In Marseille, violence linked to drug trafficking ended in recent years the lives of dozens of young people attracted by easy money, to the point that justice fears a “Mexicanization” in the second city of France.
In the great French Mediterranean port, an unavoidable stage of the global cannabis routes, advertisements on social networks are looking for “temporary” workers in the world of drugs.
“We are looking for a watchman. Profile: young, physiognomist, experienced two-wheeler control, respectful of customers. Working hours from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. (adapted to sales hours). 100 euros/day”, (about 110 dollars, approximately, 501,000 Colombian pesos).
Zacharie*, 19, did not resist. Lured by the idea of easy money, he moved from the Paris region, after failing his high school diploma, to look out for one of the 130 drug outlets. “Here the pay is bigger,” he explained to the court.
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For years, dealers in Marseille have been making more and more use of a very young workforce coming from other regions of France, often brittle and easier to slaughter. Many “are reduced to a state of near slavery, kidnapped and even tortured,” warns the president of the Marseille court, Olivier Leurent.
They can’t recruit enough minots anymore
The level of violence linked to drug trafficking in Marseille is comparable to that in the ports of Antwerp (Belgium) and Rotterdam (The Netherlands), according to university professor Jean-Baptiste Perrier. Some thirty-two young people lost their lives in 2022 and, up to the beginning of April, fifteen died, three of them on Easter Monday, in various shootings.
Traffickers “can no longer recruit enough minots” (small, in Marseillaise slang) in Marseille, since they believe that “they are not paid well enough, given the risk of dying,” an investigator from the police told AFP. judicial police.
The networks, very sophisticated, use all the codes of the business world: “The work is outsourced and these young people, if they are arrested, will not be able to give information about the network,” Tiphaine Binctin, of the French anti-drug agency Ofast, told AFP.
city split in two
Most young people arrive in Marseille via the imposing Saint-Charles train station. From there, looking south, you can glimpse the Calanques massif, which is home to its touristic turquoise coves (beaches). But they go in the opposite direction, towards the northern neighborhoods, in public transport vehicles with drivers, because no metro or tram serves those areas.
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Marseille is divided into two: the wealthy neighborhoods in the south and poor areas, among the worst in Europe, in the center-north. Some drug outlets can earn up to 80,000 euros (87,600 dollars, about 40 million pesos) daily. In a recent raid, police saw up to 12 customers waiting their turn.
The La Paternelle neighborhood is currently at the heart of a bloody conflict that affects more and more children: a 17-year-old guard was beaten to death in February and another 16-year-old was shot to death in early April. Here, arrows lead between colored houses to ‘Yoda’, one of the outlets.
‘Better than whoring’
The prices are on the walls: hashish (cannabis by-product), marijuana, cocaine. The crowing of numerous roosters in the wild dominates this labyrinth of alleyways, perfect for escaping police raids. 40 percent of minors who end up in court in Marseille for drug trafficking are from other French regions.
“I had to work to be able to get my daughter back. Better this than prostitution, ”explains Cindy *, 21, according to her statement read from her during a court hearing. She and her partner Ilyes * hitchhiked and took a train to get from the south of France to Marseille, where they slept in a central hotel that “a person from (the) Bassens neighborhood” found for them.
Some are less lucky and end up sleeping on a balcony, in a basement or in the garbage room. They pay on average between 100 and 200 euros (110 and 220 dollars, between 501,000 and one million pesos) for “shifts” (from 11 am to 6 pm or from 6 pm to midnight). “It is a pure exploitation”, estimates the juvenile judge Laurence Bellon.
“But they see the benefits every week or month. They are 1,400 euros (1,535 dollars, 7 million pesos) for seven days in a row, for example. And some see themselves earning much more money, ”says the Marseille prosecutor, Dominique Laurens. But many fall into the trap quickly: they are accused of not having alerted at the right time, of not counting the bills quickly enough, or of having a more or less false debt.
The debt trap
“They have fewer resources and contacts in the neighborhoods, they are paid and they are treated worse. AND (…) when caught with cash and merchandise, the network demands a refund.” explains the lawyer Valentin Loret. Recently, a released minor was taken to the train station to return to his house, but drug traffickers were waiting for him at the next stop. He had to settle a debt.
Marseille is not El Dorado, it is violence, acts of torture and barbarism, false debts and being at the mercy of the Internet
Marseille “is not El Dorado, it is violence, acts of torture and barbarism, false debts and being at the mercy of the network”, reiterates the police prefect (commander) of the area Frédérique Camilleri. Already at the beginning of this phenomenon in 2019, a 16-year-old teenager ended his stay in Marseillaise in a coma, burned with a torch for selling hashish without authorization. One of his torturers, a minor, was sentenced in November to 10 years in prison.
‘Vagabonds in fancy clothes’
For the juvenile judge, there are cases that border on human trafficking. In 2020, in the midst of a pandemic, adolescents captured on social networks are kidnapped upon arrival and tortured with the sole purpose of apparently breaking them down. A young ‘camel’ (jíbaro) will rape one of them before blackmailing him into spreading the images if he speaks, something frequent, according to a judicial source. Is a few hundred euros worth it?
“They fall into this logic to have branded clothing. It is the only sign of identity that they prioritize” to feel that they exist, points out Laurence Bellon, who sees many drop out from the age of 11. “They are bums in fancy clothes,” emphasizes a lawyer, dejected because his client does not appreciate the seriousness of his situation, but she struts around in her white sweatshirt from a very expensive mountain clothing brand.
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Everyone blames the influence of series like Narcos, the influencers, the social networks that instill the idea of success through appearance and money.
‘Mexicanization’?
Marseille is still a bit of a “pilot” city, according to the prosecutor, but this phenomenon of temporary drug workers has already spread to other areas such as Lille (north) or Brittany (west).
Marseille is still a bit of a “pilot” city, according to the prosecutor, but this phenomenon of temporary drug workers has already spread to other areas such as Lille (north) or Brittany (west).
Given the current lack of labor, traffickers also recruit migrants, sometimes minors, some of whom think they are going to work in construction, according to Loret.
The prosecutor fears a worsening of the situation, with a shift towards “what some of the South American countries are experiencing”, towards “a Mexicanization”, although the number of deaths is not comparable.
“Sometimes it reminds me of Brazil. There are places where there is a complete division between beautiful neighborhoods and other very poor, hyper-violent ones”, explains Judge Laurene Bellon.
Zacharie broke free. Arrested three days after arriving in Marseille, he was sentenced to house arrest at his mother’s house and, with the prosecutor’s warning during his trial: “The climate (of Marseille) does not suit him.”
* The names of these young people were changed so as not to expose them to possible reprisals.
The arrival of drugs to the French port increases
French authorities seized a record 1.7 tons of cocaine in 2022, in four operations in the southern French port of Marseille. Of that amount, 500 kilos arrived on a ship from Chile, customs reported a few days ago.
“The port of Marseille is not spared from the massive arrivals of products”, such as cocaine, “as is the case in Le Havre (northwest), or on a larger scale in Antwerp (Belgium) or Rotterdam (Netherlands) for the ports of the Northern Europe,” Jean-Philippe Vigot, regional director of Marseille customs, told a news conference.
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More than 500 kilos of cocaine were discovered at the end of January on a Chilean ship and in the summer, in three different operations, a total of 1.2 tons of that drug, concealed in containers that arrived from the French Caribbean island of Martinique. . The increase in the arrival of drugs in Marseille is possibly due to the fact that Le Havre, where almost ten tons of cocaine were seized in 2022“was a victim of its success, and criminal organizations had to find other points” of trafficking, Vigot said.
Across France, a total of 18 tons of cocaine were seized last year, along with some 66 tons of cannabis and 627 kilos of heroin. After the settling of accounts between gangs, the French government reinforced security in Marseille with a unit of the Republican Police Security Companies and eleven agents of the Judicial Police.
SANDRA LAFFONT
AFP – Marseille (France)
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