Drug wars in Marseille back in spotlight after boy, 14, reportedly hired as hitman | France

Marseille’s long-running drug wars are once again in the spotlight after a 14-year-old boy was allegedly hired as a hitman via social media and promised €50,000 (£42,000) by a prisoner to carry out a revenge killing.

The teenager was allegedly recruited by the 23-year-old inmate, who later called police from his prison cell to report the boy after he allegedly shot and killed a 36-year-old man.

An investigation has been opened into alleged murder and conspiracy to commit murder by a criminal gang. Police are trying to determine why the inmate reported his own alleged recruit to police.

Marseille prosecutor Nicolas Bessone described the latest incident at a news conference on Sunday as “unprecedented brutality” and said two recent crimes involving teenagers showed that drug wars were bringing in the “ultra youth” hired by gangs. to commit increasingly violent crimes. He said there had been a “complete loss of footing” among teenagers involved in crimes.

On Friday, a 36-year-old taxi driver from the Bolt company, who was known in Marseille as an amateur footballer, was found shot dead by a bullet in the head in his car not far from the city’s central station. Prosecutors said he had nothing to do with drug trafficking in the Mediterranean port city, and although he was shot “coldly” in the back of the head, it was believed he was not the intended target.

Bessone said: “(The prisoner) recruited a 14-year-old minor from Vaucluse and arranged the logistics so that he could be picked up by car and taken to a hotel room in Marseille. The young boy was carrying his own 357 Magnum revolver.”

The boy was allegedly ordered to carry out a shooting and was told to travel by car. He asked the driver to wait, and when he refused, the boy shot him in the back of the head, authorities said.

The 14-year-old then reportedly fled the scene and hid nearby, calling his contacts and asking them to come get him. But instead, the inmate who ordered the killing called police to report the boy and give them his exact location, prosecutors said. The boy was arrested and interrogated.

Bessone said the exact reason why the captured man called police and said he was acting for a drug gang has yet to be determined. The inmate appeared in court on Sunday and was charged in the case.

The prosecutor said the 14-year-old boy was hired to carry out a revenge killing for the death of a 15-year-old boy last Wednesday.

The same inmate had contacted a 15-year-old boy online last week and said he would pay him €2,000 to intimidate a competitor from a rival drug gang by setting his door on fire. The boy was instructed to shoot at the man’s door and set it on fire.

But the teenager was spotted by members of a rival gang who, according to prosecutors, “stabbed him 50 times” and then set him on fire, killing him. The 14-year-old boy was then reportedly hired online a few days later to avenge the murder.

Marseille, France’s second-largest city, is also one of France’s poorest and has been plagued by drug-related violence, which President Emmanuel Macron vowed to eradicate this year. The city has witnessed a turf war between several clans in recent years for control of the highly profitable drug market. Bessone said victims and perpetrators of such violence were getting younger.

The two latest deaths mean the number of drug-related murders in Marseille has risen to 17 since the start of the year. Forty-nine people were killed in drug-related violence in the city in 2023.