Bruno Retailleau said on Friday, November 1, that we were “at a tipping point” in the face of drug trafficking, after a bloody shooting in Poitiers. A 15-year-old boy is between life and death, just one week after a child was seriously injured by a bullet in Rennes, where the Minister of the Interior is expected.
“The ‘narcoracailles’ have no limits (…) These shootings are not happening in South America, they are happening in Rennes, in Poitiers (…). We are at a tipping point,” exclaimed the Minister of the Interior on BFMTV/RMC.
He argued that we now have “the choice between general mobilization or the Mexicanization of the country.”
In Poitiers, “around 10:45 p.m.” on Thursday evening, he reported, “it started with a shootout in front of a restaurant and ended with a fight between rival gangs involving several hundred people.” He mentioned “400 to 600 people” who participated in or witnessed this fight, citing “a report from the prefect.
According to the first elements of the investigation, there are less than a hundred people involved, between “40 and 60”, according to another police source.
Five people were injured in the shooting, several of them seriously. According to a police source, a 15-year-old boy was shot in the head and was between life and death. Two 16-year-olds were also among the seriously injured, according to the same source.
“National Cause”
Far from Poitiers, near Valence, a man in his twenties was also between life and death after being shot in the head during a shootout in front of a nightclub on the night of Thursday to Friday. The incidents were linked to drug trafficking, according to the police.
These events occurred a week after a five-year-old boy was also shot in the head in Pacé, near Rennes. He is still between life and death, the minister said on Friday. “The investigation is progressing,” he added, promising reinforcements “for as long as it takes.” The boy was in his father’s car as he tried to flee drug traffickers.
Bruno Retailleau is due to go to Rennes in the afternoon, to the Maurepas district, the site of several score-settling. He plans to meet with police officers and then elected officials at the Ille-et-Vilaine prefecture. Since his appointment to the Ministry of the Interior, he has been calling for the fight against drug trafficking to become “a national cause”.
He wants a mobilization against drug trafficking similar to what was done against terrorism. When he was president of the LR senators, he was at the origin of the creation of the commission of inquiry into drug trafficking.
Since then, he has wanted the government to take up the proposals of this senatorial commission of inquiry, such as the creation of a status for repentants or that of a dedicated national prosecutor’s office.
Next Friday, Bruno Retailleau is due to travel to Marseille with his colleague from Justice Didier Migaud, where the settling of scores between drug traffickers is particularly deadly and sordid, with the involvement of 14-15 year-olds as hitmen. The two ministers are expected to announce several measures together.
Leave a Reply