RMC DOCUMENT. In Paris, it is now the Stalingrad metro station, in the 19th arrondissement, which is invaded by crack trafficking and consumption. Dealers and drug addicts wander the platforms and the corridors. The police and security agents try to fight, but the scourge does not stop.
After the “crack hill”, Porte de la Chapelle, then the Rotonde district, it is now the Stalingrad metro station, in Paris, which is invaded by crack users. Already plagued by crack trafficking, Stalingrad Square should soon be renovated by the city, with the aim of the Olympic Games, among others. Traffic could therefore move further underground, into the line 5 metro station. This is where crack trafficking takes place in broad daylight, in the corridors and on the platforms of the Stalingrad metro station.
And every day, it’s the same observation. “There’s still someone who doesn’t know how to walk straight,” notes Alicia, “who passes there every evening on the way home from work. It’s the crack station. There are some, they’re hardly dressed, like s “were exhausted, as if they hadn’t slept for three days, like zombies. There are still quite a few of them. At 10 p.m., there’s only that on the platform. Every evening, I I’m facing this.”
That evening, it was only 9 p.m. when a drug addict approached us. “Do you have a pen please?” She asks us for a pen and a stamp to make a crack pipe. “We’re totally in there,” Alicia explains. Then this crack user attacks a passerby and threatens her. A usual scene for Alicia: “You have to be neutral, as neutral as possible”.
“It’s easier to escape”
In the station, the drug dealers are everywhere, hidden under an RATP camera, walking confidently on the platforms… They contrast with the drug addicts wandering in search of a dose, like Estelle and Fafa, who consume crack for 30 years. They buy and take drugs in the metro: “It’s easier to escape. The photo booth is discreet. It bothers me less than on the stairs, in full view of everyone, where it makes her feel bad “.
In the corridors, security agents and police officers patrol very regularly, chasing away dealers and consumers. But this man who smokes crack in a photo booth will return a few minutes later… For the mayor of the 19th arrondissement of Paris François Dagnaud, it is above all on the medico-social level that we must act: “The public health dimension is a little outdated out of the window. This is where we need to move forward too.” And he hopes that the Olympic Games will serve as a pretext to sustainably pursue a real social policy for these dozens of drug addicts taking refuge in the metro.
“The problem will be resolved before the Games”
Guest of RMC-BFMTV this Friday morning, Paris police chief Laurent Nuñez assures that “the crack problem will be resolved before the Games”. “Since October 2022, we have completely dismantled the open-air camp on Square Baron,” he underlines. “We are taking resolute actions against the traffickers. Because the problem is the crack traffickers. In 2022, we arrested 285. And in 2023, it is 491. It is important to fight against trafficking. (…) We are very present everywhere in the north-east of Paris to disperse consumers and ensure that medical-social services can take care of them. It’s no longer a police problem.”
While emphasizing medical-social monitoring, Laurent Nuñez is counting on the police presence during the Olympics to avoid these images of dealers and consumers on the metro platforms. “Currently, in the metro, I have 125 patrols every day. During the Games, I will have 700, almost five times more, says the Paris police prefect. Progress is being made. There are only 100 left -150 wandering in the north-east of Paris, while there were several hundred just two years ago. We have made enormous progress. In any case, I can guarantee it, and that is what I asks the Ministry of the Interior, there will be a strong presence of police on public roads.”
2024-02-09 09:24:49
#Stalingrad #metro #station #Paris #invaded #drug #dealers #drug #addicts