One year after the death of in Nîmes: an update on the situation with the Gard prefect Jérôme Bonet

Public prosecutor Cécile Gensac and prefect Jérôme Bonet went to the scene the day after the tragedy. Midi Libre – Ad. B.

On August 21, 2023, Fayed, 10, lost his life in a shootout against a backdrop of drug trafficking. A year later, prefect Jérôme Bonet looks back on this tragedy and a complex situation

What memories do you have of the moment when you received a phone call warning you of the tragedy, a few hours after your arrival in your post, in Nîmes, as prefect of Gard?

I arrived in Nîmes to do a job I had never done before. I put my things down on Sunday afternoon, around 6 p.m. On Monday, I was taken to the installation ceremony, for a typical day of a prefect's arrival. I am not completely ignorant of the situation in Nîmes from my past (Jérôme Bonet was central director of the judicial police and chairman of the board of directors of Europol, editor's note), but it was August 21, it was 40°C… In the evening, I was called. The event seemed serious to me. Nothing more. Maybe because I have this professional deformation where, a few weeks before, I was awake for all the settling of scores that were happening in France. I don't panic.

Except that this dramatic fact is going to take on a very large scale.

This quickly became “the event of the month of August”. We found ourselves caught up in a media “buzz” justified by the seriousness of the facts, there was no debate about it – and very quickly, I felt that a storm was brewing. Which required us to make contact, to explain what we were doing. I got in touch with the public prosecutor, Cécile Gensac, whom I did not yet know, and suggested that we both go into the field. This crisis management would also help us develop a relationship of trust that still exists. We went there the next day to answer the questions of the residents and the media. Then the homicide that occurred 48 hours later triggered the visit of the Minister of the Interior.

When you ask kids where they would like to go on an excursion and they tell you “in the northern districts of Marseille”, you have to hear it

How do you analyze the facts at that time??

We understand that we have a child who was not necessarily targeted, that it is part of a dispute related to drug trafficking. And that a murder is something that takes place over a long period of time. While we are asked for immediate answers. I was convinced that the suspects would be arrested, but that it was not going to happen immediately. But all this immediately pushed me to implement, perhaps a little faster than expected, things that I had in mind on how to work with this type of neighborhood.

Tragically, did the death of this young Fayed trigger an acceleration of work around the situation of neighborhoods plagued by trafficking? ?

Alas. De facto. We had the announcements – followed by the facts – on behalf of the Minister of the Interior.
Which, again, may have taken time to be put in place in relation to the needs of the inhabitants.
There were immediate developments with the presence of the mobile force unit which was to remain until the end of last year. And who stayed even longer. The GIR (Interministerial Research Group. Their objective is the identification and seizure of assets acquired with the benefit of trafficking, Editor's note) was created on time. Even if it is not complete. A downside that we hope to repair at the start of the school year.

The only real delay, for multiple and administrative reasons, is that of the joint police office which took office this Tuesday, August 20. It is not the alpha and omega, but one of the elements of action. Like the GIR, which does a lot of harm by using levers that we did not use until then: financiers, underground economy, work with the Tax Office on businesses linked to traffickers, allocations undue, etc. Afterwards, of the hundred people placed in pre-trial detention for a year, some will come out, others already are. It’s up to us to act early enough so that the networks do not grow again. The good surprise for me was the control of the terrain by the local police officers. I had fears. But they work very well.

From Europol to Pissevin, how to prevent drug trafficking from running smoothly

“I am convinced that, on the issue of drug trafficking, we must work much harder by setting ourselves objectives. Not quantified, but identifying targets, believes Jérôme Bonet, who draws on his past experience. These are things that I was able to see when I was at Europol, with the European high-value targets: who are the fifty biggest drug traffickers in Europe and how to fight them. Why wouldn't we do the same thing in our neighborhoods ? Why, based on the work of identifying and identifying those who are in charge, wouldn't we build things like that rather than tell ourselves that we are going to go back to them. It takes time. But the reality is that around a drug trafficker, we perhaps have links with businesses, accomplices who we can annoy… hellip; I don't think we are eradicating drug trafficking because we basically have supply and demand with a product with high added value. But the idea is to keep it from going round and making it complicated…"

We talk about security, but there is also a more abstract notion, which is the feeling of insecurity.

Indeed. We have real insecurity, which is added to the insecurity felt. And which absolutely must be managed. The shooting at 7:30 in the morning, on a Sunday at the beginning of September, in the series of events last year, had, for example, a very strong impact on the population. Much more than if it had happened in the middle of the night. And the impact of what people feel is very important on the trust they have in public authorities.
This security stress is completely jamming the system: we had public services that thought about leaving, drivers who exercised their right to withdraw, companies that refused to intervene… I remember the struggle to get the buses running again. The Post Office also considered closing. Teachers wanted to change schools after the shooting at the beginning of the year near the Bruguier school. We didn't give up. If we lose these people, who are also very attached to their profession, the neighborhood is dead…
When you manage to restore a little bit of this trust, you reboot the system. You have to take into account each of the problems and see what solutions you can bring to them, individually. Afterwards, you obviously don't always solve everything.

We are not facing a city that is overwhelming us

You are thinking about deeper problems?

We have a problem with the psychiatric health of a certain part of the youth who are clearly not doing well. There are also major employment problems, while some companies cannot find workers. We need to work on this. Just like on the deconstruction of the myth of drug trafficking: when you ask kids where they would like to go on an excursion and they tell you “in the northern districts” (of Marseille, a hotbed of drug trafficking), you need to listen to them. We have children who are not afraid of dying…
The need for authority is real. With a fair, equitable authority. We are also working on the issues of communitarianism. When we have as many children in Koranic schools as in sports or cultural clubs, it deserves that we dwell on it and verify that the speeches that are given are in accordance with the law and the values ​​of the Republic. That is why I also have a lot of admiration for teachers, who are extremely concerned that the premises of their establishment be a “bubble”. I find that quite healthy. It is up to us to take care of the outside, to provide credits as we did for the Bruguier school to adapt the flows and reassure the parents.

We finally feel a lot of despair. The loss of faith in the future of these young people who are not aware of the value of their lives. But also a despair of saying to oneself: will this ever stop?

I am convinced of one thing. The first issue is international: how can we fight against these networks which supply so much to European countries? Because France is no less well placed as Spain, Belgium or the Netherlands. But we are on this Atlantic and Mediterranean coast which receives a lot of products. Second element, essential, is the sharing of intelligence, which must still be improved.
Then, we need a territorial logic, with a fairly permanent strategy on the ground. Harassment of deal points, environmental factors by mobilizing social landlords when you have, for example, a trafficker who benefits from social housing or who is not up to date with his rent payments . We must also pay attention to the beneficiaries of this trafficking. That surrounding businesses respect the law.

It’s all this daily work that allows us to move forward. The Nîmes neighborhoods are on a human scale, you can achieve peace of mind a little more sustainably. We have police officers who know all the kids, we have a very rich community network. We are not facing a city that overwhelms us. This is not a lawless zone. These neighborhoods are completely reclaimable, I am convinced.

I subscribe to read more