No fewer than twenty-five people were arrested in police raids across France on Monday, following a series of coordinated prison attacks that shook the government earlier this month, according to a source familiar with the case.
According to AFP, the early morning arrests occurred outside of Paris, as well as in Marseille, Lyon, and Bordeaux.
This month, unidentified assailants targeted multiple jails and other facilities around France, torching cars, spraying the entryway of one prison with automatic gunfire, and leaving enigmatic inscriptions.
The assaults have embarrassed the right-wing government, whose tough-talking justice and interior ministers, Gérald Darmanin and Bruno Retailleau, have promised to step up the campaign against narcotics and drug-related crimes.
President Emmanuel Macron has guaranteed that the attackers will be “found, tried, and punished”.
French anti-terror prosecutors, who are in charge of the probe due to the coordinated nature of the attacks, announced 22 arrests on Monday, with three more made later in the day.
According to the BFMTV channel, several of the arrests occurred inside jails, with alleged operation leaders, who are thought to have commanded them from within, being retrieved from their cells for questioning by police.
The anti-terror prosecutor’s office and the office for the battle against organised crime, known by its abbreviation JUNALCO, stated that the attacks were “likely” to be part of “very serious organised crime”.
According to the prosecutors, the inquiry has made “significant progress” in identifying potential attackers and instigators.
They claimed they have identified approximately 15 assaults between April 13 and 21, but more attacks have been reported at other jails; however, no links can be established at this time.
Almost 200 investigators have been deployed during the two-week investigation.
Justice Minister Darmanin has accused people involved in drug trafficking of being responsible.
“Thank you to magistrates and law enforcement for arresting the alleged perpetrators of the attacks against prison officers and our country’s prisons early this morning,” Darmanin said on X on Monday.
“We remain committed to the law and to the Republic in our relentless fight against drug trafficking.”
Darmanin has suggested a link with his intention to imprison 200 of France’s 700 most dangerous drug dealers in two high-security prisons.
Retailleau also complimented the investigators, complimenting their “great professionalism” that “made it possible to achieve results in a very short time”.
The raids occur as the French parliament’s upper and lower houses prepare to vote this week on a law aimed at ratcheting up the fight against drug traffickers, with the goal of final passage.
On April 13 in Agen, southwestern France, the tag “DDPF” — standing for “Rights of French Prisoners” — appeared next to seven cars set on fire in the car park of a prison staff training centre.
This was followed by a series of arson attacks targeting prison staff cars and other assaults, and a jail near the southern city of Toulon, France, was sprayed with automatic gunfire.
While some of the attacks followed the pattern of organised crime, others were evocative of ultra-left methods, according to a police source.
