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A wave of attacks targeting at least six prisons across France is being investigated as “terrorism” by authorities who say this was a coordinated response to the government’s intensified crackdown on drug trafficking. The suspected perpetrators, however, claim they are protesting against human rights violations in prisons.
The attacks, which included arson and gunfire, began Sunday and have struck facilities in Toulon, Marseille, Aix-en-Provence, Valence, Nîmes, Luynes, Villepinte, and Nanterre. Authorities say the incidents appear linked to recent record-breaking cocaine seizures and new security measures targeting criminal networks operating inside prisons.
French Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin called the incidents “terrorist attacks” and said they were an attempt to force the state into backing down from its anti-narcotics campaign. “There are clearly people trying to destabilize the state by intimidating it,” Darmanin said Tuesday outside Toulon prison, where an automatic rifle attack left 15 bullet holes in the front gate.
The most recent incidents included three cars set on fire outside Tarascon prison overnight between Tuesday and Wednesday, and a fire in the entrance hall of a prison officer’s residence in Seine-et-Marne, northern France.
A previously unknown group calling itself “French Prisoners’ Rights Defense” (DDPF) has claimed responsibility for the attacks. The group’s acronym was found spray-painted at multiple sites. In a message on Telegram, the group said, “We are not terrorists, we are here to defend human rights in prisons.”
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau vowed a “relentless” response, saying law enforcement agencies had been instructed to increase protection for prisons and staff. “Those who attack prisons and officers deserve to be locked up in those prisons and monitored by those officers,” Retailleau said in a statement.
French authorities have significantly increased drug seizures in recent months. In the first 11 months of 2024, police intercepted 47 metric tonnes of cocaine—double the 23 tons seized in all of 2023. In one raid last month, officers seized 10 tonnes of cocaine worth more than €300 million ($3.4 million), one of the largest busts in French history.
Retailleau described the surge in trafficking as a “white tsunami,” citing growing concerns over the spread of narcotics throughout the country.
As tensions escalate, Darmanin also announced a plan to build 3,000 new prison spaces to address chronic overcrowding. France currently holds nearly 81,000 inmates in facilities designed for around 62,000, forcing thousands to sleep on mattresses on the floor. The national prison occupancy rate now exceeds 129 percent, according to the justice ministry.
“These attacks are happening because we are finally putting an end to leniency in the prison system,” Darmanin said.
