Gérard Darmanin promises that the “hundred biggest drug traffickers” detained will be isolated in “a high security prison” in the summer. Where will she be?
“We are going to show that when you are in prison and you are a drug trafficker you cannot make telephone calls and you cannot have a pleasant life,” Justice Minister Gérard Darmanin declared this Sunday, January 12 on LCI. At the end of December, he had already announced his desire to isolate the hundred biggest drug traffickers in the same prison, sparking mixed reactions. While the lawyer at the Aix-en-Provence bar, Me Julien Pinelli, denounced Here “a primarily political statement” with dubious feasibility criteria, Senator LR from Rhône spoke of a “completely realistic” measure.
But no matter, Gérard Darmanin has decided to continue “Operations Place Net”, launched in 2024 to put a stop to drug trafficking. And to accelerate its new prison project. “We are going to take a French prison, we are going to empty it of the people who are there and we will put there, since we will have it totally isolated, totally secure with particularly trained, anonymized prison officers”, the “hundred biggest drug traffickers” , developed the Keeper of the Seals, without specifying what this penitentiary establishment would be.
“Today we isolate certain traffickers among other prisoners and we can clearly see that this system, if I dare say, of mixing, does not work,” he justified himself, citing in particular the prisoners who can telephone in prison. To avoid this type of exchange, the Ministry of Justice indicates to BFMTV that there will be, for example, a jamming system which will prevent prisoners from communicating with each other, regular searches or even anti-drone combat around the prison.
“A security problem”
A security system which seems all the more essential as acts of violence in prisons increase. In 2024, they even cost the life of an inmate at Baumettes prison in Marseille. The victim, aged 22, was said to have had his throat slit by his fellow inmate following an argument. The two men had also been imprisoned for acts linked to drug trafficking.
Considering this history, Éric Fievez, of the CFDT Pénitentiaire, believes that “putting all dangerous prisoners in the same place will pose a security problem”. “Gendarmerie, police, prison forces” will have to be mobilized to “prevent access”, he specifies on franceinfo. Despite everything, Emmanuel Baudin, general secretary of Force Ouvrière Justice, recognizes progress. “As with terrorism, we have always said that specific establishments are needed and not specific neighborhoods within an establishment,” he reacted after Gérald Darmanin’s announcement on public radio.
A cost of “a few million” euros
For this project, Gérald Darmanin said he currently had “two prisons in mind”. Even if he has not yet specified which establishments could be concerned, the Vendin-le-Vieil penitentiary center in Pas-de-Calais and the Alençon-Condé-sur-Sarthe penitentiary center in ‘Orne meets the security criteria according to a union source at franceinfo.
To fill them, “we will start by isolating the first 100” largest drug traffickers, “then we will do the next 200, then (again) the next 200…”, he explained. This list was established by joint work between the police and gendarmerie services and also on the basis of elements of prison intelligence, according to the minister’s entourage contacted by BFMTV.
In December, he mentioned a measure requiring “a few million” euros more, in addition to “good organization, voluntarism and very committed civil servants”. An optimism which, however, does not mention the risks caused by prison overcrowding. As of November 1, there were 80,130 prisoners for only 62,404 operational places in French prisons according to figures posted online by the ministry of justiceTuesday, December 31.