For centuries, the most famous dealers in Morlaix, a town of flints and crepes on the Breton coast of France, were Renaissance linen merchants and builders of a number of houses. unique half-timbered houses in the middle of the city.
New dealers are another story.
France, long a major European market for illegal drugs, is facing a new eruption of concern over the domestic drug trade and the violence that often accompanies it. In recent years, the illegal drug trade has become more visible in small and medium-sized French cities, bringing a degree of insecurity to places that once felt sleepy and safe, experts say. Morlaix, with a population of about 15,000, is among them.
“We are facing an influx of cocaine – something new,” said Mayor Jean-Paul Vermot.
On a recent morning, Mr. Vermot took a tour of Morlaix and pointed proudly to its quaint marina, the balcony of the Town Hall, where General Charles de Gaulle had been. made a speech (The 18th-century tobacco factory, which was converted into a cultural center in July 1945
He also pointed to the park bench where three years ago a group of young vendors threatened to kill him and burn down his house. He pointed to a public housing complex where he said drug deals were made openly before police crackdowns. He pointed to the door of a residence still riddled with bullet holes, a recent attempt by a group of young salesmen to intimidate another young man who owed them money.
What to face was called With the “simultaneous explosion” of supply and demand for illegal drugs, French officials are considering proposals to crack down on human traffickers across the country. Conservative politicians began accusing casual consumers, including marijuana smokers, of supporting a deadly industry. America and Europe have decriminalized or legalized cannabis.
Whether or not all of this is France's new war on drugs remains to be seen, given the country's political instability. Center-right citizen of France the government collapsed After sharp disagreements over the 2025 budget last month. A new government with roughly similar political leanings, was announced Just before Christmas.
His interior minister, Bruno Retailleau, is the tough-talking architect of the legacy and proposed anti-drug plan. Minister of Justice Gerald Darmanin said recently he wanted to put the 100 biggest drug dealers currently in prison in solitary confinement “just like they do with terrorists”.
It is clear that the future conversation about drug policy will not be limited to the traditional hot spots in the Paris suburbs or Marseille, France's second largest city. legendary castle organized crime.
Now more than ever, there is talk of drugs in “La France profonde,” or “deep France,” the slower-paced places where part of the nation's soul is believed to reside. In May, Report of the French Senate found that “the intensification of human trafficking in rural areas and medium-sized cities” was accompanied by “particularly spectacular and disturbing outbreaks of violence, sometimes confronting citizens with actual scenes of war.”
Mr. Retaillo said the French drug trade was on the brink of a “Mexicanization” of the country, a term that refers to the loss of government control over public safety, the corruption of public officials and the growing influence of drug gangs in public life. . Some experts consider language exaggerate. But many admit that a series of horrific episodes far outside the big cities is new cause for concern.
She had a 5-year-old child in October was shot twice During a drug-related car chase in Pace, a small town near Rennes. In November, a 15-year-old boy was shot in the head during a shootout between drug gangs in Poitiers, a city of 90,000 people in central-western France.
The newspaper Le Parisien reported last month that five people had been identified as suspects armed kidnapping In June in Trévoux, a town of 7,000 people north of Lyon, as part of a drug-related extortion plot targeting the son of a 77-year-old woman.
All these episodes have been dwarfed by the recent crisis in Marseille, a former Mediterranean port, which has claimed many lives over the past three years. rise a descendant of teenage contract killers.
In Marseille in November, Mr Retaillo and the left-leaning Didier Migaud, the then justice minister, drew up plans to fight drugs. Among them, the proposal to create a national prosecutor's office and special courts dedicated to organized crime; additional police officers; and the appointment of a new “liaison judge” in Bogotá, Colombia.
But after shooting at the age of 5, Mr. Retailleau also left on a trip to Rennes. part of the sin about users: “You joint smokers, coke rail takers,” he said, “have a taste for tears and, above all, blood.”
There is a wide variety of illegal drugs in France, but cannabis and cocaine dominate. Lawmakers find the latter especially difficult.
Cocaine trafficking in France and Europe in general began to fly In the late 1980s, when the drug market in the United States was saturated, and the United States authorities began to crack down harder on cocaine. A Report of the European Union Agency for Drugs He noted that cocaine seizures in Europe have exceeded those made by the United States since last year.
French Senator Jérôme Durain, author of the Senate report and chairman of the Senate investigative commission on drug trafficking, said the spread of the drug trade to small towns was an inevitable consequence of big-city gangs looking to expand into new markets. . The technology, he said, has helped fuel the rise of “Uberization,” which allows people in rural areas to order medicine with their cellphones.
“Thirty years ago, when I was young, there was a McDonald's in Paris,” Mr. Durain said in an interview. “Now they're everywhere.”
The mayor of Morlaix, Mr Vermot, said that harder drugs were predominant there. According to him, users from all walks of life were identified as a result of police surveillance of a well-known commercial website. “Business executives, workers, functionaries, artisans and people living on the fringes — we really have a whole community that's coming to buy into this new phenomenon of cocaine availability,” he said.
Mr Vermot noted that Morlaich's public housing was well-maintained and well-integrated into neighborhoods with affluent residents. This is not the case in some of France's largest cities, where poor people tend to congregate in banns or suburbs. may feel cut off from the city center and the main economic stream.
In a tight-knit city, he says, it also means he's quick to hear complaints from neighbors.
“Living together actually allows us to reduce, reduce and prevent a certain number of social problems,” he said, including when young dealers start trouble.
Morlaix is far from a city paralyzed by crime. In a country that severely restricts access to guns, his problems may seem almost outlandish by American standards. Residents are aware of the problem, but not everyone supports the crackdown.
Aurélien Cariou, 48, a night watchman, said he suspected the proposed drug policies were an expression of prejudice against racial minorities, who tend to live in France's poorer neighborhoods. He said the crackdown on cannabis, in particular, was seen as an excuse to “beat the heads of Moroccans and Algerians”.
Daniel Rikul, 55, owner of a cosmetics store in the city center, said the government should deal with violations more severely. “You have to be strong,” he said.
Mr. Durain, like senator, mayor, is a member of the Socialist Party. He said he has spoken to a number of left-leaning mayors across the country who agree with many of the proposed changes to the system because they know there is a problem. If there is buy-in for the proposals from the left and the right, it could deliver the expected anti-drug bill in a badly polarized legislature that can't agree on much.
Mayor Mr. Vermot said that with the recent wave of arrests, some of the city's problems have subsided. But he knows he's in for a long fight. He said he likes some of the ideas that would give law enforcement more tools to go after dealers and traffickers. But he worries that conservatives want to rein in France balloon debt will cut social programs that serve to keep the drug world problem under control.
Again, he said, “We have to be honest. This is the problem. And we have to continue to fight it.”
Ségolène Le Stradic He prepared a report from Paris.