Brussels (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Since April 13, 2025, France has faced an alarming wave of coordinated attacks against its prisons and correctional facilities – a series of violent acts including arson, gunfire, and direct intimidation tactics, stretching across multiple regions and forcing the Justice Ministry to launch a major counteroffensive.
Dangerous threats
Over several tense nights in mid-April, at least a dozen prison sites and associated facilities came under attack – including Toulon-La Farlède, Aix-Luynes, Marseille, Valence, Nîmes, Villepinte, Nanterre, and Tarascon among others – with attackers displaying both logistical coordination and violent intent.
Examples of these brazen actions include a Molotov cocktail being hurled into the entry hall of a prison guard’s residential building – while at Toulon-La Farlède prison, approximately 15 rounds from an AK-47 were fired directly into the entrance gate in an act more reminiscent of cartel tactics than domestic unrest.
The most common signature of the assaults involves vehicles and administrative buildings being set ablaze – incendiary devices and accelerants proving to be the weapon of choice to sow chaos and fear among the prison staff and surrounding communities.
Authorities, along with union representatives, immediately pointed to a concerted and organized campaign aimed at intimidating the French state – Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin declaring:
“There are evidently individuals attempting to destabilize the state through intimidation… We will not yield.”
The PNAT takes the lead – a rare move
In a rare shift of protocol, the investigation into these attacks has been taken over by France’s National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT) – a move that signals just how seriously the French state views the symbolic nature of these coordinated assaults.
Typically, organized crime prosecutors would manage such incidents – yet the targeted violence against core state institutions triggered the involvement of the PNAT, supported by France’s powerful domestic intelligence agency, the DGSI (General Directorate for Internal Security).
The sheer geographical spread of the attacks – combined with the choice of targets and the synchronization – led officials to classify them as acts of intimidation against the French Republic itself, rather than isolated criminal incidents.
The stakes – both symbolic and practical – have rarely been higher for French law enforcement.
Anarchist traces at the scene – yet no confirmation yet
Evidence collected at multiple attack sites has led investigators to believe that anarchist groups may be behind the assaults – graffiti featuring anarchist symbols, slogans, and the acronym “DDPF” (Droits des Prisonniers Français, or Rights for French Prison Inmates) were found prominently displayed across several locations.
European security agencies have long documented the tactics of anarchist movements, particularly their focus on prisons and law enforcement as instruments of state repression – making this pattern eerily familiar for seasoned investigators.
While authorities are also keeping an open line of inquiry regarding possible retaliation by organized crime networks – the presence of anarchist communications, their historical patterns of activism, and their focus on prisoners’ rights, make far-left activism the primary lead.
It is, however, a troubling moment for the French far-left in general – when, according to the government’s own assessment, only two groups appear capable of mounting such nationwide assaults: French radical leftist activists and international drug cartels.
