Drug gangs in Marseille are pulling children from across France into dealing, kidnapping, torture and murder, a BBC investigation has found. The gangs lure vulnerable young people with promises of easy money. Then they trap them in a world of violence and exploitation. According to the BBC, the bosses often control them from prison or from abroad. They see the young recruits as easy to corrupt and expendable.
One case shows how brutal it gets. In 2022, a woman buying hashish on a Marseille housing estate was handed a note by the young seller. It read: "We're being held captive and need help. We are 15-years-old." A French court heard this year that two boys had approached a gang looking for work. The bosses later accused them of "shortfalls" in the takings. The court heard the boys were regularly beaten and forced to dance naked on camera as blackmail. One of them was raped. The boys tried to escape through a second-storey window. One got away. The other was caught, beaten and stabbed, but survived. Six men have since received heavy sentences.
The city's most powerful gang is DZ Mafia. It won a bloody turf war and is now one of the most feared criminal groups in France. DZ is the internet country code for Algeria. According to the BBC, one of the gang's founders, French-Algerian Mehdi Laribi, was detained there earlier this year under a French arrest warrant. Dimitri Zoulas heads France's anti-drug trafficking unit. He said the gang rose to prominence in 2023 as the first French gang to market itself as a brand through video statements. Its latest video came in July, after the mayor of a nearby town was placed under police protection. In it, six masked men denied the gang was involved.
France's drug market is growing fast. Zoulas said the number of cocaine users is expected to reach two million soon, up from 600,000 in 2017. He said drug smuggling generates €7bn a year and involves 200,000 people. Authorities say a growing number of minors are getting involved.
Karine Brouillard lives in the Nord department, at the other end of France. Her son Hugo ran away at 15 and was found by police in Marseille, almost 1,000km away, carrying money and cannabis. In 2023 he went back south, telling his parents he had a holiday job at a restaurant. Three weeks later, a doctor called to say he had been shot in the head. Police suspect he was involved with a gang.
In Quartier Nord, where DZ Mafia holds power, teenagers man checkpoints. When resident Fadella Ouidef drove the BBC team through, a 4×4 forced their car to the side of the road. The driver let them leave only after they agreed to stop filming. Police and judges warn that once children enter this underworld, getting them out is very hard.