immersion in the heart of drug trafficking

Appointment is made in the northern districts of Marseille, at Cité Consolat. A dealer agrees to speak to us on the condition of remaining anonymous. In the midst of a war for control of deal points, he sees the opportunity to show that he reigns over traffic. He shows us the deal point: “This is where it sells. Right up the stairs is the stup point, this is where it sells drugs. Here it sells shit, weed, coke, it sells retail, semi- big, it even sells wholesale”.

Even though their activity is completely illegal, the dealers are not afraid to display the drug prices on the wall in front of the entrance to the building. Cocaine is sold for 20 euros per half-gram, and 40 euros per gram.

A deal point like the one we filmed can bring in up to 100,000 euros per day. Customers follow one another 24 hours a day. That day, we meet a young girl barely 12 years old, who has come to buy drugs for her older brother.

“You get me the caliber, I’ll get you the caliber”

The dealer assumes to be armed in front of our camera, to protect himself in the event of a settling of scores. “You never know if I’m confused or what. Me, you take out the knife for me, I’ll take out the knife for you, you take out the caliber for me, I’ll take out the caliber for you. If you want to fight with fists We fight with fists, that’s how it is, it’s Marseille”.

Since January, 17 people have already died in connection with drug trafficking. Like that day last March when a young man chases another and shoots him at point-blank range, in the middle of the street, a filmed crime scene.

An increasingly violent traffic by the very admission of the dealers: “There has never been that, even in the days of our big brothers, our parents, drugs have never done so much damage. There have never been so many wars. It shoots at random , before it targeted people, now it no longer targets people, it targets geographical areas. This is war”.

A war that requires a docile workforce, with young people who sometimes come from far away to join the traffic in Marseille. Now, they are recruited on social networks.

Recruitment of dealers on social networks

In a video that looks like a promotional clip, traffickers are looking for “spotters and sellers”, “quick-witted and on the prowl”, they write. On some discussion forums, there are also these types of announcements: “Looking for lookouts and sellers very very well paid, including housing”. I pretend to be interested, I receive an answer in a few seconds: “There’s an apartment if you come, paid 180 euros, no war”. The recruiter promises me 180 euros a day, supposedly without danger, to become a lookout.

And it is thus, attracted by the lure of gain, that more and more minors from all over France are recruited. They find themselves at the mercy of traffickers. As noted by Mohamed Benmeddour, an educator who has been crisscrossing the northern districts of Marseille for more than 10 years. He takes us to the Cité de la Paternelle: “It’s a difficult neighborhood, there were a lot of young people who were killed in that neighborhood”he regrets.

According to him, the networks prefer to use small hands not from Marseille, because without attachment, they find themselves entirely dependent on traffickers. “When you’re not from the city, you don’t know anyone. When the youngster is from Marseille, he has family, big brothers, if some want to attack him, they think twice about it. But when the youngster is out of town, tomorrow if we attack him, who will come to defend him? Nobody”.

“You picked the wrong side. Welcome to Guantanamo. Son of…!”

This is what happened to a young man from another region who was threatened and accused of belonging to a rival clan. A video where he is stripped and molested was released by the traffickers themselves, “You picked the wrong side. Welcome to Guantanamo. Son of…!”threatens a dealer on the video.

The violence has reached such a level that the Marseille juvenile court is sounding the alarm publicly. Eric Mangin, juvenile judge at the Marseilles court, says that 40% of minors arrested for drug trafficking are not from the city. “It’s human trafficking, we take advantage of their poverty. They are housed in makeshift hotels, and some of them work from 10 a.m. to midnight. It’s really human trafficking”alarmed the judge.

Faced with these series of settlings of accounts, the police say they are taking action. Thirty Kalashnikovs and 400 firearms have been seized since the beginning of the year.