France plans to build a high-security prison in Amazon as part of its crackdown on serious drug offenders.
Justice Minister Gerald Dalmanin announced the proposal over the weekend during a visit to Guiana, France, a South American overseas territory adjacent to Brazil and Suriname.
The scheme features a 500-bed prison built in St. Laurent du Maroni, a region of Guiana, France, with space for 60 high-level drug offenders and 15 terrorists.
The court will also be built on the Justice Department’s website as soon as 2028 will be open and costing 400 million euros, he explained.
The facility will be built near the infamous prison colony known as the Devil’s Island, which was run by France until the 1950s.
The prison colony, famous for its short life expectancy, became a Hollywood film starring Dustin Hoffman and Steve McQueen.
The minister told the French newspaper Le Journal Du Dimanche (JDD) that the prison’s purpose was to “release the most dangerous drug traffickers from their actions.”
Apart from targeting drug trafficking on the territory, Dharmanin also said it will help alleviate overcrowding in prisons.
Dharmanin made the fight against drug trafficking one of his top priorities. By this summer, he hopes to isolate his country’s top 100 drug traffickers from criminal networks.
Under this plan, prisoners will be transferred to two high security prisons in mainland France: Vendin-Le-Vieil (Pas-de-Calais) and Condé-Sur-Sarthe (Orne).
Speaking to the French newspaper Le Monde in January, Darmanin explained his reasoning.
“What we can’t stand is that prisons are no longer obstacles to continuing human trafficking or assassinating or threatening magistrates, prison officers, journalists and lawyers,” he said.
The third high-security prison in his anti-drug scheme will be the prison of Guiana, France.
