The Minister of the Interior has pledged to wage a war against this new form of drug trafficking, a real headache for the police.
A thirtieth visit to Marseille for Gérald Darmanin. The Minister of the Interior returned on Wednesday January 3 to talk about the fight against drug trafficking in the Marseille city. After rejoicing at the successful “shelling” of numerous deal points by the police, he had to recognize that the problem, far from having disappeared, had only moved. Because if the points of sale disappear, the drugs continue to circulate. Now, it is simply delivered to the consumer’s home. It’s the “Uber shit”.
“In the fight against home deliveries, we have to change part of our strategy,” admitted Gérald Darmanin to France 3 Regions. The minister pledged to “launch very big work on drug deliveries, Uber shit”. “I asked the prefect to prepare a large number of operations,” he said, mentioning “systematic control” and “specific investigation techniques for delivery people”.
Ease for the consumer
What is “Uber shit”? The phenomenon is not new but “it accelerated considerably during confinement”, confides a police source specializing in the fight against drug trafficking to France 3 Regions. The transaction begins on an encrypted messaging service like WhatsApp, Snapchat, Telegram or Signal. The consumer indicates the type of drug desired, the quantity and the delivery address. “A ‘secretary’ receives orders via encrypted messaging, he dispatches ‘a seller’ to the address indicated, this same seller is himself supplied by ‘a supplier’, because the sellers only have the quantity on them to be delivered,” explains the police officer. None of these intermediaries know each other.
The seller delivers the desired quantity by bicycle or scooter. “Some ‘Uber Shit’ have double hats, they are also pizza deliverers, Uber Eats, etc.,” says the police source.
This new form of trafficking facilitates access to drugs, to the point of motivating new customers. Thus, consumer profiles are diversifying, with “Uber shit” giving an impression of security, far from the settling of scores at open-air points of sale.