"It is an extremely complicated period", introduced Dominique Laurens, the prosecutor of the Republic of Marseille about the recent series of settling of scores which bloodied the northern districts of the city.

In the last two months, 12 people have died in Marseille under the background of "an almost economic struggle" involving the various players in drug trafficking.

This brings to 15 the number of deaths labeled "settling of scores" by the judicial police since the beginning of the year - against 9 last year at this time.

Burnt alive in a car, unheard of

"There is a recomposition of the environment," she said. With a level of violence never reached. During the night from Saturday to Sunday, two men were murdered and an individual was kidnapped, locked in a safe, before being burned alive in the car. An unconventional "barbecue", insofar as in previous cases, individuals were first executed. This kind of direct elimination of a competitor is not the only method currently at work in this "power struggle". The actions of intimidation "where we will round up the people present on a stupid point to terrorize them and make them understand that the point of sale is claimed", explains the public prosecutor, make up the second side of "the recomposition Which is currently being played.

With, as a result, very young victims who may have nothing to do with drug trafficking.

A 14-year-old boy died over the weekend and an 8-year-old boy was seriously injured.

"We have never had such young victims" regretted Dominique Laurens.

A “legal” thwarted and an elucidation

In this bloody summer, the judicial police chained the findings but can claim some victories.

Individuals of a crew author of a regulation of mid-June were quickly arrested after the facts, at the end of June, indicated Eric Arella, the director of the judicial police of the southern zone.

Another was prevented quite recently by the activity of the police, the 27th settling of scores foiled since 2016, the year of 27 deaths in drug trafficking cases, a sinister record.

Eric Dupond-Moretti this Tuesday Marseille

Faced with this surge of "extreme cruelty", the political class, powerless, multiplies the proposals that look like the effects of announcements.

Benoît Payan, the mayor of Marseille, called for the creation of "a special prosecutor's office in Marseille" on Monday.

A proposal to which Dominique Laurens tasted little, who recalled that "Marseille already had a specialized prosecutor's office", in this case the specialized interregional court against organized crime, which operates throughout the Mediterranean arc.

"From there to say that its workforce is sufficient, is a step that I would not take," she concluded, while the Keeper of the Seals, Eric Dupond-Moretti, is expected this Tuesday in Marseille, in principle for talk about the reform of the penal code of juvenile justice.

There is no doubt that this subject will not be the sole object of his visit.

Society

Settling of scores in Marseille: Powerless, elected officials and political power multiply the effects of announcements

Marseilles

Marseille: Two men shot dead and one burned in a car at night

  • Federal police

  • Northern neighborhoods

  • Drug traffic

  • Marseilles

  • Miscellaneous

  • Reckoning