In Marseille, France, a teenager was ‘stabbed 50 times’ and then burned alive

Marseille, France’s second largest city but also one of the poorest, is plagued by drug-related violence – Copyright AFP CLEMENT MAhoudtEAU

Sandra LAFONT

The southern French city of Marseille was rocked this week by two apparently drug-related murders, including the killing of a 15-year-old boy who was “stabbed 50 times” and burned alive, prosecutors said Sunday.

Marseille, France’s second largest city but also one of the poorest, is plagued by drug-related violence.

The historic port city on the Mediterranean coast has witnessed a turf war in recent years for control of the highly profitable drug market between several clans, including DZ Mafia and Yoda.

The problem was brought back to public attention this week, when Marseille prosecutor Nicolas Bessone told a press conference on Sunday that victims and perpetrators of such violence were getting younger.

The 15-year-old teenager was murdered on Wednesday in a case that Bessone described as one of “unprecedented cruelty”.

On Friday, a 36-year-old footballer, Nessim Ramdane, was shot dead “in cold blood” by a 14-year-old in a case linked to Wednesday’s murder.

The two latest cases mean the number of drug-related murders in Marseille has risen to 17 since the start of the year.

Marseille’s drug lords have recruited foot soldiers with social media advertisements, “outsourcing” street dealing to young people, known as “job fairs”.

Bessone said on Sunday that young boys are now responding to advertisements not only to sell cannabis resin but also to kill “without any remorse or reflection”.

The teenager had been hired through social networks by a 23-year-old prisoner to intimidate a competitor by setting his door on fire, the prosecutor said, adding that the boy had been promised 2,000 euros.

The inmate at Luynes prison south of Aix-en-Provence had described himself as a member of the DZ mafia.

– Shot in the head –

During his mission, the teenager was spotted by members of a rival gang who searched him and discovered he was carrying a gun. To punish the minor, they stabbed him repeatedly and then set him on fire.

“He was stabbed fifty times and taken to the Fonscolombes residential area, where he was burned alive, according to the autopsy results,” Bessone said. His friend, also 15 years old, was able to escape, Bessone added.

The same inmate then turned to social media again and recruited a 14-year-old minor to carry out a revenge attack and kill a member of the Blacks gang, promising to pay him 50,000 euros.

The 14-year-old in turn hired Ramdane, a soccer player who also worked as a driver to support his family, the prosecutor said.

The minor, accompanied by a friend, asked the driver “to drop them off and wait for them,” but he “apparently did not comply,” Bessone said.

The teen then “shot him in the back of the head,” he added.

The minor was taken into custody and admitted to shooting the driver, but insisted the shot “went off accidentally.”

In September, Franck Rastoul, prosecutor at the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal, warned of the scourge of drug-related violence.

“It is imperative that we fully understand the ravages of the drug trade, which is undermining the foundations of our society,” he said.

Rastoul said young people were “intoxicated by easy drug money” to the point of “total disregard for human life.”

Drug-related violence caused a record 49 deaths in Marseille last year.