An “XXL net operation” was launched on Wednesday for three weeks in Strasbourg, where the police made six arrests in the morning, announced the Bas-Rhin prefecture. “The major objective is the fight against narcotics, but also the fight against all the consequences (of trafficking) of narcotics, violence, acts of delinquency, arms trafficking or illegal work,” declared the prefect from Bas-Rhin, Josiane Chevalier, traveling in the Port du Rhin district, where a few dozen law enforcement officers have been deployed.
250 agents on average for three weeks
According to the prefecture, “250 agents on average” will be mobilized every day for three weeks to carry out “115 operations”, mainly in Strasbourg but also in other municipalities in Alsace and “in prisons”. On Wednesday, the Republican Security Company (CRS) 57, from Carcassonne, participated in the operations. After six arrests made in the early morning as part of a judicial investigation for “aggravated violence”, the police carried out a “security operation”, patrolling the streets and increasing checks, noted the AFP.
“There is a judicial police operation and behind it we visit the cellars, we look for narcotics, we remove the stolen scooters, we bring the dogs through. They are not the same units,” indicated Dominique Rodriguez, interdepartmental director deputy of the national police. “The objective is to disrupt street drug trafficking.”
A mixed political reception
This operation was announced on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday by the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, which provoked criticism from certain elected officials. “The XXL blunder allows drug traffickers to clear the way to escape the operation,” said Strasbourg LFI MP Emmanuel Fernandes. “We could laugh about it if it didn’t torpedo the work of the police.”
“It’s good that the police are here, and are coming to bring some order to the neighborhood,” Jean-Paul, 73, reacted to AFP. “But there will always be drugs, I’m telling you that. The police have already come in 2020, 2021, 2022, that doesn’t change anything. It’s calm for a few days, two or three weeks, but a Once they’re gone, it’s going to start again. I know it, I’ve lived here for 23 years.”