The rise of drug trafficking and the mafia networks that manage it has put the French State in check. A few weeks ago, a series of large-scale anti-drug operations began in Marseille, with the surprise presence of President Macron. Yesterday it was the Minister of Justice, Éric Dupond-Moretti, who announced a legal shock plan that includes measures of unprecedented harshness.
In an interview with La Tribune Dimanche, Dupond-Moretti recognized the seriousness of a problem that is taking on dramatic overtones, with threats to high political levels, in countries such as Belgium and the Netherlands. France wants to provide itself with the means to avoid being destabilized by a phenomenon that infiltrates ports and airports and can corrupt security services and other state bodies.
The French initiative includes the creation of a national prosecutor’s office against organized crime, similar to special prosecutors’ offices against terrorism or financial crimes. There will also be a special court to try those accused of mafia association.
Another measure will consist of copying almost to the letter the Italian model of the repentant mafioso (the pentito), decisive for dismantling criminal networks. France already has a standard that is similar in theory, but in practice it is rarely used because it is ineffective. Dupond-Moretti, of Italian descent, recalled that without a repentant like the famous Tommaso Buscetta, the “maxi-trial” against Cosa Nostra would not have been held in Palermo, in the mid-80s of the last century, with more than a thousand accused. France also plans to increase the maximum penalty for belonging to an association of criminals linked to organized crime to 20 years in prison – double the current penalty.
Dupond-Moretti is a very high-profile and vehement minister who, before taking office in 2020, was already known as a criminal lawyer in high-profile cases. His appointment raised blisters in sectors of the judiciary. Yesterday, the Union of Magistrates (USM) was satisfied with the plans. “It can be said that we have been heard,” declared Ludovic Friat, president of the USM.
The recent operation in Marseille, dubbed Clean Plaza XXL, mobilized some 4,000 agents and then spread to other cities. The Mediterranean metropolis has always been an epicenter of what in France they call “great banditry.” The problem is that this scourge now affects many other cities such as Grenoble, Montpellier, Nîmes, Perpignan and others, in addition to Paris and its suburbs. Last year, in the Marseille area alone, there were 53 deaths in gang scores. Some of the victims were minors, the cannon fodder of the major traffickers against whom the new measures are directed.
