In Marseille’s drug war, the perpetrators are getting younger and younger

On October 4th, around 4:30 a.m., Nessim Ramdane’s life ended. The driver of a rental car took two young people on board and drove them to the high-rise development “cité Felix Pyat” in the north of Marseille. He had no idea that the teenagers were there to kill a drug dealer.

Only when they spotted their destination on the road did Ramdane understand the situation. He refused to stop and an argument broke out. Finally, one of the boys pulled out a .357 Magnum revolver and shot the driver in the head – “accidentally,” as he later told the police.

Ramdane was found covered in blood behind his steering wheel. His vehicle crashed into the entrance to a school. He was only 36 years old. Prosecutors described the father of three as an accidental victim; as someone “who had nothing remotely to do with the drug trade”. Ramdane, who was actually an amateur footballer and youth coach, tried to supplement his salary with taxi rides at night.

“Unprecedented cruelty”

The shooter, who was only 14 years old, fled after the crime. But he didn’t get far. His client, an imprisoned drug dealer named Hacène L., ratted him out to the police. He was annoyed that his young recruit had botched the mission.

Hacène L. had already hired another teenager from his prison cell in Aix-en-Provence days earlier. This should have intimidated a rival and set his front door on fire. But the 15-year-old was discovered by members of the rival gang, attacked with 50 stab wounds and then burned alive.

That’s the only way the 14-year-old got into the game. He was supposed to avenge the brutal act and finish off his rival once and for all. Hacène L. had promised him 50,000 euros for it.

After the two incidents, Marseille public prosecutor Nicolas Bessone spoke at a press conference of “unprecedented cruelty” and that the perpetrators and victims were getting younger and younger. In France’s second largest city, people are used to murders related to drug trafficking. There were 49 so-called “narchomicides” last year alone.

But the latest acts of violence are of a new quality for the public prosecutor. You are dealing with a “total loss of orientation” among young people who don’t have the slightest scruples about answering reports of murder, said Bessone. The would-be gangsters are increasingly being approached via apps like Telegram. The alleged murderer of Ramdane was also lured there.

Stronghold of the dealers

Marseille has been considered a hotbed of drug crime for many years. It was once the Corsican mafia that smuggled heroin into America from here and became known as the French Connection. Today it is predominantly the descendants of immigrants from the Maghreb and West and Central Africa who dominate the drug trade in the socially disadvantaged neighborhoods in the north of the port city.

They have long since stopped dealing in heroin and other opium derivatives, but primarily in hashish, which remains a lucrative business with an estimated five million regular users in France, and in cocaine, which is imported from South America.

Among the gangs that share the business and compete with each other, the DZ Mafia has recently stood out as particularly brutal. Hacène L. also claims to be a member of the group; other, supposedly “real” members deny this.

The network has its origins in the notorious La Paternelle district. It was founded in 2010 by a petty criminal named Mehdi Abdelatif Laribi, nickname: “Tic”. The name DZ is derived from the Arabic word for Algeria and alludes to the origins of many members. According to the investigators, their role model is the Mocro mafia operating in the Netherlands, whose members mostly come from Morocco.

The Yoda clan also played an important role for a long time. But their boss, Félix Bingui, nicknamed “the cat,” was arrested in Casablanca in March, and since then the DZ mafia has controlled a large part of the drug trafficking centers. Laribi and Bangui met in a nightclub in Thailand in 2023. There, “the cat” poured ice cubes over his rival’s head, and so a bloody feud began. For months, the bosses sent hit squads after each other. Only with Bangui’s arrest did things calm down.

Franchise companies

In La Paternelle, a graffito showing the “Star Wars” character Yoda is reminiscent of the clan leader. But now another gang has taken the place of the Yodas here, the Blacks. Their leaders Djoussouf and Oukoutoub Ahamada may also be responsible for the brutal murder of the 15-year-old. Hacène L. had declared that he wanted to teach the Blacks a lesson. But then a video appeared on social networks in which the DZ Mafia denied any connection to Hacène L.

The confusion of the scene is characteristic of the Marseille journalist Philippe Pujol. Pujol has written several books about the drug trade in the city, and he says there can no longer be any talk of the pyramid-shaped hierarchy that once existed. Rather, many small groups act on their own by obtaining goods from wholesalers, but are responsible for street sales and the defense of their territories themselves.

The DZ Mafia should therefore not be seen as a real mafia, but rather as a franchise company. Intelligent banditry, Pujol writes, makes no noise. Because the big fish who take care of the import-export business, corruption and money laundering in the background and are often based abroad are much more difficult for the police to catch than the local bosses who get their hands dirty in gang wars .

Is this also why the fight against drug trafficking has been unsuccessful so far?

“Enslaved Children”

In mid-March, French President Emmanuel Macron announced the operation “Place Nette XXL” (Clean Place XXL) in Marseille with media attention. For three weeks, 600 police and gendarmes went on raids in Marseille and other cities, with helicopters and drones circling over the neighborhoods. Macron said they would “destroy the networks and their traders.”

The situation improved briefly. But soon after the police presence was reduced, the drug traffickers picked up where they left off.

The cynical logic of the gangs, which are increasingly relying on “baby killers,” is clear: those who are young are easier to manipulate and also easier to exploit. In addition, it makes no difference to the bosses if an inexperienced and therefore replaceable recruit ends up in prison for a short time. There is no shortage of young talent anyway. Because there are still many in the slums of Marseille who want to experience what the journalist Pujol calls the “Kalashnikov dream”.

To feel like you’re not a loser, to get money, status symbols and girls – that’s a powerful stimulus for teenagers. However, the reality is completely different: the young recruits are quickly brought into a state of dependency, they are thought to have debts, they are trained to be violent, and they are given cocaine. Pujol speaks of 2,000 “enslaved children” in this way.

On Monday, France’s Court of Auditors gave the president’s efforts a dismal report. The number of drug trafficking crimes in Marseille has recently grown “exponentially”. Unemployment and poverty have also increased. Police officers despair of their working conditions. Macron’s plan to effectively counteract Marseille’s evil has failed spectacularly.