Five suspects, including a 16-year-old, detained after armed attacks on police in Guadeloupe

Prosecutor Caroline Calbo announced that five men, including a 16-year-old, have been formally charged and jailed in connection with two separate shootings of law-enforcement personnel in Guadeloupe. The first suspect, a 44-year-old, was taken into custody after investigators linked him to a gang that fired on gendarmes and later on police officers, and an AR-15 assault rifle was seized. The second case involves three men in their twenties and a minor, who were arrested for attempting to murder public officials and for armed robbery, after two GIGN gendarmes were wounded during an operation in Les Abymes.

The suspects face possible life sentences, and the gendarmerie commander Christophe Perret has ordered the deployment of roughly ten additional specialist officers from the GIGN and the national police judicial unit through the holiday period. Officials highlighted a growing flow of weapons tied to narcotrafficking across the French Antilles.