It’s the same cinema every day. The sale of narcotics takes place under the porch of a building on rue Pierre-Semard in the old center of Toulon.
“Sometimes it goes a little further”observes a policeman in civilian clothes, pointing to the adjacent arteries: Bon-Pasteur and Chevalier-Paul streets.
The transactions take place close to the shopping windows of the “Rue des Arts”, as it has been called since the rehabilitation of this corner of the old town.
Some see it as a foil. “People no longer dare to come in the late afternoon…” Even the terraces, a little further on the Place de l’Équerre, would suffer in the evening.
Buyers, scouts and reseller
So the public authorities decided to increase the pressure on the dealers and their customers. The local security group (GSP) of the city center and the anti-crime brigade (Bac) of Toulon are increasing their interventions.
Var-Matin was able to observe behind the scenes of one of these harassment operations, mobilizing a dozen civil servants. “With the help of the municipal police, it’s very important,” notes one of the police officers as an agent brings back a suspected and handcuffed watchman.
That day, two buyers, another lookout and a dealer were arrested in flagrante delicto.
Endless beginning
To achieve this, the police manage to have distant points of view. “There are private individuals or landlords who open their doors to us,” explains a GSP police officer hiding in a building, from where he observes the traffic with binoculars.
“Bac! Bac! Have you arrested?”, spits the radio of our interlocutor. In a few minutes, all the police are wearing their orange armbands and the operation is complete.
This time, no substantial quantity of cannabis resin was seized. The traffickers compete in imagination to hide the drugs, small hands are then in charge of the supply. “Last week, we found the goods above an elevator…”
By leaving the street with their suspects, the police know that it is only a postponement. In the meantime, the deal point is, at the end of the day, at a standstill.
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