Depending on the floor, the investigations follow the violence, sometimes accompanied by looting, committed on the island on the sidelines carried out since November 22.
Le Monde with AFP
Nearly 150 open surveys and fifty people referred: Clarisse Taron, the Prosecutor of the Republic of Fort-de-France communicated, Wednesday, December 8, on the operations carried out by justice following the violence accompanied by looting on the sidelines of the blockages and the general strike, which started on November 22.
A dozen people have been detained, also said the prosecutor on local VIAATV television, stating that “the most serious and heaviest cases are still coming”.
As part of these judicial investigations, Martinique’s gendarmerie has a new interpellation on Tuesday night. It is a man from St. Lucia, suspected of conceal and placed in custody after looting and burglaries in recent days in different businesses on the island.
Pharmacies have been victims of vandalism, as well as several retail signs, businesses, and even a sorting center, where dozens of Christmas parcels have been possible and their contents stolen.
Gendarmerie operations against looting reels
“For three days, we multiply the operations to intercept the looters but also the rects of looting,” said the France-Presse agency (AFP) General William Caquette, commander of the Martinique’s gendarmerie. In particular, he cited “a van with branded clothes, two wheels, many products we did not know, who had just been loaded in an yole [a traditional fishing boat], which presumably went to Saint Lucia. “.
The judicial inquiry will determine whether it is the rects of looting that took place during those last ten days of crisis in the territory. But according to the gendarmerie, these products could be sold smuggled in Saint Lucia, located 87 kilometers south of Martinique. Investigators suspect gangs of Saint Lucia for sponsoring looting on the sidelines of the violence related to the social crisis in Martinique.
“delinquency and crime feeds on disorder because when there is a social disorder, the security forces are rather on the dams, must intervene on voluntary fires that are sometimes traps to fix the security forces. And during that time trying to loot, “said General Caquette. Nearly twenty gendarmes were injured during nocturnal violence related to the social crisis.
For several months, the Martiniques and Saint-Lucienne security forces have been working closely to combat smuggling trafficking, and the coasts of the two islands are particularly monitored, with the competition of the Navy.