France to open ‘super-max' jungle prison to combat drug trafficking
France is to build a €400 million US-style 'super-max' prison for drug lords and Islamist terrorists in the heart of the Amazon jungle.
Gérald Darmanin, the hardline justice minister, said on Sunday that the facility would be located in Saint Laurent du Maroni in the overseas territory of French Guiana. It is the same region where the notorious Devil's Island penal colony was situated and was the setting of the novel Papillon, which was later made into a Hollywood film starring Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman.
Devil's Island, where convicts survived for just five years on average, closed in 1953.
Darmanin's plan comes amid rising fears of the 'Mexicanisation' of France. Drug gangs have been waging increasingly murderous turf wars with Kalashnikov assault rifles
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