French Locals Make Deal with Drug Dealers To Let Them Operate In Exchange for Quiet

Drug Related Deaths
EITAN ABRAMOVICH/AFP/Getty

French locals in the no-go Paris suburbs have managed to come to an agreement with local drug dealers to allow them to operate in the area if the dealers keep the streets quiet at night.

The residents of the La cité Charles-Schmidt apartment complex in Saint-Ouen, located in the no-go suburbs of Seine-Saint-Denis, came to an agreement after the area had seen years of drug trafficking and now the drug dealers themselves enforce a noise curfew.

“We do not play the role of the police, we do not want war,” one of the locals said and added, “We have no weapons, we cannot wage war on anyone! I myself spoke with them, they made posters saying ‘do not make any more noise from 10 pm and stop dealing in the lobby…’ The rest is the role of the State!”

“The idea is just to say: We live there, we don’t want any nuisance, do your business on your side and we take advantage of our building,” a resident named Jules told the newspaper Le Parisien.

Before the agreement, residents say that their apartment complex was often loud as people from nearby towns would come to buy drugs as late as 1 am in the morning and often leave rubbish in the hallways of the complex as well.

The unique compromise comes as residents of other areas nearby, including in Paris itself, have complained to the local government about the presence of drug dealers and pickpockets in their areas.

Last year, local residents of Paris’ 18th arrondissement, a heavily migrant-populated district of the city, complained that they felt abandoned by the local government as crime surged.

Karim Drif, a local to the area said he even shut down his business, a restaurant, due to ongoing bouts of violence.

Many areas in Paris and Seine-Saint-Denis have also been plagued by rioting in the last several months and Seine-Saint-Denis has also seen rising tensions between criminal gangs as well.

A report last month indicated that the commune of Epinay-sur-Seine, in particular, has become a hotbed for gang violence, including several recent shootings.

Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.