Gendarmes taunted by hostile
crowd after drug dealer arrest
MARIGOT--Gendarmes arrested a total of three individuals in French Quarter on Monday when a hostile crowd gathered to protest the arrest of a drug dealer during a routine control.
The arrests took place between 5:00pm and 7:00pm as Gendarmes searched a number of young people loitering in the streets. One individual B.S. (22) from the Dutch side was found with 32 grams of cannabis in his possession, separated into small sachets to be sold. Immediately after the arrest, a hostile crowd gathered and began abusing the Gendarmes verbally.
Two persons in the crowd B.K (24) and B.J. (29) from French Quarter were subsequently arrested for their disrespectful and rebellious attitude towards uniformed officers of the law and displaying an attitude further described in the report as “particularly outrageous.”
B.S. will appear in court for drug dealing offences on May 24 while B.K. and B.J. have been summoned to appear in court on May 3.
As a result of the fire in Happy Bay on Monday night, a criminal unit at the Gendarmerie has opened an investigation to determine whether the hillside fire represented a case of arson or whether it had originated from natural or accidental causes.
The Fire Brigade used three trucks to put out the fire that began around 7:30pm on a hillside between Grand Case and Happy Bay. It was extinguished around 10:30pm. The occupants of one house in the line of fire were evacuated as a precaution but were allowed to return to their home later.
There was no loss of life, neither was anyone injured. The Gendarmerie estimated that 2 hectares of dry scrub, vegetation, and trees, had been destroyed.
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