“The chew, the chew, the chew*. Shit, shit, shit.” In Marseille, in the Belsunce district, wedged between the station and the Old Port, small street deals are sometimes done like in the market: the merchant can shout to attract customers. A “business model” adapted to the geography of the district, its shopping streets and its passers-by who come to Belsunce without necessarily wanting to stock up on drugs.
And if the “menus” of the products available for sale are not displayed on the walls as in the northern (and also southern) districts of Marseille, the tag “24/24 7/7” marking the corner of the street Puvis de Chavanne and rue d'Aix, in the immediate vicinity of Hall Puget, certainly does not indicate a gas station. In Belsunce, the deal points are also well established. Here, traffic “has increased in recent years,” notes Smaïn, a thirty-year-old who has always lived in the neighborhood.
“Even in Saint-Denis, where I live, it’s less violent”
At the risk of exasperating residents and traders or discouraging even the most “robust” tourists or temporary workers who come to Marseille. “Many people who come here romanticize Marseille and can say: 'it's the social mix, the sea, the good atmosphere, the drugs available'. I might have thought so, but I quickly found it painful to be offered products in the street, not to mention the violence. I still saw kids stabbing themselves,” says Antoine, who wore his sneakers from Bobigny to Saint-Denis, via the 19th and 20th arrondissements of Paris.
The 32-year-old guy came to Marseille for work and lived in Belsunce for two months: “the difference, I think, is that even in Saint-Denis, where I live, I have the feeling that the social services and child welfare are more present. It's less physically and socially violent, even if I'm not saying that there isn't poverty and trafficking. »
“The police do what they can, they are often there, arrest young people and find product. Just yesterday (Wednesday), they blocked the entire rue d'Aix and raked with the dogs and everything,” says Smaïn, for whom the solution, the only one, would be to crack down even more. “But it comes back systematically, especially since many of the sellers are not from the neighborhood,” he despairs.
“We found syringes next to the field”
With more than 400 arrests for trafficking in the Belsunce and La Porte d'Aix sectors alone since the start of 2024 (+ 83% compared to 2023), the police do not seem to be sparing their efforts. But these figures also reflect, on the negative side, a certain progression of traffickers in these sectors: in addition to smoking, which has almost become traditional one would be tempted to write, the massive arrival of cocaine and, even more recently, crack , worry.
“We regularly find syringes next to the field,” says Khaled, a municipal employee in his fifties. This Wednesday evening, the volunteer is once again taking care of local children who have come to play at the “city stadium” on the long rue des Capucins. There, dealers even come and hide a few bags ready for sale in the meager clumps of plants. “But we didn't have that, 'cocaine', 'chew', before,” he observes. An observation shared by the police headquarters which recently evacuated a camp of around fifteen drug addicts set up near the Carmes.
Going to live in Font-Vert where “it’s quieter”
The atmosphere inevitably pushes residents and traders to leave. At least those who can. “People are afraid. In the evening, not many people go out anymore, except in the summer when there are enough people outside to feel safe,” admits Khaled, who explains that friends of his “even preferred to go and live in Font -Vert”, a city in the northern districts. A once famous “four” which, for example, landed rapper Sosso Maness in prison. “It’s busy there too, but in a sense, it’s quieter. They do this in their own corner, maintain a sort of order and ultimately disturb the residents less. »
And Belsunce without inhabitants, without traders who prefer to close the curtain, it is a loss of activities, a district abandoned to those who want to deal. A “snowball” effect reminiscent of that which affected the 3rd arrondissement of Marseille: businesses have deserted and traffic is now quite firmly established there.
All our information on drug trafficking
If there is no tide in Marseille, the tide of drugs rises inexorably. Towards La Porte d'Aix first (a sort of border between the 3rd, 2nd and 1st arrondissement) then to the city center, where the seizures follow one another, increasingly significant. Last March, 600,000 euros in cash, stored in an underground locker, was discovered by investigators during a vast anti-drug operation. Two weeks ago, more than 200 grams of cocaine and 13,000 euros were intercepted by a simple BAC crew who hid and tailed a saleswoman.
