“XXL Net Square” operations: nearly 500 arrests throughout France announce Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin

Gérald Darmanin en déplacement à Marseille le 19 mars 2024. MAXPPP – CHRISTOPHE ENA/POOL

This Monday, March 25, 2024, the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin announced that 496 people have already been arrested as part of anti-drug operations "XXL net".

Guest on the 20 hours news on France 2, Gérald Darmanin returned to "Place Net XXl" carried out throughout the country and announced the arrest of nearly 500 people, reports BFMTV. These operations fight against drug trafficking in Marseille in particular, but also in several other large cities in France.

"A goal of 850"

The first operation was launched on March 19 in one of the cities of Marseille: Castellane. Since then, four others have been carried out this Monday in the Lille metropolis, in the Lyon metropolitan area, in Dijon but also in the Paris region (Sevran and Colombes, two towns located respectively in Seine-Saint-Denis and Hauts-de-Seine ), specifies the news channel. In total, precisely 496 people were arrested.

Retrouvez l’intégralité de l’interview que j’ai donnée au #JT20H de France 2 ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/LwO3VdEabw

— Gérald DARMANIN (@GDarmanin) March 25, 2024

In the morning of this Monday, Gérald Darmanin was traveling in Roubaix and had an initial report: 187 arrests. "We have a goal of 850 people to interview", he clarified, before adding that he wants "to dismantle deal points in their entirety", up to "netheads". The Minister of the Interior then explained to the news of France 2 that from tomorrow, operations will resume in other municipalities in the region. Hexagon.

"Drugs are our enemy"

"The objective is to make the lives of traffickers, dealers and all the crime that accompanies them impossible", Emmanuel Macron had explained while traveling in Marseille, relying “on all the work that we have systematized at across the territory.

"We identified the cases that were known", and the "very dangerous criminals"  were targeted, explained the Head of State. "Nearly 900 police, gendarmerie and customs officers" have been mobilized since Monday in Marseille to "to shell the territory […] to destroy the networks and traffickers& quot;, he hammered.

This "unprecedented operation" will extend over several weeks, he said, alongside the Ministers of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, of Justice Éric Dupond-Moretti and the Secretary of State for the City Sabrina Agresti-Roubache. "Drug trafficking is a growing global scourge. Drugs are our enemy", explained the Head of State, specifying that he will not give in &quot ;to a speech of defeat".