The northern districts of Marseille, December 1, 2020. -

Lionel Urman / SIPA

The Minister of the Interior will begin a tour of the Bouches-du-Rhône on Thursday.

After a pass of arms with the city of Marseille around surveillance cameras, he comes to bring state aid to the Marseille city, plagued by drug networks.

Gérald Darmanin intends to show that he is "attentive to the situation in Marseille", said his entourage, stressing "the very important effort" of the government, with 300 police reinforcements.

After the second largest city in France this Thursday, the minister will visit Rognac and Arles on Friday.

Additional police officers

The tension had risen a week ago with the new left-wing municipality, after the minister accused him of having "refused" the money he was offering for video protection.

"Until proven otherwise, a camera has never arrested any thief, much less drug trafficking," retorted Yannick Ohanessian, the security assistant.

A few hours after his statement, the minister unveiled the arrival of 300 new police officers, "including 100 in 2021".

Beyond these additional staff, it is the strategy to fight against delinquency, and in particular drug trafficking, which should be discussed between the elected officials of Marseille and the minister.

According to the latest police figures, revealed on Wednesday by

La Provence

, Marseille would have 156 "stups plans", some of which would welcome up to 2,000 customers per day, for daily income of 80,000 euros.

Faced with this phenomenon, the new municipality does not rely on video.

“I prefer to hire police officers,” confirms Benoît Payan, the mayor of Marseille.

Visit of a police station in the northern districts

Yannick Ohanessian also denounces a "glaring lack" of police personnel, with "barely six BAC (anti-crime brigades) crews at night": "Over the past three years, we have lost 200 to 300 national police officers on the way. public ”.

Marseille is committed to recruiting 100 municipal police officers, in addition to the 421 already in place.

Objective: to strengthen the municipal night police, "very insufficient", and ensure "more islanding missions, to cover the entire territory".

A challenge, in a city more than twice the size of Paris.

During his visit on Thursday in the 15th arrondissement police station, in the popular and underprivileged neighborhoods of the north of the city, the most affected by drug trafficking, Gérald Darmanin should return to the "global approach", a strategy adopted at the end of 2012 associating enhanced cooperation between all State services in the face of traffickers and interventions on housing, town planning and social issues.

Miscellaneous

A man shot dead with an assault rifle in a city in the northern districts of Marseille

Marseilles

Gérald Darmanin announces additional police officers in Marseille amid controversy

  • Video

  • Police

  • Drug traffic

  • Marseilles

  • Gerald Darmanin