Arrived from Mostaganem, these undocumented immigrants reign terror in Toulouse
The city of Toulouse, in the south-west of France, has become over the years a veritable den for the delinquency of undocumented Algerians. According to an exclusive investigation by the French newspaper La Dépêche, published on Saturday March 5, gangs of young people from Mostaganem are gradually shaking up control of Toulouse crime in the streets and in prisons.
The security situation in Toulouse, about 150 kilometers from the Spanish border, worries the French state to the highest degree. Drug trafficking has exploded in 2021 and it usually involves undocumented Algerians, from the seaside town of Mostaganem. Even the police are alarmed and do not hesitate to express their fear. “They have nothing to lose and are capable of anything. Sometimes I am afraid of being stabbed when it comes to questioning them, ”says a municipal police officer interviewed by the newspaper La Dépêche.
The Mostaganémois sow terror in Toulouse and the figures show it well. Delinquency involving Algerians from Mostaganem has doubled in one year. Legal proceedings against undocumented migrants in Mostaganem have also doubled in a few years. 400 procedures in 2016 compared to 800 in 2021. During the year 2021, more than 1000 haraga from the same Algerian city were arrested for theft, assault or selling drugs.
Delinquency as a means of survival for Algerian undocumented migrants
It must be said that for the many undocumented immigrants who arrive in Toulouse, delinquency is a means of survival. Their extreme precariousness is proven and the oldest take advantage of the newcomers to make them “work”. The Mostaganémois of Toulouse organize themselves like a real gang. The oldest are comfortable with the latest arrivals for two main reasons. The new ones do not lodge a complaint because they are afraid of being expelled and in terms of delinquency the new ones are not known to the police and can therefore be very commendable for the old ones who have become real mafiosos.
“In the 1980s, to earn enough to eat or wear, these undocumented migrants turned to selling cigarettes on the street. Cartridges purchased in Spain or Andorra at bargain prices. But for five years, they have also been eyeing drug trafficking or snatching, especially in the metro, ”said an investigator to the same media.
The Mostaganem gang dominates the other groups of delinquents
In addition, the police and other security services in the Toulouse region note with concern the domination of the Mostagané gang over other groups of delinquents. A domination that extends to prison, after that which has imposed itself in certain localities of the city such as Arnaud-Bernard and Saint-Michel. The fact that they are illegal immigrants does not facilitate the task of the police.
“When we apprehend them, they always give us false identities. These migrants are ghosts who see Toulouse as an Eldorado, ”says a policeman. For the latter, misleading publications on social networks present Toulouse as an Eldorado. And in Mostaganem, the fantasy is really nurtured. But as soon as they arrive in this region of the Pyrenees, they discover hell for any foreign undocumented person. Sleeping in squats, hanging out all day in the street, despairing of finding a job, this is what the daily life of these new Algerian arrivals is made of.
In fact, according to police investigators, illegal Algerians smoke boats from Mostaganem to Alicante in Spain. Once there, they go north, to Barcelona or Lleida, where they can take an illegal taxi to cross the border. 150 kilometers more, they are in Toulouse where either they marry French women to have official papers, or turn to delinquency to survive.