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\n Published on
\n 04\/08\/2025 – 12:54 GMT+2\n <\/p>\n
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France has become a country with no area free of drugs, according to a report by the country\u2019s anti-narcotics office OFAST, raising concerns about the scale of cocaine trafficking and its grip on French society.<\/p>\n
Described as a \u201cwhite tsunami\u201d by French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, the report warns of an explosive rise in cocaine availability, calling it an \u201cexistential threat\u201d and a form of \u201ccounter-culture\u201d driven by violence and impunity, FranceInfo reported.<\/p>\n
In just the first six months of 2025, authorities seized 37.5 tonnes of cocaine, up 45% from the same period in 2024, a record high. According to OFAST, this is a sign of how deeply entrenched drug trafficking has become across the country.<\/p>\n
In 2024 alone, 367 murders or attempted murders linked to drug-related violence were recorded in 173 cities.<\/p>\n
\u201cTaking control of neighbourhoods fuels everyday crime, normalises violence and illegal money as part of a growing counter-culture, and seriously damages efforts to improve cities and help people integrate into society,\u201d the report stated.<\/p>\n
The report also highlighted how some trafficking networks have gone beyond criminal activity and begun to exert social control in communities. <\/p>\n
In one example from Bagnols-sur-C\u00e8ze in southern France, residents received letters offering help with groceries or home repairs in exchange for tolerating drug dealing in their neighbourhood.<\/p>\n
In some areas, drug lords have even overruled local authority, acting as de facto rulers in their neighbourhoods.<\/p>\n
One such case involved Marseille\u2019s DZ Mafia, a gang that released a video last year featuring masked men, white sheets and weapons raised in the air, an echo of nationalist paramilitary groups. <\/p>\n
OFAST said the group aimed to undermine public institutions, pointing to recent attacks on prisons and prison officers\u2019 homes.<\/p>\n
The report also outlined a pyramid structure within the drug trade. While around 200,000 people are believed to profit in some way from the drug economy, a handful of top-level traffickers dominate drug imports into France, often operating from abroad.<\/p>\n
These individuals, according to OFAST, have built direct links to South American cartels, working so closely that they have effectively formed what resembles a \u201cFrench cocaine cartel\u201d.<\/p>\n
Beneath them are \u201cmiddle-tier\u201d distributors, followed by street-level dealers operating not only at France\u2019s 2,700 known dealing points, but increasingly via delivery systems or even Airbnb-style setups that let customers discreetly collect their drugs from rented apartments.<\/p>\n
In March, France’s Justice Minister G\u00e9rald Darmanin announced he had “decided to strike hard” against the most dangerous drug traffickers in the country, pledging to imprison 200 of them in two high-security prisons by 15 October.<\/p>\n
The minister, who has made tackling the drugs trade a top priority since assuming the role in December, said the facilities would be renovated to make them “completely hermetic”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published on 04\/08\/2025 – 12:54 GMT+2 ADVERTISEMENT France has become a country with no area free of drugs,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316988,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[45812,50813,2000,299,36],"class_list":{"0":"post-316987","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-drug-industry","9":"tag-drug-trafficking","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-france"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114970212872026346","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}