This bloody guerrilla warfare never ends. Behind the outbreak of violence that bloodied Marseille this summer, hides a war at work between two rival gangs of drug traffickers, Yoda and the DZ Mafia, explained Wednesday August 16, 2023 to theFrance Media Agency (AFP) the police chief of Bouches-du-Rhône, Frédérique Camilleri, deciphering the ” new world “ narcobanditism in Marseille.
Here are three things to know about this urban guerrilla warfare and the members of these two cartels who lead it.
1. Around 50 shootings are attributed to them
With 12 dead since mid-July, “the bloodbath” denounced in early April by the public prosecutor of Marseille, Dominique Laurens, resumed. Last victim to date: a 27-year-old man killed by a Kalashnikov bullet to the head on Tuesday evening. “It is nothing more or less than the resumption of the conflict between Yoda and DZ Mafia”insisted the Prefect of Police on Wednesday to the press.
Originally, the name of the first clan refers to the mythical character of Star Wars, tagged on a deal point in the city of La Paternelle in Marseille. As for the second, it pays homage to the Mocro Mafia – a Moroccan mafia organization specializing in the trafficking of cocaine and synthetic drugs – which reigns terror in Belgium and the Netherlands. Except that the network heads of the DZ Mafia claim to be of Algerian origin.
According to the prefect, 80% of the 68 shootings in Marseille in 2023 are linked to the rivalry between these two gangs from this city located in the north of the city. Objective for its members: to take control of the lucrative “stupid plans” that it houses. In total, since the beginning of the year, 36 people have lost their lives in the context of drug trafficking in Marseille. Among them, this 17-year-old teenager fatally lynched in February by around thirty people, precisely cited from La Paternelle. An assault filmed and broadcast live on Snapchat.
Read also: Drug trafficking in Marseille: with already more deaths than in 2022, the city is living a dark year
2. Gun holders recruited at the age of 18
Behind these numbers “It’s a new world, a paradigm shift that we are witnessing”she pleads: “From now on, we are faced with a logic of vendetta more than of appropriation of territory, I kill to scare, not to eliminate a troublesome competitor or recover a deal point”. On this point, the prefect underlined “the trivialization of the recruitment of killers” by each network, “as one recruits a lookout” : “There is no longer a team of regular killers like there used to be. ».
By the way, killers are sometimes as young as their victims. At the beginning of April, a certain Matteo F., 18, was arrested by the BRI, suspected of having been a hitman for the DZ Mafia and of having killed Djibril, 15, and Kaïs, 16. . For all the “contracts” that he would have executed, he claimed to have received €200,000. In addition, his name remains mentioned in seven intentional homicide files reports The New Detective ,
As for the pool of candidates, it does not seem to be drying up, despite the arrest in flagrante delicto of five commandos since the spring, ie 17 people in total. “For PJ veterans [police judiciaire]when a team of killers was arrested, it was six months of calm, but that’s over »notes Frédérique Camilleri.
Read also: Drug trafficking: Gérald Darmanin sends the CRS 8 specialized elite unit to Marseille
3. Network leaders stashed abroad
Paradoxically, if the number of deaths is racing in 2023, it is a year of record activity for the investigators, points out the prefect: 740 weapons seized, including 62 assault rifles (+ 24% compared to 2022), 1,144 traffickers arrested in Marseille (+26%), 12 million euros in criminal assets seized, constantly decreasing deal points (70 less than in 2021). With the arrest in June in Algeria of Mohamed Djeha, says “Mimo”it is even one of the biggest drug traffickers in France, ex-boss of the Marseille city of Castellane, who is put out of harm’s way.
A time allied on the deal points of the city of La Paternelle, the respective bosses of the two enemy gangs probably live abroad today, far from the radars of the PJ. That of the Yoda clan, aka “Fefe” Or ” Cat “ and the second nicknamed “Tick” by the DZ Mafia, are both 33 years old, details The Parisian .
“Their last known face-to-face dates back to February 2023, continues the Ile-de-France newspaper, in Phuket (Thailand), which has become a party paradise for hoodlums. » That evening, in a nightclub, Tic would have received a seal of ice cubes on the head. The humiliation will be enough to rekindle a bloody guerrilla war between the two rival gangs.
There is a lot of work to go back to the highest of the networks, insists Frédérique Camilleri, and “to tackle dirty money” : “We are looking to touch the wallet, hitting the deal points, the cash cow of the networks, but also the money collectors and the laundering networks”. Face “to plate tectonics between networks”the strategy of “shelling” deal points will continue.
Thus, Marseille will receive for a week the reinforcement of the 200 men of the CRS 8, a unit specialized in urban violence, based in the Paris region, confirmed Thursday morning the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin. On Wednesday, Frédérique Camilleri recalled that in the fall the Marseille city will also have “his CRS 8”these police officers can be mobilized H24 in the space of fifteen minutes.
