A mayor exfiltrated overnight from his home, under the protection of elite police officers, to protect himself from the threats of a criminal group. Tragic, unprecedented scene, which nevertheless took place Monday evening. This elected official is Christophe Rivenq, the mayor (Les Républicains) of Alès, a town of 46,000 inhabitants at the foot of the Cévennes, into which the infamous DZ Mafia burst in to extend its influence beyond its Marseille base.
The 60-year-old councilor had been placed under police protection since last week, after receiving two 9 mm bullets in an envelope and finding tags on the fence of his house. New threats have forced the executive to take more radical measures: it is now subject to “very high level protection”, security around municipal buildings has been reinforced and the national anti-organized crime prosecutor’s office announced that it had taken up the investigation.
The whole of France concerned
This act of intimidation does not only target Alès and its mayor, but it is aimed at the entire national community. Because this affair reminds us that trafficking now concerns the whole of France. Not a city without a deal point, not a consumer who cannot obtain supplies in a few hours. It also shows that criminals will stop at nothing to make those who oppose them bend, like Christophe Rivenq and all the elected officials who have made the fight against drugs one of the pillars of their policy.
“Trafficking thrives on institutional disengagement. It settles where the State has withdrawn,” anti-drug activist Amine Kessaci, who also lives under police protection, told La Croix L’Hebdo a few months ago. In this sense, this affair constitutes a threat against the rule of law, which calls for us to live up to the determination of Christophe Rivenq.
