![\"Cannes](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/00245de1-614.jpg\"\/)
\nCannes Mayor David Lisnard said the crackdown ‘applies to the entire population’<\/p>\n
The mayor of Cannes has ordered a drugs crackdown as Hollywood stars and film industry executives flock to party and do deals in the French Riviera resort.<\/p>\n
David Lisnard called for a “targeted operation to combat narcotics” with dozens of parties going on every night in glitzy hotels, luxury villas and on yachts moored in the bay.<\/p>\n
Sniffer dogs who can detect cocaine and cannabis are being posted along the seafront Croisette where the big red carpet premieres are held every evening.<\/p>\n
“When 200,000 people come, it’s obvious there’s trafficking, and we have to fight it,” said right-wing politician Mr Lisnard, who is making a run to be French president next year.<\/p>\n
He told AFP that the crackdown “applies to the entire population … and it also applies to festival-goers”.<\/p>\n
But while the police can conduct spot checks in public spaces, they are not allowed to raid parties or private spaces without a warrant.<\/p>\n
\nCannes Mayor David Lisnard said the crackdown ‘applies to the entire population’<\/p>\n
“I hope they don’t come in and test anyone in here,” one veteran producer told AFP in the Cannes Market, where thousands of movers and shakers are buying and selling films.<\/p>\n
One of his colleagues doubted that the anti-drugs drive would do much to stop the prodigious consumption of cocaine at the festival.<\/p>\n
“Cocktails and cocaine are almost as old as the festival itself,” he added, saying, “People might be a bit more careful, but they are not going to stop having a good time.”<\/p>\n
Indeed, some complain the police are not going after jet-setting cocaine users and are instead picking on local youths and minority groups.<\/p>\n
A young man told AFP near the town’s train station that he had been stopped five times in a single day. “I had nothing to hide, so they let me go,” he said.<\/p>\n
But the mayor insists the checks are not targeted and rejects any suggestion of stigmatisation.<\/p>\n
The head of Cannes municipal police, Yves Daros, explained that “the legislation currently restricts us to public areas, but that’s enough for us to get good results.”<\/p>\n
With so many wealthy people in one place, the police are also on the alert for jewellery heists and luxury watch theft.<\/p>\n
Eric Antonetti, head of the regional criminal investigation department, said his officers have been reinforced by specialist police from Naples and Madrid during the festival.<\/p>\n
The commissioner said that last year 65% of luxury watch thefts in Cannes were the work of “foreign offenders, 25% from Naples and 40% from Spanish criminal networks, mainly made up of teams from South America and North Africa.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The mayor of Cannes has ordered a drugs crackdown as Hollywood stars and film industry executives flock to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[18,117,19,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-485853","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116578215276792966","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}