France plunged into panic as children become victims of deadly violence by Marseille drug gang

Warning: This article contains disturbing details from the beginning.

Adel’s body was discovered by a group of children on their way to school as his parents were heading to the police station to report him missing. An eerie, burnt silhouette, reclining with one knee raised, as if lounging on a beach near Marseille.

He was just 15 when he died, in the usual manner: shot in the head, then gasoline poured over his emaciated body and set on fire.

The scene, which someone even filmed on the beach, is the latest in a series of brutal shootings linked to the port city’s fast-evolving drug war, which is increasingly fueled by social media and now characterized by gruesome random acts of violence and the growing role of children who are often forced into the drug trade.

“It’s chaos right now,” said a scrawny gang member as he lifted up his shirt in a nearby park to show us his torso, which bore the scars of at least four bullets — the result of an assassination attempt by a rival gang.

France’s Ministry of Justice estimates that the number of teenagers involved in the drug trade has more than quadrupled in the past eight years.

“I’ve been in (a gang) since I was 15. But now everything has changed. Rules, rules – there are no rules anymore. No one respects anything now. The bosses started… using young people. They paid them a pittance. They ended up killing people for no reason. There was anarchy in the whole town,” said the man, now in his early 20s, who asked us to use his nickname “The Immortal.”

Across Marseille, police, lawyers, politicians and community organizers are talking mental illness A state of collective trauma or panic has gripped parts of the city as they debate whether to fight back with tougher police action or new attempts to address entrenched poverty.

“It’s a climate of fear. It’s clear that drug traffickers dominate and it’s getting bigger every day,” said a local lawyer, who requested anonymity out of fear of reprisals against her or her family.

“The rule of law is now subordinate to gangs. We must take precautions until we have a strong state again,” she said, explaining her recent decision to stop representing victims of gang violence.

Mohamed Benmeddour, a community organizer, told us, “There’s so much competition in the drug trade…people are ready to do anything. So, we have 13- or 14-year-old kids coming in to act as lookouts or drug dealers. Young people see bodies every day, hear bodies. They’re no longer afraid of killing or being killed.”

Current triggers for Marseille mental illness Last month, Mehdi Kessaci, a 20-year-old police trainee with no connection to the drug trade, was murdered. His death is widely believed to be a warning to his brother Ahmed Kessaci, a 22-year-old prominent anti-gang activist and aspiring politician.

Now, under tight police protection, Kesasi has spoken to the BBC about Mahdi’s death and the guilt he feels.

“Should I let my family leave (Marseille)? My lifelong struggle will be the battle with guilt,” he said.

Ahmed Kessaci first rose to prominence in 2020 after his brother, a gang member named Brahim, was also murdered.

“We had this mental illness Over the years. We know our lives hang on by a thread. But since COVID-19, everything has changed. Perpetrators are getting younger. The victims are getting younger,” he said.

“My brother was an innocent victim. There was a time when real thugs… had a moral code. You couldn’t kill in daylight. You couldn’t kill in front of everyone. You couldn’t burn the body. First you threatened to shoot someone in the leg… Those steps are gone today.”

French police have carried out a so-called security “bombing” of high-crime areas in Marseille, citing today’s “unprecedented” levels of violence.

Although the DZ Mafia appears to dominate the industry now, it operates a franchise system with an unstable network of small distributors, often staffed by teenagers and undocumented immigrants who clash violently over turf.

According to one estimate, the city’s pharmaceutical industry may involve as many as 20,000 people. Last year, officers seized €42m (£36m) of the gang’s criminal assets.

Video footage shared on social media often shows gang members armed with automatic rifles shooting at each other across Marseille. Quote – Deprived neighborhoods characterized by concentrations of high-rise buildings and social housing.

One cold afternoon last week, we accompanied a group of armed riot police on one of their regular “bombing” missions.

The police speeded toward a dilapidated apartment building in a van, and the young gang manning the door quickly fled on foot. Police split into two groups and ran to both sides of the building, trying to catch drug dealers in the stairwells.

“Our aim is to disrupt drug trafficking sites. We have closed more than 40 drug trafficking sites… and jailed a lot of people,” explained regional police chief Sébastien Lautard.

“Turn him around,” one officer said roughly as his team pinned an 18-year-old man to the door.

In a nearby filthy cellar, police found dozens of vials and small plastic bags used to distribute cocaine. Later, a police officer explained that the young man they had detained had begged to be arrested, saying he had come to Marseille from another city and was now being held against his will and forced to work for a drug gang.

Police took him away in a van.

“This is not an El Dorado. We recruit a lot of young people on social media. They come to Marseille thinking they can make easy money. They are promised 200 euros ($233; £175) a day. But it often ends in pain, violence and sometimes death,” said Nicolas Bessone, the city’s chief prosecutor.

Speaking from his office near the city’s Old Port, Bessonet described an industry thought to be worth up to €7 billion nationwide, characterized by two new developments: an increasing emphasis on online recruitment, sales and delivery; and an increasing number of teenagers being forced into the industry.

“We are now seeing how traffickers enslave these… little soldiers. They make up fictitious debts and let them work for free. If they steal 20 euros to buy a sandwich, they torture them. This is extreme violence. The average age of perpetrators and victims is getting younger and younger,” Bessonne said.

He called on locals not to succumb to mental illness But “react, rise up.”

The attorney, who asked us to withhold her identity, recounted a case she worked on.

“A young person absolutely does not want to be part of a network where he is picked up after school, forced into drug dealing, raped and then threatened and then his family is threatened. All means are used to create a workforce,” she said.

On Tiktok, dozens of videos with music promote drugs for sale in Marseille Quote“from 10:00 to midnight,” and each product has its own emoji, representing cocaine, hashish and marijuana. Other ads attempted to recruit new gang members, with messages including “Recruit a worker”, “€250 for a lookout”, “€500 for carrying drugs”.

For some local politicians, the solution to Marseille’s problems is to impose a state of emergency and impose stricter rules on immigration.

“Authority must be restored. We need to end the culture of tolerance in our country. We need to give more freedom and power to the police and the judiciary,” said Franck Alissio, a local lawmaker for the populist far-right National Rally party and a future mayoral candidate.

Although the ancient Mediterranean city of Marseille has been known for centuries for its large immigrant community, Alisio believes that “the problem today is that we are no longer able to integrate and assimilate economically. There are too many immigrants. The problem is the number[of immigrants]. The fact is that the drug dealers, the drug dealers, the watchers, the bosses of these mafia are almost all immigrants or foreigners with dual nationality.”

It’s a controversial claim that’s difficult to verify in a country that works hard to avoid including such details in official data.

Alisio claimed that successive governments had poured billions of euros into Marseille’s poorest neighborhoods, but to no avail. He accused parents and schools of allowing children to be involved in the drug trade, but added that he was focused on “solving problems, not doing sociology”.

Far-right parties have long enjoyed strong support in France’s southern region but have less support in the diverse city of Marseille. RN’s critics, like our lawyer whose identity is withheld, accuse the party of “exploiting pain and fear” and falsely blaming immigrants for the “gangrene” prevalent in all communities in France.

Philippe Pujol, a local Marseille writer and expert on the drug trade, also received police protection following the murder of Mehdi Kessaci last month.

“I’m not sure there’s a good reason for this terror. But … terror is spreading. I’d rather be scared and careful than take unnecessary risks,” he said.

But he hit back at calls for tougher police action, saying it would only alleviate symptoms of a “suffering society” rather than address the root of the problem.

Describing entrenched poverty as a “monster,” Pujol paints a picture of a society radicalized by decades of neglect.

“This monster is a mixture of patronage, corruption and political and economic decisions that go against the public interest,” Pujol said.

“These kids can be jerks in a group, but when you’re alone with them, they’re still kids who have dreams and don’t want this kind of violence.”