Drug-related murders are shaking the French city of Marseille

Two gruesome murders involving teenagers have rocked the French city of Marseille, which has long struggled with organized crime and drug-related violence.

Last week, a 14-year-old murdered a taxi driver during a botched revenge mission for the brutal murder of a 15-year-old.

Marseille prosecutor Nicolas Bessone has warned that the city’s drug lords were recruiting young boys to kill “without any remorse or reflection”.

Speaking at a press conference on Sunday, Bessone described the “unprecedented brutality” of the 15-year-old’s murder, linked to a feud between two gangs known as the “DZ Mafia” and the “Blacks”.

According to prosecutors, a member of the DZ mafia, who is currently in prison, hired the boy for €2,000 ($2,192; £1,676) to “intimidate” a competitor by setting his door on fire.

The teenager was spotted and searched by Blacks gang rivals, who then stabbed and set him on fire after finding a gun.

“He was stabbed 50 times and taken to the Fonscolombes residential area where he was burned alive,” Mr Bessone said. A friend, also 15 years old, managed to escape.

The jailed DZ mafia member then hired a 14-year-old via social media to take revenge two days later, promising to pay him €50,000 ($55,000; £42,000).

However, the boy shot and killed taxi driver Nessim Ramdane, 36, before reaching his target because the driver refused to wait while he carried out his mission, Bessone said.

The inmate who hired the teen then called police to report him. The minor was taken into custody and admitted to shooting the driver, but insisted the shot “went off accidentally.”

Franck Rastoul, a prosecutor at the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal, has warned of the scourge of drug-related violence, saying young people were “intoxicated by easy drug money” to the point of “total disregard for human life”. ”.

Young people are also often victims of drug trafficking.

In 2021, the BBC reported that a 14-year-old boy was shot dead by a young man on a scooter outside the Les Marronniers residential area in northern Marseille. Two other boys – aged 14 and 8 – were injured.

In March this year, French police carried out a major operation to seize drug money and weapons in Marseille.

Authorities said they made 627 arrests within a few weeks, recovered 450kg of cannabis and 19 weapons, as well as €1.6 million ($17.5 million; £1.3 million) in cash.

The two latest murders mean that the number of drug-related murders in Marseille has risen to 17 since the beginning of 2024.