Marseille: magistrates sound the alarm to save the city from drug trafficking

Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credit: ANNE-SOPHIE NIVAL / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP 2:15 p.m., March 7, 2024

“We are losing the war against traffickers in Marseille,” said Isabelle Fort, head of the “organized crime” department of the Marseille prosecutor’s office.

The year 2023 was the bloodiest with 49 people killed, including four collateral victims, and 123 injured in the turf war between rival gangs.

Specific prison regime, specialized criminal court and facilitated collaboration with “repentant” drug traffickers: magistrates are proposing strong measures to counter the drug trafficking which is causing corruption and bloodshed in Marseille.

“We are losing the war against traffickers in Marseille,” alarmed Isabelle Fort, head of the “organized crime” department of the Marseille prosecutor’s office, before the Senate commission of inquiry dedicated to the fight against drug trafficking. drugs in France.

The members of the commission, which is devoting several days this week to the situation in the country's second city, are also in Marseille on Thursday to "pay particular attention to the reality experienced by the inhabitants, the first victims of trafficking which spare no territory.”

During hearings on Tuesday and Wednesday in Paris, the president of the Marseille judicial court Olivier Leurent said: "The State seems to be waging an asymmetrical war against drug banditry but finds itself weakened in the face of very equipped organized gangs."

“Narcobanditism acts in Marseille as a sort of gangrene which damages the social fabric” in this port city of 870,000 inhabitants, he added.

“Marshall Plan” needed

The year 2023 was the bloodiest with 49 people killed, including four collateral victims, and 123 injured in the turf war between rival gangs.

Violence that breaks up families and makes residents of certain neighborhoods live in fear.

The reinforcements - 22 magistrates shared between headquarters and public prosecutor's office or even 21 investigators from the judicial police - have made it possible to double the opening of judicial information, 69 in 2023, linked to assassination attempts.

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But the magistrates consider these means, "which constituted a catch-up for the under-grants" of past years, already "notoriously insufficient", according to Olivier Leurent.

In Marseille, 20% of jurisdictional activity is linked to drug trafficking, compared to 9% at the national level.

He called for the "establishment of a Marshall plan" to combat criminals with "a considerable strike force in terms of financial, human and technological resources": "Our rule of law and our republican stability.

Among their avenues for improvement, all agree on the need "to have a separate prison regime" for drug traffickers, with strict isolation.

Because, even behind bars, the “network heads” often manage the organization of their teams, or even the executions of competitors, recalled the Marseille prosecutor, Nicolas Bessone.

Such an order was recently heard by investigators in a wiretapped cell.

In the absence of reinforced isolation, he fears that the conflict between criminal gangs will be imported into penitentiary centers.

In mid-February, an inmate of the Aix-Luynes prison linked to the “DZ Mafia” was killed in his cell by his fellow inmate from the opposing “Yoda” clan.

These two gangs are behind the vast majority of assassinations in 2023.

Specific seats

Nicolas Bessone also declared himself in favor of a relaxation of the legislation on “collaborators” of justice.

Currently, the latter, repentant traffickers, can only benefit from protection on the condition that they do not have blood on their hands.

Unlike Italy or the United States which have opted for an "effective" approach by putting aside any "moralistic element", according to him.

Like the president of the judicial court, the prosecutor also deplores the increased recourse by criminals to “specialized lawyers”, who focus on the form to cancel procedures, rather than on the substance.

“Having a regime that makes it possible to prevent systematic appeals” would be more effective, according to Olivier Leurent.

There are also fears that traffickers could corrupt certain public officials.

Two investigations are underway in Marseille concerning officials suspected of having provided information to members of organized crime.

Nicolas Bessone also called for the establishment of specialized criminal courts for drug traffickers: "Who, today, would have terrorist acts judged by non-professionals, ordinary juries?"

According to him, the latter "are afraid of reprisals", which could lead to less severe sentences.

Finally, for Olivier Leurent, the emphasis should be placed on the source of drug trafficking, the consumer: "The feeling of transgression must be propagated as a public policy", through advertising campaigns, but also school.