Six months of PNACO: New prosecutorial authority offers initial assessment in the fight against organized crime

Paris – 14.07.2026: At the Paris Palace of Justice, an authority has been operating for the past six months with the aim of centralizing France’s fight against organized crime. The Parquet national anticriminalité organisée, abbreviated as PNACO, published its first assessment of its work on Monday. The authority is headed by prosecutor Vanessa Perrée. The office does not see itself as a competitor to regional investigators, but as a hub for particularly complex cases.

PNACO began operations on January 5, 2026, at the Tribunal judiciaire de Paris. The authority was established under the law of June 13, 2025, to help France strengthen its ability to deal with the structures of drug trafficking. It has jurisdiction over serious forms of organized crime, including where economic and financial offenses play a key role. These areas particularly include money laundering, financing criminal networks, and cross-border connections.

In the assessment, Perrée emphasized that the new prosecution service was not created to take cases away from other judicial authorities. In particular, cooperation with the eight interregional specialized courts, known as JIRS, is crucial. This is where knowledge of local environments, crime locations, and investigations lasting many years is concentrated. PNACO is expected to clarify links between cases when leads extend far beyond the scope of a single region.

According to the prosecution service, the focus is on drug trafficking activities and their economic infrastructure. Investigations target not only the transport and sale of narcotics, but also assets, shell companies, and digital payment channels. This is a shift in perspective that is often not readily visible to those affected: behind an arrest there is often a lengthy analysis of financial flows, communications data, and requests for international mutual legal assistance.

The authority also handles violence in the milieu of criminal groups, acts of intimidation, and threats directed at relatives of members of the justice system. Such cases show that organized crime is not merely a matter of drugs or money. It can shape the everyday life of neighborhoods, make families feel insecure, and increase pressure on investigators, judges, and other state employees. Perrée did not name specific ongoing cases.

At its launch, PNACO had 16 prosecutors, 13 office staff, and dedicated specialists. There are also liaison officers from the police, gendarmerie, customs, and intelligence services. According to the Ministry of Justice’s plan, the number of prosecutors will increase to 30 by September 2026. The staffing increase is part of a gradual development process whose sustainability can only be assessed in the coming years.

Six months after its launch, PNACO is first and foremost a new working structure being tested under pressure. The prosecution service must demonstrate that centralized coordination and local experience can work together. For the justice system, the issue is not only new powers: the aim is to strike criminal networks at the points where they are most resilient—money, connections, and their ability to spread fear.