a short-term solution which “still poses quite a few problems”, according to a magistrate

For the magistrate Guillaume Daïeff, invited Thursday on franceinfo, believes that the “XXL square net” operations pose particular attacks on public freedoms.

During a hearing before the Senate commission of inquiry into the means allocated to the fight against narcotics, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, criticized the investigations “extremely long” carried out by investigating judges to trace the channels, preferring operations “XXL net square” carried out against drugs for several weeks, the aim of which “is to cut off the tentacles of the octopus”. A speech that goes down badly with the magistrates who mobilized on Monday in a column published by Le Monde, asking for a “vital investment” from the state “for democracy and the rule of law”.

For Guillaume Daïeff, magistrate who coordinates the 13th chamber of the Paris judicial court and signatory of the forum, guest of franceinfo Thursday April 10, the operations desired by Gérald Darmanin are short-term and “still pose a lot of problems”, especially because “we’re going to cut off a few little pieces of tentacles and then in three months, they will have grown back.”

Franceinfo: How do you react to Gérald Darmanin’s comments?

Guillaume Daïeff: What interests me in this intervention is that it concerns a fairly technical debate, which arises every day between, on the one hand, investigating judges and prosecutors, and on the other, their investigators from the judicial police: when should we intervene and when should we not? I will give you the example of a truck in which there is cannabis resin. We know it’s circulating. So do we stop it right away or do we not stop it right away? If we arrest him right away, we won’t know where he was supposed to go. So we’ll wait for him to go into the hangar. And here, do we intervene? No, because we would like to see who will come and get the cannabis cakes. There, in this debate, which is a daily debate, we have a Minister of the Interior who takes a position and who says that the truck must be stopped immediately. I am surprised that the issue has given rise to a position taken at such a high level.

Do you think “cutting the octopus’ tentacles” is simplistic?

I remember my SVT teacher explaining to us that octopus tentacles, when we cut them, they grew back. So, we’re going to cut off a few little pieces of tentacles and then in three months, they will have grown back. These operations are not new, we call them “clearance”, but before they were called punch operations. It can be useful, but it still poses a lot of problems. This is not often the most effective. And then these “clearance” operations also raise questions of infringement of public freedoms. In these operations, there are identity checks on everyone, there are openings of everyone’s trunks and cars, there are visits to all the common areas, without even the people concerned have committed the slightest thing. It’s a sort of mini-state of siege or mini-state of emergency, which in my opinion raises questions in terms of the protection of public freedoms.

The minister criticizes you for not systematically opening investigations for money laundering. Is he right or is he provoking you?

We were all a little surprised. The prosecutor, when he carries out an investigation, obviously also seeks to have a money laundering aspect. Except that to do the laundering, you need investigators who have a different hat and other types of skills than those who really do narcotics. You need people who know a little about counting, who know a little about easy banking networks. What we say in our column is that the financial sectors in the judicial police are in decline. However, it can bring money to the state budget through foreclosures. For example, an investigation, which lasted far too long no doubt for the liking of our Minister of the Interior, against a Swiss bank [UBS] gave rise to financial sanctions of around 4 billion euros with a deposit of 1.1 billion. It took a little time, it’s true, but it’s worth it. And for that, you need investigators.