15-year-old teenager stabbed 50 times and burned alive in Marseille as drug-related violence escalates

Marseille, France, was rocked by two brutal murders this week, including the gruesome killing of a 15-year-old boy who was stabbed 50 times and burned alive in what authorities say was drug-related violence. Prosecutors revealed Sunday that the boy’s death was an act of “unprecedented brutality” in the ongoing battle for control of the city’s lucrative drug trade.

The 15-year-old was killed on Wednesday after being recruited via social media by a 23-year-old inmate, who promised him €2,000 to intimidate a rival gang member by setting his door on fire. The teenager, who had worked for the infamous DZ mafia gang, was spotted by members of a rival gang who discovered he was carrying a gun. They brutally stabbed him before setting him on fire in the Fonscolombes residential area.

Marseille prosecutor Nicolas Bessone said the victim’s friend, also 15 years old, managed to escape. The boy’s death comes amid a worrying trend of increasingly younger individuals becoming involved in the city’s drug trade. “Victims and perpetrators are getting younger,” Bessone noted at a press conference.

In another shocking incident, just two days after the teenager’s murder, a 36-year-old footballer named Nessim Ramdane was shot dead by a 14-year-old in what appears to be a linked revenge attack. Ramdane, who also worked as a driver, was shot in the back of the head after disobeying orders from the 14-year-old, who had been recruited by the same inmate responsible for hiring the 15-year-old. .

The increase in such extreme acts of violence has drawn public attention to the deep-seated problem of drug trafficking in Marseille, where the number of deaths linked to trafficking has increased significantly. Seventeen people have been killed in drug-related violence in the city since the start of this year, with victims often recruited via social media to act as ‘foot soldiers’ or even assassins.

Last year, the city recorded as many as 49 deaths due to drug violence. Prosecutors warn that young people are increasingly “intoxicated by easy drug money” and have become desensitized to violence. Franck Rastoul, prosecutor at the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal, stressed the urgent need to tackle drug trafficking, which he said “undermines the foundations of society”.