faced with drug trafficking in Marseille, police officers raise awareness among schoolchildren

While the killers and victims of drug trafficking networks are increasingly younger, prevention workshops unique in France have been set up for a year by the national police.

In a room at the national police leisure center in Marseille, a third-year class from a middle school in the northern districts talks with two field police officers. While the killers and victims of drug trafficking networks are increasingly younger in the city, prevention workshops unique in France have been in place for a year.

“What types of drugs do we encounter a lot in Marseille?” asks one of the police officers, who are raising awareness among these schoolchildren to prevent them from being recruited by traffickers. “Shit, coke, weed”, the students respond a little embarrassedly, laughing. “You know the drug networks, you’ve seen them before, I think…, continues the police officer. How’s it going then?”.

The students, who are between 13 and 15 years old, already know how a deal point works: “There is the seller in the tower and the watchers”, explains one of the teenagers.

The police then detail the network recruitment process. “The first step is a local guy who will offer to give you a sandwich or some sneakers,” they explain. One of the main tricks of traffickers is to make college students indebted, by offering them gifts so that they end up working on the deal. They then become “workforce” that traffickers can then hit, or even “torture and kill“, warn the police.

“The big guys in the cities have a habit of doing that. So why do you think they recruit young people your age?”they ask. “Because we will get a lighter sentence!” replies one of the teenagers. And the police insist: “They don’t care if you go to prison or not. They know that there will be fewer sanctions and that you will probably come out and come back to work for them. You will become part of the workforce!”

The discussion takes place under the gaze of the professor, Souror El Nabrawy: “These exchanges are very good. Young people don’t realize to what extent they are exposed… We often have students summoned to court for having been cheated.” she slips, in reference to these lookouts – often very young – present at the deal points, who alert by shouting when the police arrive.

“There is a workforce of young people between 11 and 14 years old available to many traffickers who take advantage of their vulnerability“, specifies Yannis Bouzar, sub-prefect and deputy chief of staff of the Bouches-du-Rhône police prefect. To protect them, “the repressive approach is essential but we also need prevention“. Around fifty colleges are targeted by these prevention workshops, from the northern to the southern districts of Marseille.