Brest, the once sleepy port city at the far western tip of France, is facing a rise in drug trafficking – and as a result, shootings, stray bullets and open street dealing have become a part of life in the city of 140,000 people, and are reshaping the political debate ahead of France's local elections.
The issue has forced a political rethink at Brest's city hall. Socialist François Cuillandre, the city's mayor since 2001, has reversed his long-held opposition to creating a municipal police force and now says he will do so if re-elected.
Nowhere is the impact of the drug trade more visible than in the district of Bellevue, 15 minutes from the city centre by the newly installed tram line. On a grey afternoon, the area looks calm enough. Children gather at the ice rink. A bakery, crêperie, kebab shop, butcher, pharmacy and grocery store line the street near Place Napoléon III.
“In itself, it’s not bad here,” says Ophélie, who moved to the neighbourhood three years ago.
But Bellevue has become symbolic of Brest’s growing drug problem.
Ophélie has watched the atmosphere “deteriorate”. Young people deal drugs openly in broad daylight, she says, while mortar fireworks are fired at night. The cellars in her building have been broken into, although she says “in the end, nothing was even stolen”.
“I’m not especially fearful, but now I avoid coming home alone in the evening,” she adds.
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Violence linked to trafficking
In recent months, authorities say the situation has taken a more serious turn.
In late October, a 20-year-old man was shot dead in Bellevue in a killing linked to drug trafficking. In early January, stray bullets passed through an apartment – although no one was injured.
“That was a stroke of incredible luck,” Jean-Philippe Setbon, the local sub-prefect, tells RFI. “Settling of scores, including homicides linked to drug trafficking... we had never seen that in Brest."
Between 2022 and 2025, offences linked to drug use, resale and trafficking have risen by 46 percent in the city.
“The trafficking economy involves several thousand people, directly or indirectly. It ranges from subsistence dealing to large networks," Setbon says. "And it poisons people’s lives, because it’s happening right under their windows.”
Brest is the main hub for retail drug dealing in the Finistère department, which has around 1 million residents.
“All the dealing points are concentrated in Brest,” Setbon says, adding that the city also supplies drugs to other parts further afield.
Residents of Bellevue say daily life has changed markedly in recent years.
“Crime and drug trafficking have become Brest residents’ top priority,” says Véronique, who has lived in the neighbourhood all her life. The 56-year-old is now considering leaving. "It used to be a very calm neighbourhood with lots of families. We'd go outside in the evening. Today it’s nothing like that.”
Véronique described motorbike stunts, drug deliveries near apartment blocks and constant disturbances.
“We used to call the police. Now we don’t bother, because we know they won’t come or they’ll taker several hours to get here.”
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Security debate intensifies
The issue of drug trafficking is now dominating campaigning in Brest for this month's local elections. Although Bellevue has drawn the most attention, the problem extends well beyond the neighbourhood and into other parts of the city, including the centre.
Cuillandre’s proposal to create a municipal police force marks a clear shift. For years he argued that security was the responsibility of the state.
His centrist rival Stéphane Roudaut has criticised the move as “opportunism”. Roudaut has made security his main campaign theme, saying: “Brest is the only city with more than 100,000 inhabitants that does not have a municipal police force."
With the exception of the candidate from the far-left party France Unbowed (LFI), all the main candidates now support the idea.
Still, proponents agree that a municipal force will not solve the city's drug problem on its own. The aim is to free up the national police, which faces staff shortages, from handling everyday disturbances so that officers can focus on organised crime.
“To allow the national police to do their jobs, we will create a municipal police force that complements them,” Cuillandre said, adding that residents are contacting him “more and more” about security concerns.
He proposes deploying 50 unarmed municipal officers. Roudaut calls for a broader approach with 150 armed officers and expanded video surveillance across the city.
Cuillandre has defended his change of heart, insisting it reflects a failure by the state to deal with rising instability. “We had to act in the face of the bitter observation that the state is choosing not to fulfil its role and is leaving us alone to face the rise in drug trafficking and insecurity."
Cuillandre also pointed to the abolition of neighbourhood policing under former president Nicolas Sarkozy.
“Fifteen years ago, when there was a problem in the street, people said: what is the state doing? Today it’s: what is the mayor doing?”
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Tipping point
Authorities say Brest has not yet reached the levels of violence seen in cities such as Marseille or Clermont-Ferrand.
“We want at all costs to avoid tipping over because once that happens, we know it’s almost impossible to regain control,” Setbon says. His strategy focuses on targeting those who organise the trafficking networks.
“We must continue dismantling dealing points. But for now we haven’t managed to hit those who organise them."
As police close down street dealing points, trafficking is also moving online through messaging apps such as Telegram. These investigations take time and often produce few visible results.
Alongside security measures, Brest has also been selected for the national LIMITS programme run by the Interministerial Mission for the Fight Against Drugs and Addictive Behaviour, a government body that coordinates drug policy.
The programme aims to strengthen prevention among minors, as criminal networks increasingly recruit younger people. It will be deployed in Kerangoff, the city’s poorest district, and in Kergoat in Bellevue.
Youth workers say they are already seeing the impact. “Especially in the past three years, secondary schools have been contacting us more and more about students dropping out,” said Elsa, an educator with the Don Bosco association, which runs prevention programmes in Bellevue.
“We’re dealing with 11, 12 and 13-year-olds, which we had never seen before,” she says.
Ludovic Prigent, the director of the service, links the trend to growing hardship among families. “There is significant impoverishment of families, with many single-parent households and complicated migration journeys,” he says.
“We’ve lost some of the educational figures that used to structure neighbourhood life, where there was more shared guidance. A gap has opened up.”
Prigent says trafficking networks have also taken over some public spaces. “We’ve lost ground with the massive installation of trafficking networks. There is a real challenge of reclaiming public space."
Schools also report rising violence, including firearms, knife attacks and intimidation on social media. To counter this, youth workers organise work programmes, trips outside the neighbourhood, sports activities and partnerships aimed at offering young people alternatives.
As drug trafficking dominates the political debate, Prigent worries the wider causes could be overlooked.
“We risk focusing on a minority without looking at what’s happening around it,” he warns. “And without asking why young people fall into drug trafficking – parents who feel powerless, institutions that are overwhelmed.”
For him, the response must balance policing and prevention.
“It is more than time for politicians to understand where we’ve ended up. If drug trafficking is at the centre of the debate, it’s because residents are exhausted and simply want to regain some calm and a sense of living together.”
This story has been adpated from the original version in French by Aurore Lartigue
