French Riots Linked to 'Ultra-Left' Eco-Warriors Living Off-Grid, Say Police

French authorities have identified an 'ultra-left' faction of eco-warriors as a driving force behind the violent riots that swept the country last month, leaving over 1,000 police officers and protesters injured, 2,700 arrests, and widespread looting. The group, led by radical Hodei Ciarra Docampo, is accused of helping incite the unrest that saw at least 3,000 stores looted in a single day.

Ciarra Docampo is personally suspected of the arson attack on the historic city hall in Limoges, which gutted the 19th-century landmark and sparked viral images that shocked the world. He has been charged with attempted murder of a public official—a crime punishable by life in prison—after officials said videos showed him throwing a blazing trash can into the building to fuel the fire.

The investigation is now centered on Ciarra Docampo's family and associates in the remote village of Bussiere-Boffy in the Haute-Vienne region of western France, about 200 miles from Paris. The hamlet, with fewer than 300 residents, is 50 miles of winding country roads from the nearest train station. Ciarra Docampo's father, Fernando Ramirez, is a Spanish-born anarchist with connections to the Basque separatist movement, according to French court papers.

For years, Ramirez and his wife have allowed people with no fixed address to park their vans and set up yurts on their land, to the dismay of many locals. 'They don't ask; they do what they want. That's the problem with those people,' former Bussiere-Boffy mayor Jean-Paul Barriere told the Wall Street Journal. The family is known for their eccentric anti-development and anti-technology causes, from campaigning against new airports to resisting the installation of smart electric meters, which they claim are tools of government control that emit harmful electromagnetic waves.

Ramirez was convicted earlier this year of setting fire to trucks used to deploy France's new smart electric meters. The group has also previously attacked 5G towers, according to police. The unrest has raised concerns about the influence of radical environmental and anti-technology factions in France, as authorities continue to grapple with the fallout from the riots.