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Drugs: trafficking booming in the French countryside
Drug trafficking is now established in rural areas, where law enforcement is engaged in a standoff with traffickers.
(France 2)
Drug trafficking is now established in rural areas, where law enforcement is engaged in a standoff with traffickers.
Cocaine, heroin, crack… Are these drugs spreading in our countryside? Trafficking is no longer just the business of big cities, but now extends to rural areas, where no one expected it. In a town in Orne of 7,800 inhabitants, the hunt for trafficking mobilizes the police. Fifteen arrests and seven kilos of cannabis were seized in one night. Shows of force are necessary even on regional trains. It is during users’ movements that the gendarmes hope to intercept narcotics.
Traffic which has increased by 67% in 10 years
The search for discretion is undoubtedly what attracts traffickers. In Châlon-sur-Saône (Saône-et-Loire), one in ten procedures concerns drug-related offenses. The police also observed “an uberization of trafficking, with drugs ordered online and parcel shipments”, explains Colonel Marie-Laure Pezant, spokesperson for the national gendarmerie. In ten years, the gendarmes have seen drug trafficking increase by 67%.
