They say it has the world’s best city life. It’s also a gang war zone

Often described as the capital of the Alps for its natural beauty, universities and flourishing tech scene, Grenoble has made its residents proud and its visitors jealous.
Ranked as the world’s top city for quality of life by Oxford Economics, a business forecaster, in a survey of 1,000 cities this month, the 19th-century writer Stendhal said that in his hometown you could see “a mountain at the end of every street”.
But recently, the people of Grenoble have come up with another nickname for their beloved city, as drug-related shootings and gang violence erupt on its picturesque streets: “The Chicago of the Alps”.
“There have been shootings every two or three days in the past month or two,” Éric Vaillant, the city’s prosecutor, said. “I’ve never known so many in such a short space of time in the five years I’ve been here. The drug gangs are waging a relentless war with each other.”
Gun violence linked to drug gangs has left three dead and about 20 injured in recent months. “It’s an exaggeration to say it’s like Chicago, but we are becoming like Marseilles,” Patrick, a 45-year-old civil servant, said. “Some of the neighbourhoods affected are fairly central, like the Alma. I had lunch there yesterday but I wouldn’t go there at night.”
In the suburb of Échirolles, which has been the scene of a series of recent shootings and at least one murder, a teenage dealer sat on a battered office swivel chair at the foot of a council block. Lookouts seated on folding chairs kept watch near by, yards from a children’s playground.
“When the police approach, you hear the choufs [lookouts] shout ‘Arah’ for others to ‘watch out’,” Nadia, a 29-year-old resident, said. Some lookouts appeared no older than 15, but their hard stares discouraged passers-by from lingering.
Nadia said dealers sold packets of cannabis and cocaine in the entrance to her block of flats. “Sometimes they won’t let people who live there into the building and even beat them up. My daughter is only two. When I take her out I’m scared she could get hit by a stray bullet. The police have cleared them out more than once but they just come back.”
Abdel Karim, 42, an Uber driver, has given up working at night because of the shootings. “If I pick up someone who’s involved in the gangs and they get targeted, I could get caught up in it,” he said. “I’ve seen some scary fights even if I’ve never actually witnessed a shooting. Doing this job at night is too dangerous now.”
According to Vaillant, Grenoble has a large number of drug takers, partly because it is home to more than 60,000 students.
“We’re cracking down on street dealers and pursuing investigations to take down the kingpins,” he said. “Sometimes this leads to turf wars because when we arrest a gang boss, someone else usually moves in and replaces his dealers, so there are gun battles.”
The police say they lack the manpower to make a lasting impact. “We’re 115 officers below full strength in Grenoble,” Yannick Biancheri, a police union delegate, said. “Officers were sent from all over the country to Paris to maintain security during the Olympics and the result was that Paris enjoyed a calm like never before. Why can’t we flood Grenoble with police and get the same result?”
In the liberal city, many believe prohibition is the wrong approach to drugs. Éric Piolle, the Green mayor, favours decriminalising or legalising cannabis. “I don’t like drugs but I think we could fight them more effectively if we make cannabis legal and treat drug-taking as a public health issue,” Piolle said.
In tune with the easygoing spirit of his city, the 51-year-old mayor, who has held office for a decade and cycles to work, received The Times wearing a T-shirt and jeans.
“It’s a mistake to think that continually repeating the same strategy of trying to crack down on drugs will work any better now than it did before,” he said. “The police feel like they’re being asked to empty the ocean with a teaspoon. They put more people behind bars yet the trafficking continues. If cannabis was legal, we could launch more effective public health information campaigns.”
Biancheri disagreed with the mayor. “Cigarettes are legal but there’s still a black market selling them more cheaply,” he pointed out. “Legalisation won’t end the gang violence and they sell other drugs like cocaine as well as cannabis.”
He acknowledged, however, that mass arrests do not solve the problem. “New gang leaders always spring up because drugs are so lucrative. This business amounted to €2.7 billion in France in 2023, but this year it’s up to €4 billion. The gangs have got more money and resources than the police.”