A-Infos (en) France, La Plateforme: Drug trafficking: the rot of capitalism (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The deadly settling of scores between rival criminal groups is receiving 
significant media attention this spring of 2026. But drug trafficking is 
not limited to this. It also quietly destroys social bonds within 
working-class neighborhoods. Too often overlooked by left-wing 
organizations, this "  social phenomenon  " is a major obstacle to the 
fight for social justice. ---- In an article published on May 15, 2026, 
the newspaper Le Monde wrote: "  Once again, drug-related violence is 
being transformed into a political issue, with its assigned roles and 
predictable pronouncements  ." This is indeed what we are witnessing 
today, and we are willing to bet that no profound political 
transformation will emerge from this political maneuvering that will 
allow us to curb drug trafficking.

Violent deaths linked to drug trafficking appear to have exploded in 
recent years. The city of Marseille, where 39 people were murdered in 
2023, received significant media attention. However, in its 2026 report, 
the judicial police intelligence service indicates that this phenomenon 
now affects "  the entire country, against a backdrop of drug 
trafficking (small and medium-sized towns, beyond the traditional major 
urban centers), accompanied by a resurgence of violence (murders and 
attempted murders, kidnappings, hostage-takings, acts of intimidation: 
shootings, arson, extortion, etc.)  ."

Although a decrease appears to have occurred in 2024, according to the 
Ministry of the Interior, with "  only  " 367 murders and attempted 
murders linked to drug trafficking, compared to 418 in 2023, there is no 
indication that this could stop quickly.

In working-class neighborhoods, these deaths traumatize the population. 
This is obviously only the tip of the iceberg. The daily intimidation in 
apartment building lobbies, and sometimes the violence suffered by 
residents, young people, and children, translate into a pervasive 
anxiety. And when shootings erupt, panic takes hold in the face of these 
daytime intrusions by masked men armed with assault rifles.

Recent assassinations have prompted presidential candidates, as well as 
the Minister of the Interior, to flex their muscles to demonstrate their 
commitment to the fight against drug trafficking. Thus, in an interview 
with Le Parisien published on Thursday, May 21, Édouard Philippe 
announced a plan to combat drug trafficking, which includes the 
declaration of a state of emergency. "  We must draw inspiration from 
the fight against terrorism for the fight against drug trafficking,  " 
he stated.

Similarly, on March 4, 2025, Bruno Retailleau, testifying before the 
National Assembly's Law Commission, asserted that "  the time has come 
to regain control  ." He proposed creating a specialized prosecutor's 
office that would focus on the "  high end  " of the drug trade. To this 
end, he advocated the use of "  algorithmic intelligence  " (the massive 
analysis of data transmitted over the internet), access to encrypted 
messaging services such as Signal or WhatsApp, facial recognition, and 
other tools. As for the escape of Mohamed Amra, during which two prison 
guards were murdered, it inspired him to propose a new, 
ultra-high-security prison regime.

Beyond these "  announcements  ," how can we understand the 
ineffectiveness of state repression in overcoming organized crime?

The economic impact of drug trafficking

This is not intended to be a global overview of the drug market. We will 
focus here on the situation in France, based on official French 
government estimates. However, it is important to place this assessment 
within the context of the evolution of psychotropic substance 
production. Production in Latin America, in particular, has a 
significant impact on the French market.

Latin American cocaine production has doubled in just four years, 
reaching 4,000 tons in 2024. All this merchandise has to be sold 
somehow. Like good capitalists, drug traffickers have sought out 
diversifying markets and have primarily directed their products toward 
Europe.

Thus, in 2023, cocaine became the product whose sales generated the most 
revenue in France: EUR3.1 billion. Cannabis, on the other hand, only 
brought in EUR2.7 billion. To provide a more complete picture of the 
market, we can refer to the estimates of the French Monitoring Centre 
for Drugs and Drug Addiction (OFDT), which put the total revenue from 
illicit drugs at EUR6.8 billion in 2023.

Cannabis and cocaine alone generate approximately 90% of total revenue. 
However, the French Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction ( 
OFDT) notes strong growth in the value of the psychostimulant market: 
+637% for ecstasy and +470% for amphetamines since 2010. These increases 
are remarkable, especially considering that the overall market has 
simply tripled over the same period.

These developments must be considered within the European context. 
Lorraine Nolan, director of the European Union Agency for Drugs and Drug 
Addiction, stated during the presentation of the 2026 report that " drug 
markets are evolving at a breakneck pace, and the diversity of 
substances on European streets is becoming increasingly unpredictable ." 
"  Users can take very powerful drugs, often without realizing it  ." As 
a result, 50 new psychoactive substances were reported in Europe in 2025.

These substances "  present an increased risk of potentially fatal 
poisoning  ." Fentanyl, which has become a veritable mass killer in the 
United States, with 76,000 deaths in 2022, was responsible for more than 
100 deaths in Bulgaria between 2024 and 2025.

The roots of the ineffectiveness of the fight against drug trafficking

Drug trafficking didn't develop overnight. By accumulating capital, drug 
cartels acquire increasing resources, both to develop new markets and to 
exert influence on societies in a way that benefits their business. It 
is in light of this expansion of drug trafficking that we can understand 
what is happening today in so many working-class neighborhoods. Because 
that is precisely where it's happening, since, of course, the police 
don't allow drug dealing hotspots to flourish in affluent areas.

To answer our question, we will draw on an interview with Bertrand 
Monnet, a professor specializing in "  Criminal Risk Management  " at 
HEC Montréal (École des hautes études commerciales), published on May 
17, 2026, by the newspaper Le Monde . He first points out the gaps in 
police and judicial pressure on drug trafficking. This pressure focuses 
primarily on two aspects of this criminal industry: the transport and 
sale of drugs. Money laundering-which allows for the transformation of 
large amounts of cash into bank accounts usable in the legitimate 
economy-largely escapes public prosecution.

Furthermore, it's important to remember the disproportion between the 
stakes and the resources available to law enforcement agencies to 
tackle, for example, drug trafficking. Take the port of Dunkirk, for 
instance, where 350 customs officers are supposed to inspect 3 million 
containers a year. This seems more like a show of force than a genuine 
commitment to addressing the transportation aspect of drug trafficking.

In such a context, repression resembles a Danaid's barrel, with police 
successes being taken into account by drug barons in the vagaries of 
trafficking, and transport networks and dealing points are perpetually 
reconfigured.

Ultimately, failing to truly address money laundering allows drug 
cartels to continue accumulating billions, expanding their financial 
resources, and strengthening their grip on contemporary societies. To 
understand why law enforcement policies are so ineffective against this 
link in the criminal chain, it's essential to first explain, in simple 
terms, how money laundering works.

Bertrand Monnet, in a very clear and instructive way, divides money 
laundering into three stages. He calls the first stage "placement." 
Dealers are paid in banknotes, which must then be deposited into bank 
accounts. Today, it is no longer possible to deposit money collected at 
drug dealing spots directly into a bank without being able to prove its 
origin.

It's necessary to use untraceable intermediaries. It's possible to buy 
goods by paying in cash and then resell them by receiving a bank 
transfer. Alternatively, there's the option of using cryptocurrencies. 
Or it's easy to mix drug money with the receipts of businesses, 
supermarkets, and restaurants, for example, which legitimately accept 
cash payments. Or you can use international money transfer services that 
allow you to be paid in cash initially and receive the money in a bank 
account. In short, it's about dividing these massive flows into small, 
untraceable sums.

The second stage is layering. This involves the flow of money between 
companies, all of which belong to the traffickers. Mexican drug cartels, 
for example, own hotel chains. These companies obviously have suppliers 
to pay. These chains are most often subsidiaries of a holding company. 
At the end of the year, each hotel transfers its earnings to the holding 
company, which is very often domiciled in a tax haven, thus making the 
money flows untraceable, given the banking secrecy laws of Dubai, Hong 
Kong, Panama, and so on.

Finally comes the integration stage, meaning investment in the legal 
economy. Drug traffickers often favor sectors that allow them to launder 
their  dirty money, such as the hotels and supermarkets already 
mentioned, but also import-export and logistics companies-all tools for 
facilitating drug trafficking. And there are always construction 
companies, which are very useful for organizing the corruption of 
politicians responsible for awarding public contracts.

Why are the policies implemented so ineffective?

The first obvious point is that drug money laundering, among its most 
fundamental mechanisms, uses the same channels that allow multinational 
corporations to siphon off the added value produced in their 
subsidiaries and then evade taxes in the countries where these companies 
are located. Therefore, it is highly unlikely that Western states will 
tackle these mechanisms that enable drug money laundering.

On the contrary, under the onslaught of neoliberalism, we are witnessing 
a deregulation of financial governance, cryptocurrencies, in short, 
everything that can generate financial profits, to the great benefit of 
drug trafficking. This convergence between the criminal industry and the 
financialization of multinationals reveals a shared ideology: anything 
that allows for the accumulation of profits must be used.

Drug traffickers are, in reality, capitalists-just a slightly different 
kind-whose interests converge with those of supposedly more law-abiding 
capitalists. The latter, too, never hesitate to employ a range of 
illegal activities, particularly through corruption, tax evasion 
schemes, and even the use of front companies to target their opponents.

Donald Trump, the President of the United States, in full view of the 
world, is using imperial power to serve his personal interests and those 
of his clan. He scoffs at all legality and is prepared to use 
unrestrained violence to achieve this. He claims to be ready to destroy 
an entire country. He offers unwavering support to the genocidal 
government of Israel. One is entitled to ask what distinguishes his 
logic from that of the drug cartels. They are simply competing criminal 
groups.

Furthermore, the line between drug traffickers and "  legal  " 
capitalists is becoming increasingly blurred as the former's grip on the 
legal economy intensifies. At a press conference in Marseille on March 
14, 2026, Colonel Olivier Leblanc reiterated "  the considerable profits 
generated by drug trafficking, which allow this organization[the DZ 
Mafia]to become ever stronger and more powerful  ." The public 
prosecutor, for his part, specified that these profits, estimated at 
three hundred thousand euros each month for each DZ Mafia executive, 
were "  not squandered, but laundered and reinvested  ." Today, the 
firepower acquired by the drug cartels allows them to gradually infect 
the legal economy.

We will obviously not find statistics that allow us to measure the 
penetration of mafia interests into the legal economy, and it is not a 
matter of claiming that the majority of the latter is under their 
control. But undeniably, the economic power of drug cartels is growing, 
making it all the more difficult to implement a policy that is truly 
unfavorable to drug trafficking. In light of these facts, the 
ineffectiveness of drug trafficking repression takes on a new meaning.

What to do?

Obviously, we, like the social movement as a whole, don't have the means 
to fight drug trafficking directly. We remember the short-lived " 
Italian Anarchist Party,  " which in the 1980s aimed to combat the 
Mafia's influence on Italian society by establishing a presence in 
working-class neighborhoods. It disappeared after suffering deaths 
within its ranks. Nor will we forget the brother of community and 
environmental activist Amine Kessaci, active in Marseille, particularly 
in the fight against drug-related violence, who was murdered by the DZ 
Mafia on November 13, 2025. Fighting the Mafia head-on is beyond our 
capabilities. However, that doesn't mean everything is impossible.

Legalizing cannabis could help dry up some of the revenue generated by 
drug trafficking. However, the criminal industry's ability to innovate 
with new substances would still allow it to rebound. Demands for 
legalization alone will never be enough to comprehensively address this 
social cancer. In addition, combating all forms of corruption linked to 
drug trafficking, which falls under the purview of anti-corruption 
organizations, could effectively weaken drug trafficking.

But the social movement must first and foremost provide solutions for 
the residents of working-class neighborhoods who directly suffer the 
social scourge caused by drug trafficking in their daily lives. To 
achieve this, a genuine commitment must first be fostered to build real 
human connections between activists and the residents of these 
neighborhoods. This can only be done based on the needs and aspirations 
of these communities. The task is immense. That is precisely why we must 
begin working on it now. We can hope that this will encourage the 
organization of true solidarity within working-class neighborhoods, 
which, in conjunction with activist support, will become capable of 
opposing the presence of drug trafficking in these communities.

Added to this is a political imperative in these troubled times marked 
by social despair and its corollary, the rise of racism and the far 
right. It is no coincidence that the areas where economically 
marginalized populations are relegated are also the places where drug 
sales are primarily organized and where the foot soldiers of the drug 
trade are recruited.

It is also no coincidence that these enclaves of poverty, even 
destitution, are home to many people of immigrant origin. Failing to 
tackle drug trafficking allows the material conditions conducive to the 
racist hatred upon which fascism builds its power to flourish.

https://plateformecl.org/narcotrafic-la-pourriture-du-capitalisme/
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