France to open high-security prison in Amazon jungleThe plan was announced after a series of violent incidents linked to criminal gangs which saw prisons and staff targeted across France in recent months . France will build a new high-security prison in its overseas territory of French Guiana to house drug traffickers and radical Islamists, the country's justice minister announced during a visit to the territory. French Guiana is a region of France on the north-east coast of South America. The proposed new facility in French Guiana is to be built at a "strategic crossroads" for drugs mules, particularly from Brazil and Suriname, according to AFP news agency. Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni is the former port of entry to the infamous Devil's Island penal colony, where 70,000 convicts from mainland France were sent between 1852 and 1954.