French minister plans supermax prison in South American jungle

By AFP

France is to build a high-security prison in the South American jungle for the most "dangerous" criminals, including drug kingpins, hardline Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin said in remarks published on Sunday.

The facility will open in 2028 in Saint Laurent du Maroni in French Guiana, a French overseas territory situated north of Brazil, Darmanin told the JDD weekly.

"I have decided to establish France's third high-security prison in Guiana," said Darmanin, who forged his tough-on-drugs reputation in his previous job as interior minister.

"Sixty places, an extremely strict prison regime and one goal -- to remove the most dangerous profiles involved in drug trafficking," he said.

Justice ministry officials added that 15 places would be reserved for convicted Islamist radicals.

"My strategy is simple -- hit organised crime at all levels," Darmanin told the weekly during a trip to Guiana.

"Here in Guiana, at the start of the drug trafficking route.

"In mainland France, by neutralising the network leaders.

"And all the way to consumers.

This prison will be a safeguard in the war against narcotrafficking," he claimed.

Crucially, the prison's location "will serve to permanently isolate the heads of drug trafficking networks" since "they will no longer be able to contact their criminal networks".

Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni is a strategic hub for so-called mules, mainly from Brazil, who attempt to board flights to Paris's Orly Airport carrying cocaine -- in luggage or in their stomachs -- originating in neighbouring Suriname.

Darmanin had already said in January he wanted to isolate "the 100 biggest drug traffickers" in a dedicated facility designed to stop them from pursuing their illegal business from their prison cells.

Guiana is the most crime-ridden French department relative to the size of its population, with a record 20.6 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2023, nearly 14 times the national average.

Saint Laurent was the location of France's notorious Transportation Camp -- a brutal penal colony that operated from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century.

The structure remains largely intact.