Six months of PNACO: new public prosecutor’s office takes stock for the first time in the fight against organised crime

Paris – 14 July 2026: At the Paris Palace of Justice, an authority has been operating for six months that is intended to coordinate France’s fight against organized crime. The Parquet national anticriminalité organisée, or PNACO for short, presented an initial assessment of its work on Monday. It is headed by public prosecutor Vanessa Perrée. Her office does not see itself as a competitor to regional investigators, but as a hub for particularly complex cases.

The PNACO began operations on 5 January 2026 at the Tribunal judiciaire de Paris. It was established by the law of 13 June 2025, which was intended to better equip France against the structures of drug trafficking. The authority has jurisdiction over serious forms of organized crime, including when economic and financial offenses play a central role. These include money laundering, the financing of criminal networks and cross-border connections.

In her assessment, Perrée emphasized that the new prosecution service is not there to take over cases from other judicial bodies. Cooperation with the eight interregional specialized courts, the JIRS, is particularly crucial. They possess knowledge of local milieus, crime scenes and investigations that have been ongoing for years. The PNACO is intended to make connections between cases visible when the leads extend far beyond a single region.

According to the prosecution service, the focus is on drug trafficking and its 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 often remains invisible to those involved: behind an arrest there are often lengthy analyses of money flows, communication data and international requests for legal assistance.

The authority also deals with violence in the environment of criminal groups, intimidation and threats against justice personnel. Such cases show that organized crime is not solely a matter of drugs or money. It can shape daily life in neighborhoods, make families feel insecure and increase pressure on investigators, judges and other state employees. Perrée did not name any specific ongoing cases.

At its launch, the PNACO had 16 public prosecutors, 13 registry staff and specialized experts. They are joined by liaison officers from the police, gendarmerie, customs and intelligence services. According to the Justice Ministry’s plan, the number of public prosecutors is to rise to 30 by September 2026. The staffing expansion is part of a gradual build-up, the robustness of which will only become apparent in the coming years.

Six months after its launch, the PNACO is therefore primarily a new working structure being tested under pressure. The prosecution service must prove that central coordination and local experience can work together. For the justice system, this is about more than new powers: it must strike criminal networks where they are most resilient – in their money, their connections and their ability to spread fear.