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France will build a new high -protection prison in the Overseas Ministry of French Guyana to accommodate drug traders and radical Islamists, the country’s Minister of Justice announced during a visit to the territory.
Gérald Darmanin told the newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche (JDD) that the prison would focus on organized crime “at all levels” of the supply chain of drugs.
The facility of € 400 million (£ 337 million), which could already open in 2028, will be built at an isolated location Deep in the Amazon Jungle in the northwestern region of Saint-Laurent-Du-Maroni.
The plan was announced after a series of violent incidents was connected to criminal gangs saw prisons and staff oriented in France in recent months.
The prison will contain a maximum of 500 people, with a separate wing that is designed to accommodate the most dangerous criminals.
In an interview with JDD, the minister said that the new prison would be controlled by an “extremely strictly strict carceral regime” that is designed to “hire the most dangerous drug traders”.
Darmanin said the facility would be used to hold people “at the start of the drug track”, and as a “lasting way to remove the heads of the drug trafficking networks” on mainland France.
Frans Guyana is a France region on the northeast coast of South America. The residents are eligible to vote for French elections and have access to the French social security system, as well as other subsidies.
The distance from the French mainland means drug gentlemen “will no longer be able to have contact with their criminal networks,” Darmanin told JDD.
French authorities have long had trouble control the infiltration of mobile phones in the prison network. Tens of thousands are known Circulate through French prisons.
Earlier this year, the French government announced new legislation that was designed to combat the activity of criminal gangs.
The measures will create a dedicated branch of the office of the public prosecutor to tackle organized crime. It will also introduce extra powers for researchers and a special protected status for informants.
It will also see the establishment of new prisons with high security – including the facility in French Guyana – to keep the most powerful drug lords, with stricter rules for visits and communication with the outside world.
In recent months, France has seen a series of attacks on prisons, which Darmanin has described as “terrorist” incidents that come in response to the new legislation of the government.
The perpetrators of these attacks have Put vehicles outside prisons in countries, while the La Farlede -prison of Toulon was hit by gunfire.
In some incidents, the perpetrators of these attacks have stylized themselves as defenders of the rights of prisoners.
The proposed new facility in French Guyana must be built at a “strategic intersection” for drug mules, in particular from Brazil and Suriname, according to AFP News Agency.
Saint-Laurent-Du-Maroni is the former port of arrival in the notorious Devil’s Island Penal Colony, where 70,000 convicts of mainland France were sent between 1852 and 1954.
The penal colony was the setting of the book Papillon by the French writer Henri Charrière, who was later made in a Hollywood film with Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman.
The BBC has contacted the French Ministry of Justice for comment.
