The hyper violence of the DZ mafia, a group of drug traffickers today hegemonic in Marseille, does not only worry the police and the justice system. Corsican thugs, who have interests in the Marseille city, also. One of them confided in Marianne.
The news traveled around Corsica in no time. On November 25, 2024, Corse Matin reveals that Yassine Akhazzane, 36, originally from Propriano, was taken a week earlier from Pontet prison, in Vaucluse, to be heard in the context of a case relating to facts of extortion. When he was released from police custody, he was indicted alongside around twenty people considered to be members of the DZ Mafia.
According to Le Monde, Yassine Akhazzane acted as a “booker” on behalf of the group of Marseille drug traffickers, responsible among other things for negotiating with nightclub owners in the region the organization of short concerts by rappers in their establishments (“” showcases “). Paid services that are difficult to refuse given the fear caused by the hyper violence of the DZ mafia.
Latest example to date, according to investigators, the sponsors of the strafing of the van of the Marseille rapper SCH at the exit of a nightclub, which led to the death of one of the occupants, would be none other than the heads of the DZ mafia , the artist having resisted racketeering attempts.
This connection between Yassine Akhazzane, listed by SIRASCO, the information, intelligence and strategic analysis service on organized crime – which reports to the National Directorate of Judicial Police – as a member of one of the 25 criminal gangs active in Corsica and the DZ mafia, a group of drug traffickers today hegemonic in Marseille, worried. And not just on the side of justice or the police. Also within island banditry.
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The DZ hand in hand with Corsican thugs
“I’m not going to hide, I’ve always been a thug and I think I would die like that. But we have nothing to do with them! “, would like to clarify our man on the phone. He knows the Corsican environment very well. And for good reason, he himself is part of it while swearing to stick only to business: “If I can get money or drugs or something, I’ll go for it. But I don’t have blood on my hands and I never will! “.
Which has not prevented justice, during the last decade, from questioning its role in cases of criminal association with a view to committing a crime… But as for the DZ mafia, our interlocutor is categorical: “When I see what is happening in Marseille, I am sorry but they have no race. They shoot for nothing, on people who have nothing to do with drugs. They’re savages, not us! »
Simple opportunism or lasting link?
Like many thugs of his caliber, he is a keen reader of the written press, and more particularly of the police and justice section. An article from Monde had actually caused quite a stir. Published in August 2023, it highlighted the “growing weight, according to investigators, of a clan structured around the figure of Yassine Akhazzane”.
Drug and arms trafficking, vehicle theft, participation in assassination plans, influence on local political life, business fires, the criminal seems to demonstrate “that he is cut out to become a godfather if he is not killed or imprisoned for years”according to a daily source.
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A reading that made our man cough: “Yassine Akhazzane, honestly, he’s not a godfather. He probably imagines it but it will never happen…”. Regarding Akhazzane’s links with the DZ mafia, the explanation would be simple according to him. “As there was a guy from the DZ at Pontet, they had to do a deal together on this one. It’s purely opportunistic. But to say that he is behind all the affairs of the DZ, we must not push it, he thinks he knows. A situation surely preferable for Yassine Akhazzane himself, at the risk of having to wear a hat that is a little too large and dangerous.
Marseille nightclubs under Corsican protection
As told by Le Parisien last October, the police officers of the Évêché, the stronghold of the Marseille PJ, were surprised to see the managers of a nightclub arrive at their premises to file a complaint for attempted extortion. And for good reason, their establishment has long been considered to be under the protection of the clan “the robber shepherds of Venzolasca”, led by Ange Toussaint Federici, a powerful and feared group in Corsica but also in Marseille or Aix-en-Provence.
That the DZ Mafia dared to attack the livelihood of Corsican shepherds left the police speechless. And made them fear a reaction from the Corsicans. Which should not happen according to our source. “The Federicis, they don’t care about the nightclub in Marseille”he explains.
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Enough to prevent the situation from becoming more complex in the streets of Marseille, Ange Toussaint Federici having already caused a stir in the past. On April 4, 2006, Farid Berrahma, former henchman of godfather Francis Le Belge, who had become the main boss of the narcotics market in the northern districts of Marseille, died under a deluge of bullets fired by ten hooded individuals without having time to draw his weapon. the Glock he wears on his belt. Two other people were killed in the shooting which was named the “Chestnut Tree Killing”, named after the bar in which it took place.
A will of all power of the DZ mafia
Investigators quickly included this assassination as part of the war between Berrahma and Corsican thugs for control of drug trafficking and slot machines around the Etang de Berre. At the scene of the crime, the police discovered traces of blood belonging to what they believed to be one of the shooters, injured by friendly fire.
The analyzes make it possible to identify Ange Toussaint Federici. He will be sentenced in 2012 to thirty years in prison for this triple murder. An incarceration which would not prevent him from continuing to direct the affairs of his clan according to various police investigations. Some of which are in Marseille. And the Federicis are not the only Corsican thugs to have interests in the Marseille city.
Reason why the desire for all power of the DZ mafia is viewed with a negative eye. “We have too different cultures, and our ways of thinking are too different. By joining forces with the DZ, the gypsies and Arabs want to take Corsica, but that will not happen. At some point there will be a reaction,” warns our islander.
