The mayor of the French town of Alès was taken from his home under police protection due to threats
Christophe Rivenc, the mayor of Alès in southern France, was taken from his home in the early hours of Tuesday and placed under police protection following reports of a possible attack. The operation was carried out by the elite police unit RAID, according to France 24. The mayor, who represents the conservative party “Les Républicains,” is currently under police protection at an undisclosed location.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez stated that he decided to evacuate Rivenc after receiving credible intelligence about an imminent attack that may have been planned by members of the DZ Mafia group. According to the minister, the group originated in Marseille and is attempting to establish a foothold in Alès. Local media also reported a suspicious vehicle near the mayor’s home, which police believed might have contained explosives.
Earlier this month, Rivenc found 9mm bullets in his mailbox, and threatening graffiti appeared on the walls of his home. This was reported by France’s National Prosecutor’s Office for the Fight Against Organized Crime (PNACO), which took over the investigation from the Marseille prosecutor’s office. Following the previous threats, the mayor stated that he would not give in to intimidation.
According to France 24, over the past year, the DZ Mafia has been trying to displace local networks in Alès—the administrative center of the Gard department with a population of about 46,000. In the Pré-Saint-Jean neighborhood, where drug trafficking is widespread, an 18-year-old man was shot and killed in early June. In mid-January, a 54-year-old man was killed and another man was wounded near a drug dealing spot. A few days before the June murder, four young men from the department of Saint-Denis, near Paris, came under automatic gunfire when they arrived in the area.
Núñez reported that since December, police have made dozens of arrests—including 11 in Ales—and have seized sports cars and other assets belonging to gang members. Yan Biziu, an expert on drug trafficking at Paul-Valéry University in Montpellier, noted that the DZ Mafia is more of a horizontal network with local cells than a classic hierarchical mafia structure.
