French mayor of Avallon arrested after 70kg of cannabis found at home
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A total of seven people were arrested, two of whom are Habsaoui’s brothers, a public prosecutor revealed.
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French police at the tram station for a control operation on the station platform and in the trams in Strasbourg, France on Wednesday, April 7, 2024. ( X / @Prefet67)
The mayor of the town of Avallon, a town of 6,000 people in the central-eastern Bourgogne-Franche-Comte region, Jamilah Habsaoui, was arrested by French police after 70kg of cannabis was discovered at her home on April 7, AFP and BFM TV reported, citing law enforcement sources.
Habsaoui, who has been the mayor of Avallon since 2021 and is also a regional councilor, had her home raided as part of a preliminary investigation into drug trafficking.
Habsaoui bought the property three years ago but does not live there, the L’Yonne Republicaine newspaper said, adding that the police also searched Avallon town hall.
AFP cited the public prosecutor of Auxerre, Hugues de Phily revealing that a total of seven people were arrested, two of whom are Habsaoui’s brothers.
The prosecutor also revealed that 983 grams of cocaine, €7,000 ($7,600) in cash, and around 20 gold bars were confiscated in several locations.
#PlaceNetteXXL | L'opération Place Nette XXL continue sur #Strasbourg.
— Préfète de région Grand Est & du Bas-Rhin 🇫🇷🇪🇺 (@Prefet67) April 7, 2024
J. Chevalier, @Prefet67, s'est rendue dans le quartier de la gare à #Strasbourg, pour une opération de contrôle sur le quai de la gare et dans les trams.
La mobilisation des FSI se poursuit en semaine, le… pic.twitter.com/Gmdqdb5lpn
Earlier this year, an anti-narcotics campaign "Place Nette XXL" was launched, which this raid was part of. It included around 473 raids and resulted in the arrest of more than 7,000 suspects and the seizing of 3.6 tons of drugs, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin posted on X on April 7.
Lancées il y a 6 mois, 473 opérations anti drogues « Place nette » ont été conduites, complétées par 9 opérations « Place nette XXL » : 7 177 individus interpellés, 3,6 tonnes de drogues, plusieurs centaines d’armes et 11,3 millions € d’avoirs criminels saisis. Bravo aux…
— Gérald DARMANIN (@GDarmanin) April 7, 2024
Europe's drug gangs arming minors with Kalashnikovs: EU agencies
European policymakers on March 7 warned that the unprecedented flow of illicit drugs in Europe has created a drug market that drives gangs to engage in unparalleled violence against one another.
Europol and the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) conducted a press conference to provide their current overview of the European drug industry, estimated at around €30 billion ($32 billion) annually. Cocaine imports and ecstasy exports both set records in 2022. According to the authorities, cocaine and cannabis are the most common causes of violence.
The EMCDDA's head, Alexis Goosdeel, claimed Europe is now seeing drug-related violence comparable to that of Central America, while Europol's Executive Director Catherine De Bolle revealed that "torture rooms" have been found in the EU.
“We have never seen this before. This was used in Latin America, but not in the EU,” she explained.
There has only been one publicly documented finding of so-called torture crates in Europe, near the Rotterdam port in 2020. Several persons were convicted and sentenced to jail in connection with that case.
Chris Dalby, head of the Netherlands-based consultancy World of Crime, told Politico that while it is "impossible to know" how many torture chambers exist in Europe, the case was "certainly a wake-up call about the increasing severity of gang violence in Europe."
