Fatal ambush shows France “submerged” by violent drug crime
France is coming to terms with a surge of violent drug crime after a prison van transporting a convict came under machine-gun fire in Rouen in Normandy, killing at least two prison officers and seriously injuring two others.
Mohamed Amra, alleged to be a powerful drug baron in the southern city of Marseilles who was previously convicted of aggravated robbery and charged with abduction leading to death, was being transported from Rouen to Evreux when the van was fatally ambushed.
A massive manhunt is now underway to find what some have called “France’s most wanted man”, nicknamed “La Mouche” (The Fly), and his accomplices.
The attack comes just a day after a major report from the French Senate about the extent of the country’s problem with violent drug gangs.
The report writes: “With the simultaneous explosion of both supply and demand, no part of the national territory and no social class is beyond the reach of drugs crime… drugs traffic is infiltrating everywhere, with a concomitant exacerbation of violence.”
“The spread of drugs crime is not just the result of foreign mafias. It is also the work of structured and dangerous French organisations who act without any limit be it financial, territorial or in the exercise of violence. The intensification of drugs traffic in rural areas and medium-sized towns is accompanied by a spectacular and disturbing explosion of violence which can expose citizens to veritable scenes of war.”
Éric Dupond-Moretti, the justice minister, said: “All my thoughts are with the victims, their families and their colleagues. Everything will be done to find the authors of this ignoble crime. They will be arrested, they will be judged and they will be punished in accordance with the level of the crime they have committed.”
According to reports, gunmen rammed the prison convoy from two cars before opening fire with pump-action shotguns. The cars were later found burnt out.
French President Emmanuel Macron said: “Everything is being done to find the perpetrators of this crime so that justice can be done in the name of the French people. We will be intractable.”
The attack will no doubt fan the flames of the French far-right ahead of the upcoming European parliament elections next month. Chairman of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party and MEP Jordan Bardella said: “It is with immense sadness that we learn of the attack … and of the death of the guards. France is being hit by a veritable savagery every day.”
Bardella is a critic of mass immigration and what he sees as its implications. As the journalist Cole Stangler writes, Bardella takes aim at “crime, Islamism, terrorism, declining public services and the loss of French identity.” Bardella recently told a rally in Perpignan: “You’ve understood it, my friends. This election will also be a great referendum on mass immigration.” The hard-right star is currently polling well above the candidate from Macron’s party.
The consequences of this ambush and what it reveals about the seriousness of France’s problem with drug gang violence will reverberate through this summer’s European elections (6-9 June) and beyond.
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