Anxious to defend his record on security in the run-up to the presidential campaign, the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, delivered on April 19 in an interview with Figaro, his analysis of the circulation of drugs in the territory. “These trafficking forms the economic matrix of violence in our country. Eradicating them by all means has become the mother of all battles since drugs innervate certain separatist networks but also everyday delinquency. (…) Leaving no respite for drug traffickers is to reduce delinquency everywhere ”, he hammered.
Paying tribute to the action of his Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, the Head of State thus clarified that “Out of the 4,000 deal points listed recently, 1,000 punch operations have been carried out in recent weeks” and reported that 70,000 fixed fines have been issued since September against consumers. These figures say more about government action than about the reality of the consequences on trafficking or the merits of the means used to fight drugs. Foremost among which is cannabis, whose debate on decriminalization continues to mount.
Fewer “mules”
More broadly, according to internal documents from the judicial police (PJ) than The world was able to consult, it appears that drug seizures have, in fact, decreased for the year 2020 compared to the previous year, except for heroin. The number of facts observed and questioned have also fallen by more than 10%. PJ analysts put forward several arguments: the effects of the health crisis which affected the traffic and the implementation of the fixed fine.
The seizure figures, however, remain high and illustrate the existence of a still flourishing traffic. Thus, for the fourth consecutive year, more than ten tons of cocaine were seized in France in 2020. 13.1 tons precisely – down 17% compared to 2019 – coming almost exclusively from South America for 73% by sea and to French ports, that of Le Havre (Seine-Martime) being the first on the list of traffickers.
The phenomenon of “mules”, another vector of drug delivery on the national territory, transporting cocaine after having ingested it in the form of small bundles, is also on the decline: 2.03 tons of cocaine were seizures in this way in 2020, ie a drop of 16.6% compared to 2019. The very strong disruption of air traffic – air links between Guyana and the mainland have decreased by 70% – due to the measures taken to fight against the pandemic directly impacted traffic.
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