Manhunt in France after gunmen ambush prison van to free drug dealer, kill 2 guards
- A major manhunt is on for fugitive inmate Mohamed Amra and suspects behind deadly ambush
- Prison van was transporting the drug dealer when it was attacked at a toll booth in northern France
Gunmen wearing balaclavas ambushed a prison van in northern France to free a drug dealer known as “The Fly”, killing two prison guards, severely wounding three and triggering a major police manhunt.
The brazen, Tuesday morning attack at a toll booth in Incarville in the Eure region of northern France underlines the growing threat of drug crime across Europe, the world’s No 1 cocaine market.
It came on the same day that France’s Senate released a major report on drug trafficking, warning that the country faces a “tipping point” from rising narco violence that represents “a threat to the fundamental interests of the nation”.
The fugitive inmate, named Mohamed Amra, is a 30-year-old drug dealer from northern France, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office and police sources. He had been convicted of burglary by a court in Evreux on May 10 and was being held at the Val de Reuil prison.
Amra had also been indicted by prosecutors in Marseille for a kidnapping that led to a death, the Paris prosecutor’s office said. A police source in Marseille said Amra was a drug dealer with ties to the city’s powerful “Blacks” gang.