French police in mass drugs raids after boy's killing
French police on Monday arrested 20 people in a mass swoop on drug trafficking networks in the southern city of Nimes, where the killing of a 10-year-old boy in an August shootout shocked people in the country, prosecutors said.
The 20 were "arrested at their homes and held in custody starting at 6am" by a 250-strong police deployment, prosecutor Cecile Gensac said.
An AFP reporter on the scene in the crime-plagued Pissevin district of Nimes saw gang lookouts raise the alarm as the police arrived among the high-rise housing blocks.
Some officers were sent to a site near the dilapidated Wagner shopping centre, where the 10-year-old - who has been named only as Fayed and did not have any connection to the drug trade - was hit by a stray bullet on August 21st.
Two young men have been killed in the area this year.
Monday's operation was "about the drug trade" rather than the boy's killing, a police source told AFP.
Nine people were arrested last week in Nimes and the Mediterranean port city of Marseille over Fayed's death.
Prosecutors said the latest raids were following up on "several searches between July and November".
Police found eight kilogrammes of cannabis buds, seven kilogrammes of cannabis resin, 1.3 kilogrammes of cocaine and 500 ecstasy pills, as well as several thousand euros in cash and firearms, they added.
"The investigations will continue while the suspects are in custody," Gensac said.
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The 20 were "arrested at their homes and held in custody starting at 6am" by a 250-strong police deployment, prosecutor Cecile Gensac said.
An AFP reporter on the scene in the crime-plagued Pissevin district of Nimes saw gang lookouts raise the alarm as the police arrived among the high-rise housing blocks.
Some officers were sent to a site near the dilapidated Wagner shopping centre, where the 10-year-old - who has been named only as Fayed and did not have any connection to the drug trade - was hit by a stray bullet on August 21st.
Two young men have been killed in the area this year.
Monday's operation was "about the drug trade" rather than the boy's killing, a police source told AFP.
Nine people were arrested last week in Nimes and the Mediterranean port city of Marseille over Fayed's death.
Prosecutors said the latest raids were following up on "several searches between July and November".
Police found eight kilogrammes of cannabis buds, seven kilogrammes of cannabis resin, 1.3 kilogrammes of cocaine and 500 ecstasy pills, as well as several thousand euros in cash and firearms, they added.
"The investigations will continue while the suspects are in custody," Gensac said.
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