A speech of firmness. On a surprise visit to Marseille, in the La Castellane district where an “XXL square net” operation is currently taking place to fight against drug trafficking, Emmanuel Macron spoke to journalists for around twenty minutes. The Head of State announced that this was “the first in a series of around ten ‘Clear Place’ operations known as ‘XXL'” which are to extend over several weeks.
“More than 82 arrests and around sixty people in police custody”
Emmanuel Macron also affirmed that he would not “give in to any speech of defeat” in the face of drug trafficking, at the start of a vast police operation which has already resulted in “more than 82 arrests and around sixty police custody” since Monday.
“Drug trafficking is a growing scourge” and “the situation is very difficult”, “in Marseille” as in “more and more cities, including medium-sized towns”, he said in this sensitive district from the north of the Phocaean city. “Yes, drugs are our enemy,” he insisted, promising to put in place new measures to “make life impossible for users, make life impossible for the families of the youngest who serve as lookouts.”
His action has already had “results” in Marseille
The Head of State assured that his action since 2017 has already “had results” in Marseille, with “deal points which have melted” in “several districts”. According to him, the “Place Net” operations, which he said he wanted to systematize during his major press conference in mid-January, are “unprecedented”. He detailed the progress of the raids: “Based on the in-depth work that has been carried out for years, we identified the cases that were known, the people (…) who we know are life impossible precisely for a neighborhood, from the heads of networks to their most local relays”.
This “pre-judicialization” of the files then made it possible to target these “very dangerous criminals” by mobilizing “nearly 900 police forces, gendarmerie and customs officers” since Monday in Marseille to “shell the territory, to fight against these dealers , these traffickers, these criminal networks, these killers, these car traffickers” for several weeks, he added.