A 19-year-old young man was shot dead at a deal point in Marseille on Saturday evening, in the Belle-de-Mai district, in what is “very likely the third narchomicide of the year,” announced the prosecution Sunday April 28. The young man, born in Algiers, was fatally injured by a bullet in the head while he was “sur l’Espagne”, a narcotics sales point in this popular district of France’s second city, in the 3rd district. He died a few minutes later, upon arrival at the hospital.
Unknown to the justice system, he was however on file with the police for contravention of drug legislation, the Marseille public prosecutor, Nicolas Bessone, told Agence France-Presse (AFP). Eight cartridges from a 7.65 caliber handgun were found on site by judicial police investigators responsible for the investigation. A vehicle, undoubtedly the one used by the armed commando for this operation, was found charred during the night in the town of La Barben, near Aix-en-Provence, the Marseille prosecutor told AFP, according to which “it is very likely a narchomicide, the third of the year.”
Forty-nine people were killed in 2023 in Marseille in the war between rival gangs – first and foremost the “Yoda” and “DZ Mafia” clans – for the control of drug trafficking in the Marseille city. Among them, four collateral victims, including the three women victims of these shootings last year. But since November, the pace of these assassinations has slowed considerably. Thus, on the same date in 2023, eighteen people had already lost their lives in Marseille in these homicides against a backdrop of drug trafficking.
Two narchomicides in 2023, in this part of Marseille
La Belle-de-Mai, a working-class neighborhood regularly ranked among the poorest in Europe, is one of the sectors of the Marseille city particularly affected by crime linked to drug trafficking. Thus, two narchomicides took place in 2023 in this relatively central part of the city, and five in 2022.
To counter this illicit trade, the government launched “XXL net square” operations throughout France in mid-March, with the reinforcement of numerous police officers. They are intended to “put a stop to drug trafficking,” said Emmanuel Macron, who traveled to the Marseille city of Castellane for the occasion.
To counter this, the government launched operations in France in mid-March which led to a total of 186 arrest warrants. In Marseille precisely, they gave rise to around fifty arrests. Just this week, the Marseille prosecutor’s office announced a raid in the Cité des Oliviers, in the north of the city, an operation which led to twenty-one indictments and ten placements in pre-trial detention.
