“We are capitulating to criminals”: Residents of a building forced to evacuate within two days due to drug trafficking

L’immeuble a été classé “inhabitable” par la maire d’Échirolles, le temps des travaux. (ILLUSTRATION) Envato Elements – Chris Putnam

Residents were forced to evacuate their building in Échirolles, a suburb of Grenoble, due to the presence of drug dealers. The mayor of the town declared the building “uninhabitable”.

Stray bullets, squatted homes, ripped electrical wires… In the Carrare building, located in the town of Échirolles, a suburb of Grenoble, drug dealers have dangerously damaged the premises. According to Le Parisien, on Monday September 23, an expert submitted a report to Amandine Demore, mayor of the town, stating a “permanent danger of death”. In the process, she ordered the evacuation of the twenty or so residents within 72 hours and classified the building as uninhabitable while the work was being carried out. “I had to keep the residents safe. The dealers ransacked the building, we risk electrocution, not to mention the fire risk, the evacuation problems. Given the traffic, companies no longer want to come and do the work", she explains.

"We're also chasing away the dealers"

A new consequence of the drug trafficking that has been rampant in this neighborhood for some time now. According to the national newspaper, in addition to the three people shot last August, a resident also jumped out of his apartment window to escape the dealers who were forcibly chasing him from his home. For the mayor of Échirolles, this decision is“a strong act, to show that we are not giving up. The owners must do the necessary work within three weeks. During the construction period, the building will be closed. Only businesses will be allowed. In this evacuation, we are also chasing away the dealers”.

A decision that does not reassure the owners of the apartments in Carrare, who say they are worried, like the tenants. “There will be no one left in the building to bother them, they are the winners. We capitulate to the delinquents. Without a tenant, how am I going to pay the charges, repay the loan. I am not Croesus. I have a family, a loan… We are in the dark”, one of them wonders. In March 2024, a Place Net operation was carried out in Carrare. But traffic had quickly resumed.