CNN
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France plans to build a new high-security prison in the Amazon rainforest, near the infamous Devil Island prison colony that inspired the 1973 film Papillon, starring Steve McQueen.
On Sunday, when he visited French Guiana, a French territory that crosses the border with Suriname and Brazil, Justice Minister Gerald Dalman said the facility would house drug kingpins and radical Muslims.
The prison will be built in Saint Laurent Dumaloni, on the border with Suriname, French Guiana, where there is space for 500 prisoners, including 60 maximum security prisoners.
Talking to the journalists, Dharmanin said the new prisons will not only help alleviate prison overcrowding in Guiana, France, but also help to meet the threat of drug trafficking on the territory.
He said French Guiana is the main transport point for South American cocaine on its way to European markets.
According to CNN affiliate BFMTV, the conflict between organized crime gangs means the territorial murder rate is 18.4 per 100,000 people, compared to 1.2 per 100,000 people in mainland France.
“Citizens of territories overseas must be able to have the same level of security as citizens of mainland France,” Derman said.
According to the minister, high-ranking criminals can use illegal income to corrupt officials, some can continue operations from within prisons.
Dalmanin said that 49 high-level drug traffickers have already been detained in French Guiana and other French overseas territories, adding that these “very dangerous” prisoners have not remained in appropriately safe conditions.
The court-house complex said in a Facebook post Sunday it would cost 400 million euros ($451 million).
For some, the announcement of the planned facility regains memories of the calmness of the Cayenne prison, commonly known as the Devil’s Island, which housed French prisoners until 1953.
The Island of the Devils became infamous for its inhumane circumstances, as long as it lent its name to a 1939 film starring Boris Karloff, and inspired the novel Papillon, which was then turned into two films.
CNN reached the French Department of Justice for comment.
