thursday at 8 p.m. on TF1 and another with from the Parisian Saturday, the Minister of Justice went this Sunday, December 29 to the Paris judicial court to meet magistrates, registrars and duty lawyers.
The new Minister of Justice said in particular that he was in favor of reinforced isolation in detention for “the 100 biggest drug traffickers” and the construction of new prisons for the execution of sentences of “a few months, weeks, or even days”, in an interview published Saturday evening on the site from the Parisian. “The much greater isolation of the ten or a hundred network heads must be put on the agenda. There is no necessarily need for a text for that,” said Gérald Darmanin this Sunday.
The objective of this measure? “Stop continuing to smuggle drugs from prison and threaten staff.” “No one in France understands that one can, from prison, control a deal point, be able to recover money and distribute it, order assassinations, etc.” continued Gérald Darmanin. The minister also expressed his desire for technological solutions such as “scrambling” the telephone network which could be carried out in the cells of the network heads.
“We have a wake-up call to make collectively”
The minister also estimated that France, which according to him is “at a tipping point” regarding drug trafficking, intends to “find where they are” the drug traffickers, that is to say sometimes in foreign countries. “I will go to the United Arab Emirates and other countries in January to accelerate judicial cooperation, so that the ‘narcobandits’ answer for their actions before French justice,” he announced.
In addition, the Minister of Justice wants to strengthen “criminal intelligence”. “There are not enough magistrates in Paris as elsewhere but also not enough specialization,” he estimated, also referring to the number of “7,000” prisoners serving sentences for drug trafficking.
“Everyone is now aware of the danger posed by drugs and narco-banditry,” declared Gérald Darmanin. “We have a wake-up call to make collectively,” he said. “With a few million at the Ministry of Justice we can do miracles, with a few million more I will do miracles,” underlined the Minister of Justice, recalling that the budget of his ministry in the state budget is only by 2%.