Police officers attacked by about 20 men in drug trafficking operation

Several police officers have been attacked in the town of Belle-de-Mai, in the north of Marseille, by about twenty men in the course of an operation to arrest a heavyweight member of the French city’s drug trafficking network.

The agents belonged to the Special Field Brigade (BST, by its French acronym)and were after the subject for “facts of extreme gravity”, as reported by the newspaper ‘Le Figaro’.

While the agents proceeded to the arrest, the men “threw themselves on the policemen to free him”, an action that the sources consulted by the local media describe as “incredibly violent”.

In total, five people have been arrested, including the man they had gone to hold in the first place. One of the agents has two broken fingers, another has bruises “all over his body” and another has received a strong impact in the face so he could have a broken nose.