More than 1,700 arrests in ten days during an anti-drug operation in France

Police in France have made 1,738 arrests in ten days in a nationwide operation against drug criminals. Interior Minister Darmanin announced this. The campaign has recently been criticized in French media as ineffective.

The raids are part of a strategy launched last summer, aimed at shutting down around 4,000 places in France where drugs are sold. According to the authorities, 2.4 million euros in cash and 150 kilos of drugs were seized during the recent actions.

“We will continue with the anti-drug operations,” the minister said. He states that the actions will have a huge impact. According to the minister, the fight against drugs should not only be conducted in the field of safety. According to him, information in education is also important, as is the fight against addiction. The minister also pointed out the responsibility that parents have.

Residents of Marseille are, on the one hand, happy that the police are taking large-scale action, writes Le Figaro. Citizens are fed up with heavy gang violence. But two residents who spoke in the newspaper do not think the situation will change significantly. They fear that the dealers will return as soon as the police leave.

There is also a discussion in the Netherlands about effective combating drug crime. Recently, Mayor Halsema of Amsterdam said that the so-called War on Drugs is not working. She advocated an alternative strategy and structural economic investments in vulnerable neighborhoods. Halsema made her plea at a conference on organized crime, attended by several European ministers.