Marseilles murders spark political row over drug gang wars | France
A spate of murders in Marseille has sparked a political row over growing turf wars between drug gangs terrorizing poor housing estates, where a recent gunshot victim was just 14 years old.
Dominique Laurens, the Marseille prosecutor, warned this week that France’s second largest city was facing “a very difficult time” as she detailed an explosion of violence and reckless killings that were defined by “extreme cruelty and a total lack of humanity”.
Three men were killed in the Mediterranean port city over the weekend in settlements linked to local drug trafficking, which is believed to bring in millions of euros per month for competing cartels.
Marseille differs from other cities such as Paris or Lyon by its prevalence of Kalashnikovs and automatic weapons and by the fact that drug-related murders and violent assaults often take place in public in order to sow fear among young people of the cited.
In the first shooting last weekend, two men, aged 25 and 26, known to police, were shot dead with at least one automatic weapon as they spoke on the street of an estate on Saturday night. Less than an hour later, a 27-year-old man, also known to law enforcement, was assaulted by two men in black-clad balaclavas closer to the city center and forced into the trunk of a car.
Laurens said the car was later set on fire and the man was burned alive. The prosecutor said: “The autopsy showed he was alive when the car was set on fire, he had inhaled fumes and soot which led to his death.”
Last Wednesday, in broad daylight, a 14-year-old boy, Rayanne, was shot in the back by two people on a motorbike armed with at least one Kalashnikov-type assault rifle. He and a friend had gone to one of the poorest housing estates in town for a sandwich. Another 14-year-old and an eight-year-old were injured in the attack.
Laurens said: “We have never had such young victims.” She said there had been an “acceleration” in the settling of accounts killings in Marseille since mid-June, with 15 people killed in turf wars since the start of the year. Dozens of other investigations are underway into murders and attempted murders in the city.
The murdered 14-year-old’s aunt told BFM TV “he was in the wrong place at the wrong time” and had not – like many teenagers – been forced to work as a lookout on the estate.
Nathalie Roche, magistrate and former juvenile judge in the city, told French radio that young people were often forced to stand guard against drug traffickers and were increasingly drawn into violence, including “torture. and kidnapping ”as a way for drug gangs to spread fear in communities.
As Marseille socialists call for more investment in the local justice system and right-wing opposition warns of growing crime and insecurity, French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to visit the city next week and announce increased funding to renovate schools and boost education. projects.
Drug gangs are believed to have filled an economic vacuum in the deindustrialized city, where some towers in the northern neighborhoods have 70 percent youth unemployment and high dropout rates.
Benoît Payan, the socialist mayor of Marseille, said drug trafficking brought in millions in profits for the cartels. “We are talking about people who get heavy weapons on the Internet,” he added.
Samia Ghali, deputy to the socialist mayor of Marseille, warned that young people “are exposed to extreme violence that even the worst fiction would not dare to write”.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said the state was investing heavily in police and anti-drug operations in Marseille.
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