A man suspected of having organized score-settling for the criminal organization DZ Mafia, one of the largest drug trafficking gangs in Marseille, has been questioned since Tuesday by judicial police investigators for a double assassination committed in l’Estaque in November 2023.
Company
From daily life to major issues, discover the subjects that make up local society, such as justice, education, health and family.
France Télévisions uses your email address to send you the “Society” newsletter. You can unsubscribe at any time via the link at the bottom of this newsletter. Our privacy policy
Amine O., one of the main figures of the Marseille drug trafficking clan DZ Mafia, was taken from his cell under high security to be placed in police custody on Tuesday. The individual, considered very dangerous, is being questioned by investigators from the Marseille judicial police as part of the investigation into the double assassination perpetrated in November 2023, near l'Estaque in the north of the city, we learned this Wednesday November 27 Radio France, confirming information from Parisian (paid item). France 3 Provence-Alpes details what we know about this detainee, suspected of being the person behind this settling of scores, considered one of the most dangerous members of the gang.
Snicknamed in the community “Mamine Escobar” or “Jalisco”
Amine O., 30, is nicknamed “Mamine Escobar”, or even “Jalisco” in reference to the Mexican cartel. He is presented as one of the three decision-makers of the criminal organization, which has experienced rapid expansion in the territory in the last two years. He would lead the Marseille “cartel”, with Gabriel O. known as “Gaby”, 29 years old, ex-hitman responsible for recruiting small hands incarcerated in Baumettes and Mahdi Z. alias “La Brute”, 34 years old, currently in detention in Perpignan.
Amine O. has been incarcerated since 2021 for a triple murder, he was recently transferred to Villefranche-sur-Saône prison (Rhône), after spending time in the Baumettes isolation district in Marseille and in Valence prison ( Drome). He already faces 30 years in prison in various criminal cases.
According to The Parisian, “Mamine Escobar”, “Gaby” and “La Brute” manage their operations from their cells, using mobile phones. Several cases of very violent actions have been attributed to them.
After ousting the gang's former founder, Mehdi Abdelatif Laribialias “Tic” (abbreviation of “Rachitic”), the triumvirate imposed a new method of expansion, based on assassinations with young hitmen recruited through encrypted messaging on thees social networks.
>>> MAINTENANCE. “This ultra rejuvenation worries us”: drug trafficking, narchomicides, DZ Mafia… 4 questions to the Marseille prosecutor
Alleged sponsor of the double McDonald's assassination
Amine O. was taken from his prison and transferred by the criminal brigade of the Marseille judicial police supported by elite Raid police officers, according to The Parisian. The drug trafficker, suspected of having ordered a settling of scores, which left two dead in Marseille in 2023, was placed in police custody as part of a judicial investigation opened for “assassinations, attempted assassinations by an organized gang and criminal conspiracy”.
On November 11, a Kalashnikov shooting broke out in the parking lot of a McDonald's restaurant in the 16th arrondissement of Marseille. PBefore 11 p.m., individuals in a Peugeot 3008 fired bursts of Kalashnikovs at a vehicle parked in front of the fast food restaurant located on Chemin du Littoral. It was the manager of the establishment who reported to the emergency services the presence of several injured people in the parking lot.
When they arrived on the scene, the police discovered five people in the targeted vehicle. They all come from the Var. The driver, a 22-year-old from Toulon, died, as did the front passenger, aged 25, without links to drug trafficking. Three other people in the rear of the vehicle were injured, a woman and two men. Nearly 25 7.62 mm bullets were found at the scene. The alleged perpetrators' car was discovered shortly after, set on fire.
Raid in the DZ Mafia
The custody of Amine O. this Tuesday follows a first crackdown announced by investigators in mid-October, in the investigation into this double assassination. During this operation, around ten supposed members of the DZ Mafia, suspected hitmen, logisticians and drivers, were arrested, nine of them are suspected of being involved in the McDonald's shooting. Among them, a minor, possible hitman, barely 17 years old. It is during the hearings that the investigators will trace the alleged sponsor.
Over the past two months, more than fifty people suspected of being linked to the DZ Mafia have been arrested during large-scale police operations in Bouches-du-Rhône and Var, particularly for cases of racketeering and extortion. This is, according to franceinfo, the first legal file, excluding drug trafficking and assassination, where the DZ Mafia is involved.
The gang has taken center stage in Marseille, since the bloody war with the Yoda clan, which left around forty dead in 2023. The DZ Mafia operates well beyond the cities of the northern districts, in several cities in France such as Rennes or Dijon, and even beyond our borders, as far as Brussels, in Belgium. A phenomenon that police unions have called “the marseilleization of trafficking”.
