France creates ‘nasty’ prison to completely isolate 100 biggest drug traffickers

The former Minister of the Interior, between 2020 and 2024, who made combating drug trafficking one of his priorities after assuming the Justice portfolio in December, hopes to “attack with great force” this “threat to internal security”.

“We have to do the same thing against drugs as we did against terrorism and that worked, although there are still attacks”, added Darmanin, guaranteeing that France knew how to equip itself with “very strong weapons” at the judicial and administrative level.

The announcement was made on the eve of his Interior Ministry colleague Bruno Retailleau’s trip to the port of Le Havre, in northwestern France, where he announced that almost 47 tons of cocaine had been seized between January and November last year.

“It’s historic, a record,” said Retailleau. In 2023, 23.2 tons were seized in total.

Experts point out, however, that these large-scale drug seizures have little impact on trafficking, as they represent only a tiny proportion of what actually enters and circulates in France.