A sequence of coordinated assaults has struck prisons throughout France, as unidentified assailants set fireplace to automobiles exterior a number of services, left cryptic messages, and opened automated gunfire at one jail.
Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin and Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau have lately pledged to accentuate the combat towards narcotics and drug-related crime.
Between Sunday night time and early Monday, a jail warden’s automobile was set on fireplace in Seine-et-Marne exterior Paris, whereas seven autos had been torched within the parking zone of a jail employees coaching heart in Agen, southwest France, in response to police and prosecutors.
The majority of incidents occurred in a single day Monday into Tuesday. These included a number of circumstances of automobile arson and an automated gunfire assault on a jail close to the southern metropolis of Toulon.
The letters “DDPF” — believed to face for “French prisoners’ rights” — had been discovered scrawled at almost all of the scenes, aside from the jail close to Toulon, the place a special acronym, “DDFM,” was found spray-painted on a gate riddled with bullet holes.
France’s nationwide anti-terrorist prosecutor’s workplace has taken over the investigation. So far, no group has claimed accountability.
Darmanin visited the jail close to Toulon on Tuesday and vowed that the federal government “will not give in.” Speaking to reporters exterior the power, he mentioned, “Attempts are being made to intimidate penal institutions, ranging from the burning of vehicles to automatic gunfire.”
In a publish on X, he linked the assaults to the federal government’s anti-narcotics marketing campaign. “France is facing drug trafficking and is taking measures that will seriously disrupt criminal networks,” he mentioned, promising a “firm” response.
Darmanin, a former inside minister, has spearheaded what he calls a “prison revolution” that features transferring 200 of France’s 700 most harmful drug traffickers into two top-security services. The initiative follows final yr’s lethal escape of suspected drug kingpin Mohamed Amra, who killed two jail guards earlier than being re-arrested in Romania and extradited again to France.
While investigators are exploring a number of traces of inquiry, one supply near the case mentioned they aren’t ruling out the involvement of anarchists. However, Darmanin instructed that the strategies used needs to be pointed to prison networks.
“It looks awfully like what I knew when I was interior minister — people paid a couple of hundred or thousand euros on small contracts to intimidate,” he mentioned.
A supply informed AFP the assaults appeared coordinated and “clearly linked to the anti-drug gang strategy” pursued by Darmanin.
Interior Minister Retailleau known as for an pressing increase in “the protection of prison officers and establishments.”
On Monday night time, a number of people armed with automated rifles fired on the doorway of the Toulon-area jail. An AFP journalist on the scene reported that the grey gates had been riddled with bullet holes and spray-painted with the acronym “DDFM.”
In Marseille, ten jail autos had been tagged with “DDPF” in a single day Monday, in response to native official Martine Vassal.
In the Villepinte jail parking zone north of Paris, three autos — together with two owned by jail employees — had been set ablaze. A gasoline canister was discovered on web site, and CCTV footage captured two people setting the automobiles on fireplace.
Similar arson assaults had been additionally reported within the southern cities of Aix and Valence.
“These criminal acts are a full-on attack on our institution, on the republic and the staff who serve the republic every day,” mentioned the FO Justice union, calling for a “strong, clear response” from the federal government.
Wilfried Fonck, nationwide secretary of the UFAP UNSA Justice union, informed AFP the jail system lacks the staffing wanted to safe facility perimeters across the clock.
Source: www.dailysabah.com