the strategy of the DZ Mafia to reign over Marseille drug trafficking

It's a gang from Marseille that hangs like a malevolent shadow over the Marseille city: the DZ Mafia. Its drug traffickers, increasingly structured, recruit the youngest and impose their violence in certain neighborhoods. Is the organization becoming a powerful French-style cartel out of control? In the war waged by Marseille traffickers, the DZ Mafia has established itself as the most powerful criminal group for more than a year.

The group is now trying to build an ever-expanding network. Established in the Marseille metropolitan area but regularly weakened by arrests and police searches, the DZ Mafia extends its influence around the Rhône valley. From Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône) to Avignon (Vaucluse), via Valence (Drôme) further north, it is now targeting the cities of Saint-Étienne (Loire) and Lyon (Rhône). Some of its members are even based in Belgium.

Their strategy? An expansion into smaller towns to escape the police: “The leaders of the DZ Mafia rightly think that it is perhaps easier to establish themselves in medium-sized towns than in large cities which are closely monitored by the police”explains Denis Trassero, journalist specializing in these criminal networks.

Watch the full report in the video above.