The government has announced the dispatch of police and customs reinforcements presented as "massive" to Guyana to stem the chronic violence affecting the overseas territory, largely linked to arms and drug trafficking or illegal gold panning.

In conclusion of the security meetings organized by Guyanese elected officials, the Ministers of Public Accounts Gabriel Attal, of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, and of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti all three promised Friday evening in Cayenne to beef up staff and resources to curb the "scourge" of crime.

Against a backdrop of great poverty, the South American department holds the record for the highest number of homicides per capita in France, despite a massive police presence.

Since the beginning of the year, 30 have already been identified in this territory of 300,000 inhabitants.

According to the Ministerial Statistical Service for Homeland Security (SSMSI), the homicide rate there stood at 11.2 per 100,000 inhabitants between 2016 and 2021, compared to 1.2 on the national average.

Drug trafficking hub

On the fight against drug trafficking, Gabriel Attal first promised a reinforcement of customs staff at Cayenne airport, "with a doubling of the current 27 agents", the deployment of a fourth team of dogs and the recruitment of ten additional officers "by the end of 2023".

The minister also announced on Saturday the installation of a container scanner in the port of Cayenne, "operational in the coming weeks", and a baggage scanner for the airport.

Guyana is one of the hubs of cocaine trafficking between South America and France.

Large quantities of drugs pass through the containers arriving and departing from the port and, every day, dozens of "mules" board flights to Paris, loaded with "balls" or "eggs" of white powder they conceal or ingest.

Change gear

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said on Saturday that he was studying the deployment of another scanner to detect the presence of drugs in the bodies of "mules", with the aim of controlling all passengers boarding in Cayenne. .

To date, only half of them are.

“We are changing the paradigm, the gear, that is the meaning of our coming”, added his colleague from Justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti, “at the airport, it is now 100% control”.

During the baggage check of the plane which then took Gérald Darmanin to Martinique, the customs sniffer dog stopped in front of two suitcases: they contained drugs, including cocaine hidden in fish.

150 police and gendarme posts created

As of Friday, Gérald Darmanin announced the creation “within the year” of 150 police and gendarme posts to strengthen the fight against the gangs that are rampant in Guyana.

A branch of Raid police officers will be created in Cayenne in the first half of 2023 and the mobile gendarmerie squadron which arrived in early September as reinforcements "will be made permanent", he explained.

Then there will be added “four new gendarmerie brigades”.

Against drug trafficking, 18 gendarmes and 7 investigators from the Anti-Narcotics Office (Ofast) will arrive as reinforcements, while 50 additional police officers and gendarmes will be installed at the airport.

With 49 police and gendarmes for 10,000 inhabitants against 34 in mainland France, according to figures from the prefecture, French Guiana is already well endowed with law enforcement.

More legal means

On the justice side, Eric Dupond-Moretti notably announced the arrival in January 2023 of an experimental “emergency support brigade”, staffed with 7 magistrates and three clerks, in order to relieve the local justice services, which are overwhelmed with procedures. .

On the eve of the visit of the ministers, the general prosecutor of Cayenne Joël Sollier announced the end of a controversial experiment.

Since July 1, the prosecutor's office has been classifying seizures of less than 1.5 kg of cocaine without further action, to "reduce the burden" that drug trafficking places on its activity.

Local elected officials and NGOs had deplored a non-concerted and “inappropriate” initiative.

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