Marseille: Drug barons recruit minors as hitmen – Gang burns 15-year-old alive, 14-year-old kills taxi driver

Two gruesome murders linked to drug trafficking – in which two minors were both perpetrators and victims – have shocked Marseille.

One of these concerns the murder of a taxi driver by a 14-year-old boy, who was hired to avenge the murder of a 15-year-old. That 15-year-old had been stabbed dozens of times by a drug gang operating in the city.

According to a press conference held by Marseille prosecutor Nicolas Besson, reported by the BBC, both incidents are linked to drug lords recruiting young boys to carry out murders.

15-year-old stabbed 50 times – Bendewende

Besson described an “unprecedented level of brutality” in the 15-year-old’s murder, which was linked to a feud between two gangs known as the “DZ Mafia” and the “Blacks”. A member of the DZ mafia, currently in prison, hired the boy for 2,000 euros to ‘intimidate’ a rival by setting his door on fire.

The teenager was tracked down by the rival black gang, who then stabbed and set him on fire. “He was stabbed fifty times and taken to the Fonscolombes residential area, where he was burned alive,” Besson said. A friend of the victim, also 15 years old, managed to escape.

The captured DZ mafia member then hired a 14-year-old via social media to avenge his rival, promising him a payment of 50,000 euros.

14-year-old kills taxi driver because he refused to wait

However, the boy shot the taxi driver, Nesim Ramdan, 36, in the head before reaching his target because the driver refused to wait while he completed his mission, Besson explained.

The captured gangster who hired the 14-year-old later called police to report him. The minor was arrested and admitted to shooting the driver, but claimed it was an accident.

Prosecutor Frank Rastoul of the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal warned of the scourge of drug-related violence, noting that young people are “lured by the easy money of the drug trade,” to the point that they underestimate the seriousness of taking a ignore punishment. to live.