Two prison guards were killed in a spectacular attack on a prison van Tuesday by a commando tasked with freeing Mohamed Amra, a figure linked to drug trafficking and gang-related crime, during his transfer. The tragedy is a shocking illustration of the explosion of the drug trade revealed in a senate report, the release of which coincided with the attack.
The events took place on Tuesday, May 14th at the Incarville toll plaza near Évreux, around a hundred kilometres west of Paris. The criminal, Mohamed Amra, who has numerous convictions for gang-related crime and drug trafficking, was due to be transferred from his prison in Évreux to Rouen, where the criminal court is located. A particularly well-organised ambush awaited the prison van at the toll booth. A commando took advantage of the slowdown caused by the vehicle passing through the barriers to take action. The operation lasted no more than three minutes.
Two prison guards were killed and three others were hospitalised in serious condition. One of the two officers who died “leaves behind a wife and two children who were due to celebrate their 21st birthday in two days’ time, while the other leaves behind a woman who is five months pregnant,” lamented Éric Dupond-Moretti, the French minister of justice.
The time has come to analyse who was responsible. Many questions remain at this stage of the investigation.
The first concerns the profile of the escapee, Mohamed Amra. There are conflicting opinions about his case. To some, he is a dangerous man, but one who is not at the top of the criminal hierarchy. Having spent time in the Santé prison in Paris and the Baumettes prison in Marseilles, he was not, however, a “DPS” (détenu particulièrement signalé, “particularly singled out detainee”)—a label used to describe a prisoner who should be placed under special surveillance because of his dangerousness.
“I have to admit that it’s a bit hard to understand why such a large-scale operation was set up for him,” said a senior police source with some surprise. Another source analysed his profile as follows: ‘He is linked to drug trafficking, more at the level of the instigators, but we never imagined that he would be involved in such an operation.” Others said they were not surprised by the detainee’s violence: “We suspected he was capable of anything,” a police officer told France Info. The scale of the operation to free Amra suggests that his role in the drug-trafficking networks may be more important than what was actually known.
A few days earlier, Amra had tried to escape from his cell by sawing through the bars, but the attempt was too recent to have affected his status. At the time of his transfer, however, he was considered to require a “level 3 escort,” meaning that three prison officers had to supervise him. A few days ago, the decision was taken to reinforce the team with two additional officers. All were armed. Dominique Garcia, a former gendarme and father of one of the two officers killed, questioned the relevance of the transfer under the circumstances: “Why take a guy out of a remand centre to take him to court when it’s easy to do it by videoconference?” he asked the press.
This is the first time since 1992 that prison officers have died in the line of duty. In a show of support, trade unions in many prisons across France called for a “prisons dead” day, blocking access to prisons on May 15th—a demonstration of solidarity still ongoing on May 16th in some places.
An international manhunt has begun. Investigators fear above all that Amra is trying to cross a border and may even already be a refugee abroad.
At the same time as the Incarville attack, the French Senate published an alarming report on the explosion of drug trafficking in France and the inadequacy of the state’s response to the scale of the problem. All the indicators observed are on the rise: the number of cannabis users; tonnes of cocaine converging on Europe and France; and a tremendous rise in drug-related crime.
The French overseas territories are key staging posts for the transport of drugs. “[U]p to half the passengers on a flight from French Guiana or the West Indies may be smugglers”, according to the senators, who point the finger at the inadequacy of the control systems in the departure airports. In mainland France, the city of Marseilles has become the symbol of the ineffectiveness of the fight against drug trafficking. The Provence port is plagued by increasingly deadly violence. Gang warfare and resulting deaths are constantly on the increase.
The senators are extremely critical of the French government’s policy. The 2023 fight plan is described as “meagre” and “extraordinarily poor.” “This would be laughable if it weren’t deeply worrying,” add the rapporteurs.
The Senate document puts forward 35 recommendations to try to reverse the trend and prevent France from becoming a “narco-state.” These include the creation of a national anti-drugs prosecutor’s office and a considerable increase in legal repercussions and the number of customs officers and magistrates in charge of the fight against drugs.
Punitive action must also take a new form because prison is no longer a scary place, and for drug traffickers, it is now just an “incident along the way.” The report therefore recommends stepping up the fight against financial flows from drug trafficking and the confiscation of criminal assets. While drug trafficking is worth €3.5 billion a year, at the low end of the scale, in 2023 the seizures made by the police and gendarmerie will amount to barely €117 million.
According to Public Sénat, the alarming findings of the report were not appreciated by the minister of justice, who sees his work being called into question. The escape of Mohamed Amra, however, tends to prove the two senators right: the weakening of public power is not a mere fancy, and a public reaction is urgently needed.
