the “jobbers”, these young intermittent drug traffickers in Marseille

They are lookouts, sellers or even sometimes hitmen. Young people are recruited on social networks to take part in drug trafficking in Marseille. Nicknamed “jobbers”, they travel hundreds of kilometers to work in the cities of the northern districts.

At the Marseille court, they appear in court for immediate appearances. These are young people, strangers to the city, who have come to work in drug trafficking. Facing the judges that day, Souleymane*, 19 years old. He lives in the Paris region but he was arrested in Marseille selling drugs in the Cité des Rosiers, in the 14th arrondissement. Sentenced to six months in prison, he said after the hearing that he shared the deal point with other Parisians, Lyonnais and minors. “There was even a 12-year-old boy, that’s my little brother’s age”slips the young man with still adolescent features.

“I came to Marseille to make some money. I was promised a job selling coke or hash. Full time, I could make up to 500 euros per day”, explains Souleymane. Holder of a baccalaureate, the young man already had a job in Paris. “I worked at McDonald’s but I was struggling, I didn’t even receive the minimum wage. I had found an apartment and they asked me for a deposit, that’s why I came to Marseille”he says.

“For money, I’m not afraid of being killed”

Souleymane, 19-year-old “jobber”

at franceinfo

Souleymane knows the risks. Since the start of the year in Marseille, 47 people have died in settlements linked to drug trafficking. The last victim was, like him, a “jobber”. A young Savoyard aged around twenty was killed by a burst of Kalashnikovs a few hours after getting off the train, at a deal point in the Cité de la Bricarde in the 15th arrondissement.

For “jobbers”, “it often ends up between four walls or between four boards”, summarizes Vincent Clergerie, magistrate at the Marseille court. He presided over the immediate appearance hearings there for two years. He saw these young people follow one another in the defendant’s box, some fascinated by drug trafficking.

“We see it on many of the cell phones of these young people who come to work in Marseille. One of the first things they do when they arrive is to send a photo of their point deal on Instagram, TikTok or Snapchat. The more they have money to spread on the markets on which they are selling, the more proud they are of this postcard from Marseille”, notes Vincent Clergerie. Half of the people tried in Marseille for small drug trafficking cases do not come from the city, according to the prosecution.

A disoriented and controlled workforce

For the trafficking networks, these young people who arrive from all over France are a godsend. They fill the shortage of local labor because it is increasingly difficult to recruit Marseillais to help out in the cities. On the front line of trafficking, the risks of coming under fire from rival clans or being arrested are too great.

Young recruits from elsewhere also have the advantage of being disoriented and dependent on Marseille trafficking networks. “We pick them up at the exit of the station, we put them in a hotel that is not in the city then we position them at the deal point. They have no reference points. It is therefore very difficult for them to imagine competing with the activity of already established drug trafficking networks. When the “jobbers” are arrested, they can only give very little information to the police. We can also put more pressure on them. Isolated people are much more easily controlled.specifies Vincent Clergerie.

Threatened, abused, kidnapped… “Jobbers” are often forced to work for free when traffickers accuse them of seizing goods or losing money. They regularly find themselves trapped in sometimes fictitious debts.

Classified ads for positions as lookouts, salespeople or killers

To attract candidates despite the risks, tempting classified ads are flourishing on social networks. “#MarseilleFavelas”, “you want to make money, we’re recruiting you now”, “quick-witted watchman and salesman, on the lookout”this is what we can read. “There are real marketing efforts being made by trafficking networks, with garish colors, announcements set against the backdrop of rap clips”explains Etienne Loisel, head of the Marseille branch of the Anti-Narcotics Office (OFAST).

“Classified ads make it possible to recruit lookouts, sellers, cutters, nannies, transporters… There is a whole logistics chain to make drug trafficking work. At the margin, what we see with the rise in violence is the recruitment through classified ads of teams responsible for carrying out this violence, including settling scores. We saw this in Marseille with certain perpetrators of score settling, recruited on Signal or TikTok “explains Etienne Loisel.

The “price of living” is falling

The recruitment of killers on social networks is a very recent phenomenon and is reducing “the price of life”worries Olivier Leurent, the president of the Marseille court. “We know today that they are recruited in order to kill for sums of around 10 000 or 15 000 euros. Previously, ten or twenty years ago, we were more on contracts of 80 000 to 100 000 euros. There, we clearly see that the acts are carried out for much lower sums.” he notes.

Among the young people commissioned by trafficking networks to kill in Marseille, some come from Valence, Toulouse, Nice, or the Paris region, specifies the Marseille prosecutor’s office.

*The first name has been changed