Mohamed Amra: the mayor of Alençon assures that the prison of Condé-sur-Sarthe is suitable

Mohamed Amra, arrested on February 22 in Bucharest, Romania , was handed over to France on Tuesday, February 25 and placed in provisional detention in the Condé-sur-Sarthe prison in Orne.

A penitentiary center known for being very high security, which is also one of the four sites considered by the Minister of Justice Gérald Darmanin to set up his project to group together the 100 biggest drug traffickers in France in a single ultra-secure prison.

"It is a high-security prison that was designed to accommodate and house the most dangerous prisoners," explained Joaquim Pueyo, the mayor of Alençon, on BFMTV on Wednesday, February 26.

The mayor, who was director of the Fresnes and Fleury-Mérogis prisons, assures that the penitentiary center has all the capacities to supervise the detention of Mohamed Amra. "To house drug traffickers, we obviously have all the means to take care of them in terms of security."

The Condé-sur-Sarthe prison is considered high security "for various reasons of enclosure, cameras, controls of the movements of prisoners", the mayor explained on January 24 on BFM Normandie.

Thanks to this, the drug trafficker's very demanding detention conditions can be respected. "He will be in isolation, alone in a cell. His movements will be closely supervised by several prison officers. (...) He will be alone during walks," lists Joaquim Pueyo.

Mohamed Amra will be able to contact his lawyer, but always under extremely supervised conditions. "Isolation is a very strict measure that allows us to optimally ensure the safety of a prisoner who could be dangerous for the establishment and our society."

Joaquim Pueyo had already congratulated the Minister of Justice's project last January. "A very strong message was needed. (...) I think that they should be removed from ordinary detention (...) above all to give meaning to the sentence to be carried out," he declared on BFM Normandie.

"We have drug traffickers in French prisons who continue their trafficking from prison and this is not acceptable," he explained. "I think we need to isolate them and we can actually put them in high-security establishments, as we did in 2016 with prisoners imprisoned for acts of terrorism."

Here again, the two establishments chosen were those of Condé-sur-Sarthe and Vendin-le-Veil (Pas-de-Calais), which were selected to perhaps host Gérald Darmanin's new project today by July.

With the arrival of one of France's most wanted drug traffickers, Condé-sur-Sarthe seems to be in a position to be chosen by the state. If this is the case, the authorities will not have to move Mohamed Amra from his cell to another prison.

An important aspect to take into account, since the man had escaped after the attack on a prison van at a toll booth in Eure in May 2024, while he was being transferred.