Interior Minister Christophe Castaner on Tuesday unveiled record figures recorded in 2019 in the fight against drug trafficking, by officially installing, Ofast, the new investigation service responsible for carrying out this "fight". In 2019, argued the minister, "more than 13,000 acts of trafficking were prosecuted, or 10% more" than the previous year. “17,276 people have been implicated. In 2017, there were 14,600, an increase of 20% in two years, "he said.
Drug seizures were at the same level as the records of 2017 and 2018 with "more than 95.4 tonnes of cannabis seized and almost 14.5 tonnes of cocaine". Record also for asset seizures. "Over the first nine months of the year, they increased by 19% compared to the same period in 2018 (…) and 30.9 million euros were entered in cash" during this period, an increase " 45% ”, continued Christophe Castaner.
"70% of organized crime is linked to drug trafficking"
As in September when he announced the creation of Ofast on January 1, he insisted on the need to have "no fatalism, no defeatism, no naivety in the face of drugs". "There has to be a fight, always a fight, another fight," he said. Surrounded by the head of Ofast Stéphanie Cherbonnier and her deputy, the prosecutor Samuel Vuelta-Simon, the minister defended the new organization set up to lead "the mother of battles", "from the stairwell to international ”to regain“ square meter by square meter ”.
"70% of organized crime is linked to drug trafficking, which is the breeding ground for all delinquencies", he said, detailing the Ofast method: "intelligence sharing", "decompartmentalization" and joint work of all actors (police, gendarmerie, customs, magistrates).
Operational intelligence units on narcotic drugs
To complete the territorial network of Ofast, it is planned, by the end of the year, the creation of operational intelligence units on narcotic drugs (CROSS) in each department, on the model set up in Marseille, from 2015. As well as that of six additional Ofast detachments.
Christophe Castaner also highlighted the record results recorded by the office during the month of January alone with 1.2 tonnes of cocaine seized.
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- Society
- Cocaine
- Drug
- amazing
- Cannabis
- Drug traffic
- Christophe Castaner