For more than 20 years, Orly airport has been the subject of a secret ballet.
Men come to greet single people on the arrival of a flight from Cayenne, Guyana, taking care of their luggage.
However, they only contain a few items of clothing, the precious goods carried by these travelers being in reality in their bodies.
These mules carry several dozen carefully packaged cocaine eggs that they ingested before their departure.
Against this practice, which has risen sharply in recent decades, the French authorities are seeking a response.
In a report adopted last week, a senatorial commission of inquiry recommends "reinforcing the repressive policy, by intensifying controls and seizures to reduce the profitability of trafficking and discourage traffickers".
The document also calls for an "ambitious social component" to be put in place in terms of prevention and reintegration.
🔵 The information mission on drug trafficking from Guyana, initiated by @senateursLaREM, today adopted @ AKaram973's report, which notably wishes to provide a more comprehensive and ambitious response to this phenomenon.
👉 https://t.co/U6HPlcnIpx pic.twitter.com/qBAiZZ8IVh
- Senate (@Senate) September 15, 2020
Cocaine trafficking between Guyana and Paris represents between 15 and 20% of entries into France, explained rapporteur Antoine Karam, LREM senator from Guyana, during a press conference.
According to the report of the fact-finding mission, it is estimated that between 20 and 30 mules, these cocaine smugglers, get on each of the flights from Cayenne to Paris.
A third of them would succeed without being detected by the authorities.
Between 20 and 30 mules per Cayenne-Paris flight
This traffic thrives on its proximity to Suriname, a drug transit country since the 1980s: "There was a structuring of traffic from the 1980s in Guyana then in Suriname, and, at the end of the 1980s, a concentration in this country. We would have even seen Pablo Escobar come to Suriname to initiate this traffic, which in particular inundated the Netherlands, the former metropolis to which there are direct flights ", explained David Weinberger, researcher at the National Institute for Higher Security and Justice Studies (INHESJ), specialist in drug routes in South America, during its hearing by the Senate at the end of June.
>> To read also on RFI: Suriname, transcontinental platform of cocaine
“During the years 2005-2010, a diversification of the Surinamese route began to affect Guyana. One of the hypotheses to explain it would be that the actions in the Netherlands to stem the flow of smugglers who arrived at the Schiphol airport by way of commercial aviation caused a transfer effect to Guyana, "the researcher recently detailed in an interview with RFI, while noting that despite the diversification, the route to Suriname remained very active.
"The cocaine transiting through Guyana comes almost exclusively from Colombia, via Suriname, which is a regional hub: in Suriname, you can buy cocaine in bulk, in semi-bulk, in powder, liquid form - more difficult to identify - or even suitcases whose plastic is itself cocaine, "he told the Senate.
A traffic that thrives on social misery
In Guyana, where half of the population lives below the poverty line, traffickers recruit their mules by taking advantage of the social misery which offers few prospects for the future, especially in Saint-Laurent-de-Maroni, the second largest city. of the country and border with Suriname.
Without any prospect of employment, young people are easy recruits for drug traffickers from Suriname, who send them to mainland France with their stomachs loaded with cocaine pellets.
>> See also: Reporters: Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, clandestine gateway to French Guiana
"In western Guyana, unemployment affects a large part of the population, more than 50% of 18-25 year olds. In this context, it is tempting for them to take advantage of the possibility of earning between 3,500 and 4,000 euros A number of players criticize the State for failing to prevent them, "explained Marc Del Grande, Prefect of Guyana, during his hearing at the end of May.
However, young Guyanese are not the only targets of traffickers.
"The opponent adapts: at the beginning, it was mainly young people from West Guyana, but when the police began to target young men from Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni , the traffickers began to appeal to young mothers with children, then to older people, ”explains the prefect.
"Just before the start of confinement, we observed a new trend: the traffickers recruited rather young people from sensitive areas of France who came to Guyana and carried drugs on their return journey."
Strengthen repression and prevention
The report unanimously adopted Tuesday, September 15 by the information mission "Drug trafficking from Guyana" intends to act on two levels: an intensification of the repressive policy and an "ambitious social component".
"The real solution is to strike the networks with massive seizures", underlined the president of the mission, Olivier Cigoletti, senator of Haute-Loire (centrist Union).
The report also recommended to streamline procedures "throughout the criminal chain, in order to avoid judicial embolism".
Olivier Cigoletti also proposes to entrust the preventive aspect to the prefect "in close association with the Territorial Collectivity of Guyana, a mission of boosting the prevention policy and coordination of local initiatives" and "to increase the funds allocated to prevention ".
Finally, he suggests improving international cooperation by strengthening France's involvement in the Caribbean zone in the fight against drug trafficking and by stepping up its bilateral cooperation with neighboring countries, particularly Suriname.
"The dismantling of large-scale criminal groups […] requires cooperation with Suriname, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, not to mention the Netherlands, which hold important information on Surinamese networks", David Weinberger said before the Senate.
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