In Marseille, criminal gangs wage turf wars. In this city alone, drug trafficking has claimed the lives of 73 people in the past two years. More and more innocent victims are caught in the crossfire of drug trafficking. Is France tipping over into the kind of ultraviolence more commonly seen in South America?
After weeks of negotiations, the DZ Mafia, the drug trafficking gang that has taken over Marseille, has agreed to let us film one of the places where they deal drugs. This is a major hub for their dealing operation. Bilel is a manager within the network. He has full responsibility for sales and recruitment. He hardly ever employs adults because he believes that minors will fare better in case of arrest.
For the past ten years, virtually all the city’s housing estates have been in the hands of drug traffickers. Many of these apartments are used as stash houses, places where drugs are cut and packaged. “They kill you for nothing now”, states one dealer. “Every day, people close to us die.” As Jean-Michel Décugis, Journalist and Author of ‘Hitmen’ explains; “We’re in a Mexicanization, a cartelization, because the same methods are used as in Mexico, the same methods of ultra-violence.”
This investigation delves into the development of a pocket of extreme, drug-related violence in France.