"Am I going or not?": The selection of 200 drug traffickers gathered in two high-security prisons is becoming clearer, worrying inmates and lawyers.

Will they be on the "list"? As the date set by the Minister of Justice to welcome the first "most dangerous drug traffickers" to the ultra-secure Vendin-le-Vieil prison (Pas-de-Calais) approaches, several potentially affected inmates are fretting. As of July 31, about a hundred of them will have been transferred to the new high-security section of this penitentiary center known for housing the jihadist Salah Abdeslam and the multi-recidivist robber Rédoine Faïd. One hundred others will follow at the end of October in the prison of Condé-sur-Sarthe (Orne), and around sixty, by 2028, will join the new prison of Saint-Laurent du Mfaroni, in French Guiana. With the publication in the Official Journal of the implementing decree of the law creating these "quarters to fight organized crime", Wednesday July 9, the first transfers, under high security, will begin.

Important: A new milestone has been reached three weeks before the opening of the first high-security prison in Vendin-le-Vieil: the decree relating to the areas for combating organized crime and the anonymity of prison officers, essential for the implementation of...

— Gérald DARMANIN (@GDarmanin) July 9, 2025

At least one inmate is certain to be part of the "cast": the multi-recidivist Mohamed Amra, already incarcerated in Condé-sur-Sarthe for his escape which cost the lives of two guards at the Incarville toll booth in May 2024. And for good reason: the creation of these districts within the framework of the law aimed at "freeing France from the trap of drug trafficking", validated by the Constitutional Council on June 12 , was presented as a response to this tragedy. For the rest of the conscripts, the selection is carried out in the greatest secrecy. The criteria are classified, "national security" requires, argues the Chancellery. Gérald Darmanin's entourage even denies the term "list" , a word nevertheless uttered by the Minister of Justice himself in an interview with Le Parisien at the end of 2024. A prison source prefers to speak of a "breeding ground" .

According to a police officer in the Ile-de-France region, all the services of the "36", the Parisian PJ, were indeed asked in the spring to "provide a list of important individuals" . His service "communicated around twenty names, including siblings". According to our information, the prison intelligence services and the magistrates of the national jurisdiction for the fight against organised crime (Junalco) and the specialised interregional jurisdictions (Jirs) were also involved. Ultimately, the decision will rest with the Minister of Justice. It is he who will decide, by ministerial decree, to transfer to these districts any prisoner identified by the competent services.

If the names of the persons concerned are confidential, they are supposed to tick the following boxes, according to the prison administration: "Danger, alleged facts linked to organized crime, potential influence on the criminal environment, corruptive power due to particularly significant financial resources and pressure, continuation of criminal activities since detention, ability to escape..."

These criteria are similar to those of the directory of particularly high-profile prisoners (DPS). In 2022, there were around 240 of them listed there, including 55 involved in Islamist terrorism, according to the International Prison Observatory . A figure that is currently being updated, according to the ministry. Mohamed Amra, for his part, had slipped through the net. A mistake that the authorities should not repeat. Thus, several lawyers specializing in drug trafficking cases denounce a sort of "pre-selection" of detainees among the 17,000 labeled "narcotrafficking," through placement under the DPS status and solitary confinement. "Some of my clients have been in pretrial detention for a long time and there is nothing new in their case. When I ask why they are classified as DPS, I am simply told that they are under investigation in a drug case," laments lawyer Ménya Arab-Tigrine.

"My clients, that's the only question they're asking right now: 'Am I going to go or not?'"

Ménya Arab-Tigrine, lawyer in several drug cases

to franceinfo

One of the features of these new districts is that they will bring together convicted persons and defendants awaiting trial, subject to the same conditions of detention. Namely, a reinforced isolation regime valid for one year – compared to three months today –, renewable, with visiting rooms with a hygiaphone (the detainee is separated from visitors by a window), family living units prohibited, telephone calls limited to two hours, twice a week, and a ban on working. The Constitutional Council only expressed some reservations about systematic strip searches after each visit and the widespread use of videoconferencing for meetings with the judge, with regard to detainees under investigation.

Gabriel Ory, suspected of being the head of the DZ Mafia , a Marseille criminal organization known for its ultra-violent methods and score-settling, "knows very well that he will go to Vendin or Condé," his lawyer says. This 29-year-old man is already subject, according to Christine d'Arrigo, to an "absolute tightening of his detention conditions" since his transfer from Arles to Fleury-Mérogis, after several mobile phones were discovered in his cell. "His access to the [telephone] booth has been suspended , he is handcuffed as soon as he leaves his cell in solitary confinement, two grilles have been added to the bars, one of which has an ultra-tight mesh that prevents any air circulation, he is subjected to full body searches, and he sees his partner through a plexiglass window in the visiting room" , lists his counsel, recalling that he is, for some of the facts with which he is accused, still in pre-trial detention, and that he therefore remains presumed innocent.

"In Fleury, they're giving him the antechamber to Darmanin prisons; he's a lab rat. He told me, 'I feel like an animal.'"

Christine d'Arrigo, lawyer for one of the suspected leaders of the DZ Mafia

to franceinfo

The Chancellery denies any policy of solitary confinement for prisoners who are scheduled to be sent to the Vendin-le-Vieil and Condé-sur-Sarthe prisons. It also reiterates that appeals before an administrative judge will be possible once the allocation decision has been made.

Benoît David, like others, intends to seize it. While Mohamed Amra's lawyer has few illusions about his media client, he intends to fight for others, whose horizon could well darken with the new prison policy. One of them, originally from Roubaix, was "convicted in 2017 for acts from 2013-2014. He is in the Moulins prison, and tells me 'I feel like they are going to put me in Condé'. He is very scared, even though he could have been released in a few years," explains his counsel. Benoît David says he has been called by many other clients to "reassure" them, even those who have "done a very small deal in hashish . " "There is a real fear of being categorized and lumped together," he points out. The selection concerns the "high end of the spectrum," the ministry retorts.

A certain nervousness is also affecting the families of prisoners. "There will inevitably be repercussions for their loved ones. Even if you are a drug trafficker, you also have a family, there will be measures that will impact visits to the visiting room," anticipates Philippe Uzureau, director of Uframa, an association that helps the families and relatives of prisoners. Most fear being informed of the transfer of their son, brother, or father to Vendin only after it has taken place. "They won't be able to go up to the North once a week to see them and bring them their laundry," emphasizes Christine d'Arrigo, a number of drug trafficking prisoners being from, in particular, the Marseille region.

Others believe that grouping these detainees in the same place is not a good idea. Philippe Ohayon, lawyer for Félix Bingui, known as "the Cat" , imprisoned in Fleury-Mérogis since his extradition from Morocco, and considered the founder of the Yoda clan, fears in particular that "families of drug traffickers who do not like each other will find themselves in the same visiting room", with the risks that this entails. The prison administration affirms that the grouping of detainees will be done in such a way as not to cause collisions or collusion. Philippe Ohayon, who is also defending Abdelkader Bouguettaia , suspected of having coordinated the importation of a large shipment of cocaine to Le Havre and extradited from Dubai in mid-June, also disputes certain justifications invoked.

"Trafficking organized from prison is a bit of an exaggeration. It's most often managed from abroad."

Philippe Ohayon, lawyer for Félix Bengui and Abdelkader Bouguettaia

to franceinfo

However, several prisoners have recently been prosecuted in France for managing their trafficking from their cells, such as at the Brest remand center in March, according to Ouest-France , or at the Meaux penitentiary center in May, according to Le Parisien . However, "History has shown that ultra-secure prisons have never been effective in combating crime ," says Benoît David. "We create conditions in which the people in them become pressure cookers." "If we take away a human being's family, they go crazy ," adds his colleague Ménya Arab-Tigrine. "We're going to create monsters, it's the exact opposite of the promise made by the Minister of Justice to protect society." For lawyer Christine d'Arrigo, the Incarville tragedy "It created a divide, even though 90% of inmates don't want to harm their guards. Since then, we've been blinded by the spirit of revenge. But these prisoners will come out again," she emphasizes. "If you take away all hope from an inmate, that's when it becomes dangerous."