Marseille: what will the arrest of drug trafficker Félix Bingui, head of the Yoda clan, change?

Guillaume Dominguez / Photo credits: NICOLAS TUCAT / AFP 6:18 a.m., March 10, 2024, modified at 6:20 a.m., March 10, 2024

End of game for Félix Bingui.

The leader of the Marseille gang Yoda, one of the two drug trafficking clans which has been plaguing the city of Marseille for years, was arrested on Friday in Casablanca in Morocco.

He was the subject of an arrest warrant for, among other things, organized drug trafficking, criminal conspiracy and money laundering.

He is also suspected of having orchestrated part of the settling of scores in the war between his clan and that of the DZ Mafia.

But if the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, welcomes this arrest, it cannot put an end to the scourge of drugs in the Marseille city.  

“A risk of increased settling of scores”

For the Yoda clan, however, this is a big blow.

The fall of the one nicknamed "the cat" could end up shattering the remains of a gang already weakened for several months.

“When we arrest the head of a network, we hurt the entire network. There is an imbalance, there is no longer any organization... The Yoda gang will crumble,” assures Bruno Bartocetti, national secretary of the SGP-Police union.

>>

- Marseille traffickers go up to Nîmes because of competition in the Marseille city

But the arrest of Félix Bingui will not stop drug trafficking in Marseille, and even less the settling of scores.

For Marc La Mola, the earthquake which affects the Yoda clan could relaunch the war which pits it against its main competitor, the DZ Mafia gang.

"The settling of scores between these two clans has been very numerous and very bloody. I think there is a risk of these settling of scores increasing. They will obviously try to take over the network and in an even more bloody and maybe quite quickly.”

In 2023, the war between the two criminal organizations left 49 dead, including four collateral victims.