French Guiana – France plans to build a maximum-security prison wing for drug traffickers and radicalised Islamists near a former penal colony in its overseas department of French Guiana, sparking outcry among residents and local officials.
The wing will form part of a $450 million prison announced in 2017, which is expected to be completed by 2028 and hold 500 inmates.
The prison is to be built in Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, a town bordering Suriname that once received prisoners shipped by Napoleon III in the 1800s, some of whom were sent to the notorious Devil’s Island off the coast of French Guiana.
French Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin announced plans to build the high-security wing during an official visit to French Guiana on Saturday, saying: "I have decided to establish France's third high-security prison in Guiana."
Drug trafficking
Darmanin was quoted by French weekly newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche as saying that the prison also aims to keep suspected drug traffickers from having any contact with their criminal networks.
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“We are seeing more and more drug trafficking networks,” he told reporters. "My strategy is simple – hit organised crime at all levels. Here in Guiana, at the start of the drug trafficking route. In mainland France, by neutralising the network leaders. And all the way to consumers. This prison will be a safeguard in the war against narcotrafficking."
Darmanin, who forged a reputation for a tough stance on drugs in his previous role as interior minister, added that the prison's location "will serve to permanently isolate the heads of drug trafficking networks" since "they will no longer be able to contact their criminal networks".
He also said in a Facebook post that 15 of the wing’s 60 spaces would be reserved for Islamic militants.
French media, quoting the Justice ministry, reported that people from French Guiana and French Caribbean territories would be sent in priority to the new prison.
'Astonishment and indignation'
The announcement has angered many across French Guiana, a French overseas territory situated north of Brazil.
Jean-Paul Fereira, acting president of French Guiana’s territorial collective, an assembly of 51 lawmakers that oversees local government affairs, said the announcement came as a surprise, as the plan had never been discussed with them.
“It is therefore with astonishment and indignation that the elected members of the Collectivity discovered, together with the entire population of Guiana, the information detailed in Le Journal Du Dimanche,” he wrote in a statement posted on social media on Sunday.
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Fereira said the move was disrespectful and insulting, noting that the agreement French Guiana signed in 2017 was for the construction of a new prison meant to alleviate overpopulation at the main prison.
“While all local elected officials have long been calling for strong measures to curb the rise of organised crime in our territory, Guiana is not meant to welcome criminals and radicalised people from [mainland France],” he wrote.
Also decrying the plan was Jean-Victor Castor, a member of parliament in French Guiana. He said he wrote directly to France’s prime minister to express his concerns, noting that the decision was taken without consulting local officials.
“It’s an insult to our history, a political provocation and a colonial regression,” Castor wrote in a statement issued on Sunday, as he called on France to withdraw the project.
A spokesperson for France’s justice minister did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
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Guiana has the highest crime rate of any French department relative to the size of its population, with a record 20.6 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2023, nearly 14 times the national average.
Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni is a strategic hub for so-called drug mules, mainly from Brazil, who attempt to board flights to Paris's Orly Airport carrying cocaine originating from neighbouring Suriname.
(with newswires)
