Since the beginning of the year, 21 people have died in Marseilles in settling accounts mainly related to drug trafficking.
“What happened today reminds us how much international drug trafficking kills young people on the territory of Marseille”, declared Sunday May 21 on franceinfo Yannick Ohanessian, deputy mayor of Marseille in charge of the battalion of marine firefighters and security, after the death of three people in a shooting outside a nightclub this Sunday morning. Since the beginning of the year, 21 people have died in Marseilles in settling accounts mainly related to drug trafficking.
franceinfo: Are these deaths linked to drug trafficking each time?
Yannick Ohanessian: Not every time, but it is certain that very often it is against the backdrop of drug trafficking. What happened today reminds us of the extent to which international drug trafficking kills young people in Marseille. It is necessary that all the public authorities, the State as well as the local authorities, take up this situation to try to put all possible means to stop and stem the situation.
Are weapons a worrying problem in the city?
Yes, we have, with the mayor of Marseille, alerted the State services on several occasions to say that much more resources should be given, in particular to the customs service, to control goods arriving by port or by roads on the territory of the municipality. These are often weapons of war or drugs. So, we must have all the means, all the tools, the devices to fight against this drug trafficking. It is an international network which officiates in Marseilles, it is rival bands which organize themselves.
Why is Marseille in this situation?
The reality of this drug trafficking concerns more the national territory, not to say the European continent. It is at this level that we must fight. Marseille is no exception. We know the sponsors and we can seek them out, give more resources to the financial brigades, more resources to the investigative services to set up hideouts, go and question international cooperation. As long as we don’t do that, I think we will play small arms in the face of a situation that is getting worse every day.
Is the situation out of control?
No, I don’t believe in the sense that police operations are increasing every day. Every day there are CRS companies which deploy in the estates, which arrest, which seize weapons, quantities of drugs. But we are not attacking the root of the evil. The city of Marseille has put substantial resources into the municipal police, our video protection system. We have to attack the bigwigs and we are able to identify them and they are very largely outside the national territory.
Associations and citizen collectives are trying to fight against this violence. Should we help them more?
Of course, we meet them regularly. Recently we wanted to bring them into the Marseille City Council. We wanted to tell them all our solidarity, our sadness in relation to these killings and which leave decimated families.