Jean-Luc Boujon / Photo credit: NICOLAS TUCAT / AFP 6:17 a.m., March 25, 2024

A week after the launch of the “Place Net XXL” anti-drug operation in Marseille by Emmanuel Macron, drug trafficking is at the heart of debates in France. But the Marseille city is not the only city in France to be plagued by these traffickers. In Grenoble, the Saint-Bruno district, located in the city center, is often the scene of shootings. 

Is Marseille the only city in France plagued by drug trafficking? Last week, Marseille, now described as a narcocity, attracted a lot of attention with the surprise visit of Emmanuel Macron. But there is another city in France where certain neighborhoods are in the hands of drug dealers and where settling of scores is frequent: Grenoble. The capital of the Alps was the scene only a week ago of a shootout between traffickers in the Saint-Bruno district, located in the city center. The latest settling of scores in a long list for two years. So much so that for some residents, the Saint-Bruno district is a disaster area. 

“It’s getting serious”

A large square and a kindergarten, right in front of a church, the Saint-Bruno church: this is THE drug district in Grenoble, right in the city center. A neighborhood that has become impossible, as Nathalie, a resident, describes it. "It's getting serious. In the streets, there are drug dealers everywhere. They don't hide either. They are in the street, in plain sight. Anyone can go there, they have the bags plastics aside, there is no problem for them", she laments at the microphone of Europe 1.

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Monday's shooting was reminiscent of the numerous shootings of last summer. Gaël, who regularly comes to the neighborhood, takes precautions. “We are afraid. We always look behind, in front, to the sides. We are very careful,” he explains. The students, like Léa, avoid Saint-Bruno. “In the evening, we often hear gunshots. So at night, you really have to be careful, you don’t go that way,” admits the student.

A neighborhood that André and Chris, who have lived there for several decades, do not recognize. "It's awful, it's become awful! I don't have a free mind in the neighborhood, I'm not at peace. It's true we're going out with anxiety now. I see the young people who are "In the street right next door, they hide drugs under the bumpers of cars. There must be one or two who are 17 or 18, the rest are all minors. What they say in Marseille, well here, I find exactly the same description in fact,” he believes. Grenoble, a small Marseille where the CRS have been present for a week. “But what will happen when they leave?”, the residents ask, anxiously