On Thursday at approximately 2 a.m., unidentified individuals attacked Marseille’s Third District police station using Molotov cocktails, then set fire to two police vehicles parked in front of the police station, as a revenge for the arrests of “Operation Place Nette XXL,” several sources have reported.
The vehicles were completely destroyed by fire, while a third vehicle was targeted but the incendiary bomb did not explode.
The Place Nette XXL’s main objective is the fight against drugs, but also the fight against all the consequences of drug trafficking, violence, delinquency, arms trafficking and illegal employment.
According to several police unions, this was retaliation for arrests linked to drug trafficking, with the territorial district units (BST) being threatened with revenge in the field during the operations.
These events come 72 hours after two police officers were taken to task by vehicles “…which repeatedly tried to run them over,” reported Eddy Sid, Unité SGP Police FO.
“Because they can’t sell any more, customers are coming less, so we’re not surprised that there will be reprisals,” explained Rudy Manna, national spokesperson for Alliance police, specialized field brigade.
Contacted by telephone, Marseilles Public Prosecutor, Nicolas Bessone, believes that it is too early to establish a direct link between the “clean sweep” operations and the recent events.
These events are taking place in a particularly tense context for police officers. In an interview with France 3 Provence-Alpes, Bruno Bartocetti, National Secretary of the Unité SGP-Police Union overseeing the southern zone, confided that between the lack of resources, the arrival of the Olympic Games, and the upgrading of the Vigipirate plan to the “emergency attack” level, working conditions are challenging as “Operation Place Nette XXL” is carried out.
“Operation Place Nette” has been added to our daily routine, with domestic violence, urban rodeos, bomb threats, risks of attack… Everything becomes a priority, so how can we work unless we’re under pressure?” he confided.
In the same interview, he confessed to being “frustrated” at the contempt shown by drug kingpins, but to having the will “not to give up.” “Eighty percent of French people support their police, despite what the drug traffickers who don’t care about us, or the thugs who drive around in 100,000-euro cars and feel unpunished, may say.”