William Molinié (in Cayenne), edited by Laura Laplaud
modified to
10:32 a.m., October 01, 2022
Gérald Darmanin, accompanied by the Ministers of Justice and Public Accounts, respectively Éric Dupond-Moretti and Gabriel Attal, have been in Guyana since Friday. This overseas territory has a high rate of crime and violence linked in particular to drug trafficking. 30 homicides have taken place since the beginning of the year. The Minister of the Interior announced the reinforcement of 150 police and gendarmes.
Substantial reinforcements
The government has pulled out the big guns against the increasingly armed and violent Brazilian gangs that are rampant in the territory. A RAID antenna with 13 elite police officers will settle permanently in Cayenne. And to deal with cocaine trafficking at the airport, scanners will soon be installed so that “100% of passengers, 100% of flights going to mainland France are now fully checked”, indicated Gérald Darmanin.
Limited means, believes Cédric Boyer, national delegate of the Alliance police union in charge of overseas. “Unfortunately, it will clearly not be enough. Today, a kilo of cocaine in Guyana is a strip of hash in the 93. And today, Guyana is Medellín. And to stem all this, we will have to put colossal means. It is not with 150 reinforcements that we will get there”, he regrets.
“Exchanging 1 kg of cocaine for 1 kg of weed, anywhere in the world, does not exist, or so in drug cartels. Today, Guyana, it has become a giant cartel, a drug hypermarket. Guyana is as if you had a body with multiple injuries. So obviously, today, we have to go to the most urgent, reinforce our colleagues so that they work in complete safety. But in- beyond that, I think there is even a need for the creation of services that do not exist anywhere else”, he continues.
The number of customs officers will double
In addition, seven judicial police officers will reinforce the anti-narcotics office on site. The number of customs officers will double. Finally, on the justice side, five magistrate posts will be created. As well as seven others which will rotate every six months. Objective: to reduce the stock of cases that are piling up in the Cayenne court.