In France rival gang shootouts escalate drug war
FRANCE-Numerous individuals have been slain this year in blatant attacks, often by minors, as a result of a rivalry between two drug gangs in Marseille on the Mediterranean coast of France, according to authorities. The two most known gangs in France are fighting for dominance of the drug trade in the city’s northern neighborhoods: “Yoda” and “DZ Mafia.”
Marseille Drug War
An AFP news agency tally shows that 36 individuals have been killed in the gang war since the year’s beginning, which is five more than in all of 2022. State prosecutor Dominique Laurens of the city described the situation as “a bloodbath” in April. Subsequently, there has been an additional spike in homicides, with 12 deaths in the last month alone. The most recent victim was a 30-year-old guy who was shot and killed at night in northern Marseille using a Kalashnikov assault weapon. Police prefect Frederique Camilleri told reporters that “this is nothing less than a new round in the fight between Yoda and DZ Mafia.”
She said that of the 68 gang-related homicides or attempted killings in Marseille this year, the two groups were responsible for 80% of the cases. Teenagers are among the victims and offenders; one such victim, a 17-year-old at Marseille’s La Paternelle high-rise building, was beaten to death by 30 assailants. The murder was broadcast live on the messaging service Snapchat.
Gang Shootouts in Marseille
According to Camilleri, killings connected to the drug trade were once primarily about encroaching on new territory, like seizing control of a trading location, but these days they were more about intimidating their rivals. She said that drug gang members now “kill to scare,” comparing it to a “vendetta” , a blood war driven by revenge. She also mentioned that the killers were younger and less experienced than in the past.
Paradoxically, there has been a rise in gang-related killings while authorities claim to be having more success combating the drug trade. Since the year’s beginning, they have confiscated 740 guns, including 62 assault rifles, a 24 percent increase over 2022. Furthermore, since 2021, there have been 70 fewer transaction places in Marseille, a 26% increase in arrests of drug traffickers, and 12 million euros worth of illicit assets have been recovered. One of the largest suspected drug traffickers in France was taken off the scene in June when Mohamed Djeha, also known by his moniker “Mimo,” was apprehended in Algeria.
Drug Violence in Marseille
According to thegardians, Within, Emmanuel Macron presented a customarily refined picture of a revitalized and safer Marseille. But the true drama was unfolding outside the renovated gym in the destitute Busserine area, where tensions were rising on the hottest day of the year. Just over 12 hours prior to the nation’s uproar over the police killing of a 17-year-old boy 500 miles north in Nanterre, a large number of officers brandishing assault rifles and bullet proof riot shields engaged in heated arguments with teenagers of North African origin, exchanging derogatory remarks while sizing up possible troublemakers. According to aljazeera, Camilleri, the police were pursuing the money in an attempt to apprehend the drug traffickers’ masterminds. Gerald Darmanin, the interior minister, announced that the CRS 8 police unit which specializes in cases of urban violence will be sent out in the near future. During a June visit to Marseille, President Emmanuel Macron unveiled plans to combat poverty in the city’s dilapidated neighborhoods and educational inequalities, which he claimed made it easier for drug gangs to recruit young people in the area.
Marseille’s Rival Gangs
The city played a pivotal role in the “French Connection,” the largest heroin production and smuggling network in the world for many years, beginning in the 1930s. The French Connection, which was controlled by Corsican mafia organizations, transported morphine that was harvested from poppy plants in the Near East, Middle East, and Asia to Marseille, where its laboratories converted it into heroin that was mostly exported to the United States. Only later in the 1970s was that network dissolved, having gained notoriety from Gene Hackman’s role in William Friedkin’s 1971 film of the same name.
Call to action: Boycott Pairs Olympics 2024
Paris Olympics 2024 should be boycotted. That’s how long it took a highly armed hit team in Normandy on Tuesday, May 15, to ambush a prison van and free the condemned felon inside. Three more cops were critically hurt, and two officers were shot to death. This deadly assault represents the first instance of a prison guard dying while performing their duties in more than 30 years. The interior minister has designated this criminal as France’s “public enemy No. 1,” and more than 450 gendarmes and police officers are currently searching for him.
After Interpol issued a red alert, the hunt extended to other countries, mobilizing law enforcement agencies worldwide to find and apprehend the perpetrators.
