Maximilien Carlier, correspondent in Roubaix (North) / Photo credit: DENIS CHARLET / AFP 3:51 p.m., March 25, 2024, modified at 3:55 p.m., March 25, 2024
An “XXL square net” operation, intended to fight against drug trafficking, took place this Monday morning in Roubaix, as in other cities in France. Present on site, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, underlines the work necessary to prevent France from finding itself "in the hands of drug traffickers".
Red brick houses completely cordoned off, police officers everywhere, on every street corner... In Roubaix, as in several other cities in France, an anti-drug operation "XXL square" took place this Monday morning. After Marseille last week, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, went to the Lille metropolis. A sign that the government intends to strike hard against drug trafficking. On the hood of one of the law enforcement vehicles dispatched to the Pile district in Roubaix, we even find a map symbolizing the deal points in the metropolis of Lille.
“We know, by habit, that they will come back”
"We are obviously at a tipping point. Either we let go of the work against drugs, and then we are like the Netherlands, like Belgium sometimes, like Spain, like other countries in South America in the hands of drug traffickers, or, as France has always done and as we are now accelerating, we are fighting against an octopus whose legs must not simply be cut off, but also reached at the head to prevent there being too much money, too much power and then threaten the established order, that is to say the State,” declared Gérald Darmanin.
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The aim of these operations is to return the neighborhood to the residents. Céline observes, rather satisfied, this important deployment. "To see a system like that, it's nice, it calms things down a little too, because it's true that it's getting worse and worse. There are more and more drugs, deals... It's not pleasant for the people in the neighborhood. If you're a woman, you don't want to leave your house after a certain time for fear of being attacked, it's anxiety-inducing. We don't have want to annoy them", estimates this Roubaisienne, who here mentions the drug dealers, of whom "we know by habit that they will come back", she adds. Fatalist, she sees only one solution: move.