2023-12-12 23:09:03
Theft of tools, looted or burned construction sites… In the Grenoble metropolis, many construction projects are at a standstill. Some are simply delayed but others are completely abandoned because of “intimidation and extortion maneuvers”, the Isère prefecture and the Grenoble prosecutor’s office announced this Monday in a press release.
Faced with “this shared diagnosis” by the public prosecutor Eric Vaillant, the prefect Louis Laugier and the actors of the construction federation, measures were decided to “fight against insecurity within construction sites”. Among them, the threefold increase in daily police patrols.
Companies fear retaliation
The situation is not new. Eric Vaillant said he had been alerted “for a while”. But he decided to publicize the affair to break the “omerta” around this Grenoble “mafia system” which regularly extorts construction companies. “It happens like in American films,” he detailed last week on Europe 1. Either you pay or you won’t be able to work anymore.”
These are young “neighborhood bosses”, as he describes them, who arrive on construction sites and “threaten” the site managers, “scare them” or “damage” the machines. They also sometimes steal them or set fire to the premises. “These young delinquents put pressure on those responsible to hire them or hire a relative, or they force them to sign a contract with their guarding or security company,” the prosecutor continued on the airwaves. According to him, for fear of reprisals, companies pay and remain silent so that the construction site can resume.
“We need testimonies”
The Grenoble public prosecutor’s office and the Isère prefecture therefore want to put these “racketeers” “out of harm’s way” and want to “stop the phenomenon” with “firmness and determination”. Like what happened in Marseille in 2017, there could be a trial but for that, “we need testimonies and more evidence,” explained Eric Vaillant. Because despite known facts, investigations cannot succeed without concrete testimonies.
On Monday, he therefore once again invited companies to “systematically file complaints” while emphasizing that this was done “through a guarantee of security and discretion”. “I will not give up,” he repeated on Europe 1, recalling that these matters were “important”.
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