"I'm afraid on the stairs": in Nantes, a building in the Malakoff district that has become a deal point

Charles Guyard, edited by Laura Laplaud / Photo credits: LAURE BOYER / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP 11:15 am, September 20, 2023

Living in a building plagued by drug trafficking. This is the ordeal of the inhabitants of this tower located in the Malakoff district of Nantes where four people were allegedly kidnapped and tortured for two days by drug dealers. In this district, the inhabitants live a real ordeal.

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"I'm afraid to go down the stairs. I never know what I can see." Crossing the stairs of the building, it is first on a red sofa that we fall at the level of the second landing. For Julie*, there is no doubt, the furniture was not installed here by chance. "It's for young people waiting for their customers... I know they were hiding their drugs in the gas meters, they removed the foam so even for us, it's risky," she said.

"I'm afraid for my son"

The inhabitants of this high tower of about twenty floors have learned to live with this risk, especially since a deal point was installed inside the building itself last December. Here, hard drugs are mainly sold. "They were on the fire escape, a neighbour saw syringes... Sometimes, we have shootings", "it's tiring to hear noise all the time", "I'm afraid for my son, a stray bullet or something like that", testify these inhabitants at the microphone of Europe 1.

>> READ ALSO - Nantes: four people kidnapped and tortured by two drug traffickers

On Saturday, four people were released by police after being held captive and tortured for two days in their apartment on the 5th floor. The tenant told investigators that he was forced to use his home with traffickers to hide drugs and money.

* First name has been changed