French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin travelled to the southern city of Nîmes on Friday to address the issue of drug crime that this week claimed the lives of a 10-year-old child and an 18-year-old man.
After offering condolences to the families of the victims, Darmanin confirmed that a unit of 60 special riot police (CRS) would be deployed in the Gard department until at least the end of the year to crackdown on drug traffickers.
Fifteen additional judicial police officers would also be sent to Nîmes to speed up investigations.
He added that an interministerial investigation service (GIR) would be based in Nîmes to specifically investigate the laundering of drug traffic money.
The minister told residents he was open to creation of a municipal police station in the Pissevin district, where both fatal shootings occurred this week.
"Nîmes will be, in proportion to its inhabitants, the city with the most investigators," Darmanin said.
Consumers play a role
He also referred to people who consume drugs, saying they had a shared responsibility in the issue.
"If there was no consumption, there would be no sellers. (...) Anyone who uses drugs finances extremely violent criminal networks, which kill, especially children."
After the death of a 10-year-old child in the Pissevin district on Monday, Darmanin ordered the deployment of the CRS-8, a unit specialising in urban violence, as well as officiers from the RAID special unit.
He indicated that this deployment was intended to "show that it is the authority of the state that prevails, not the authority of the dealers".
"We have a war against drugs which is difficult," he said on Thursday, adding that despite this, some progress had been made.
"These results undoubtedly give rise to these settling of scores," he said.
"There are 40 percent more police officers than four years ago in Nîmes and three tonnes of cannabis were seized in the Gard department in 2022, compared to less than a ton four years ago".
One arrest made
Meanwhile, a man was arrested on Thursday evening in relation to the death of the 18-year-old in Pissevin.
The victim died from bullets wounds to the abdomen, while shell casings were found at the scene.
Nîmes authorities said the shooting took place where drug deals are known to be carried out.
Nîmes public prosecutor said on Friday that the victim was only known to the police for a traffic offence prior to the shooting.
However, the four suspects involved in the shooting of the 10 year-old boy, are still on the run.
Impunity
The Pissevin district is one of the most important drug sales outlets in Nîmes, according to Le Monde newspaper. With 70 percent of the population living below the poverty line, the area has earned itself the label of "a priority area" by the government.
According to French news agency AFP, 37 people have died in the gang war since the start of the year, already six more than in all of 2022.
These neighborhoods are considered lawless areas and armed men "walk the streets with impunity", wrote the local daily Midi Libre in January 2021.
The inhabitants say they feel abandoned by the authorities. "We are living in total insecurity. Nothing is happening, they don't want us to move," a mother who has lived in Pissevin for twenty years told France Bleu radio on Tuesday.
"They prefer to leave us – excuse the term – in deep shit."
"Violence and delinquency is off the scale," SGP Police union, Sandy Issartel, told France Bleu radio on Tuesday, calling for "at least between 50 and 100 reinforcements" on a permanent basis, to deal with the situation.
According to Eddy Sid, spokesman for the SGP Police FO Unit union, the modus operandi and the age of contract killers are changing.
"We have perpetrators and victims who are no more than twenty years old, who take action much more easily than a few years ago," he said on BFMTV.
