• This weekend, fireworks were fired at consumers and crack sellers in Stalingrad Square. 

  • François Dagnaud, the mayor (PS) of the 19th arrondissement deplores the gesture but highlights local residents exasperated by this situation. 

  • He mentions the regular presence of around a hundred consumers, coming from all over France and even from Europe in the district.

François Dagnaud, the PS mayor of the 19th arrondissement of Paris, may well condemn the gesture, he cannot deny that he understands it. He even sees "a cry for help" from residents exasperated by the presence of traffickers and crack users "under their windows", a stone's throw from Stalingrad Square. During the night from Friday to Saturday, then in that from Saturday to Sunday, fireworks mortar fire targeted a crowd of "crackers" at the top of the rue de Flandres. Shots which, according to the mayor, would emanate from exasperated local residents.

According to a police source, however, no intervention was reported.

"It would seem that it was extremely brief," said the latter.

Several videos have nevertheless circulated on social networks.

On one, there are eight shots in less than thirty seconds.

In a second, filmed from another angle, we witness a jet of fireworks mortar launched horizontally, in the direction of the sidewalk opposite.

“Local residents have confirmed to me that they have witnessed these shots this weekend,” assures the city councilor.

We must measure the exasperation of residents who no longer sleep at night because of howls and settling of scores, the feeling of insecurity… ”

Stalingrad, a hotspot for crack trafficking

While crack trafficking is not new in the neighborhood, it has taken on an unprecedented scale in recent years, especially since the evacuation of crack hill and the Rosa Parks tunnel. "It's not complicated, we have become a sanctuary for crack consumption in France, we even attract consumers from all over Europe", François Dagnaud laments. He estimates that a hundred people, sellers or consumers, meet every evening, either at the level of the avenue de Flandres, or on the quai de Loire.

For a year, however, the fight against crack trafficking has intensified in Paris. Significant resources have been deployed: teams patrol 24 hours a day on Stalingrad Square but also around it, urban developments have been carried out - the benches have been removed to prevent consumers from stagnating, public lighting improved for facilitate the work of officials in the field. Legal information is also regularly opened in an attempt to identify the main actors and since June 2020, the consumers arrested have been systematically referred and are offered a therapeutic injunction accompanied by a ban on appearing in the north-east of Paris.

Insufficient, in the eyes of François Dagnaud, who calls for the “accompanied” dismantling of this new high place of traffic in Paris.

After this weekend of extreme tension, he made a new report to the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin and his health counterpart, Olivier Véran.

" One does not go without the other.

We obviously need health support for these consumers, but a solution must be found, the situation is becoming untenable, ”he warns.

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  • Drug traffic

  • Delinquency

  • Drug

  • Paris