On the video posted on social networks, we can read these words written by hand on a panel: DZ Mafia, named after One of the two mafia clans at war today in Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône). A guerrilla which has caused 22 deaths and more than a hundred injuries since the beginning of the year. We see a dozen Kalashnikovs appear, filmed up close in a room where they seem to be stored and camouflaged.
Faced with these spectacular images, the opposing clan will respond ten days later, posting an identical sequence: seven or eight weapons of war lined up on the ground with the inscription: “Yoda clan”, the other mafia gang, named after the character of Star Wars painted on a fresco at the entrance to La Paternelle, a city in the 14th arrondissement, a “mecca” for cannabis and cocaine trafficking and the nerve center of guerrilla warfare between these two clans.
Welcome to the world of “crime influencers”, as one expert put it. The Internet, social networks, instant messaging loops… have become one of the new weapons of Marseille narcobanditism. Enemy gangs DZ Mafia and Yoda regularly post propaganda and intimidation images on Snapchat or Instagram, as countries at war do.
VIDEO. Live murders, propaganda, threats… welcome to the world of “crime influencers”
“Mediatization” to intimidate or keep the link with the troops
“One of their strategies is media coverage: Look how strong we are. Social networks are part of it, but not only”, sums up Dominique Laurens, the public prosecutor of Marseille, who is worried about the “glorification” of traffickers in certain media.
In addition to this show of force on the Web, some shootings and even assassinations are claimed there. “We film each other, we challenge each other and we provoke each other constantly, notes a police officer in the field. It is done to intimidate the competitors but also to unite the soldiers on the front lines when the heads of networks are on the run abroad or in prison, far from the theater of war. »
Thus last May, following the assassination, in Salou in Spain, of a certain Scar, brother-in-law of Félix B., known as the Cat or Féfé, the head of the Yoda clan, a video was published on the social networks, reporting threats of reprisals against the DZ Mafia team, led by “Tic”, alias Abdelatif L., the leader of this clan. “They have restarted the war, they will all suffer. Even their mothers the whores. They will all die one by one. For Scar look how we will get revenge. Send them the message to his children of whores, “said the Yoda clan in a message intercepted by the police.
Killers get paid more if they get Instagram views
Today, recruited killers film their assassinations to prove to their sponsor that they have carried out their mission, but also to create buzz in order to be rewarded accordingly. Mattéo F., this young killer indicted last April for three murders but suspected of six or seven others, received, in addition to his fixed salary, a bonus based on media coverage. “The price was 20,000 euros per contract but it could go up to 50,000 euros, depending on the number of views on Instagram,” says a source close to the investigation.
The bosses also use Snapchat or Instagram in their “daily work”. To try to recruit from all over France a workforce that is increasingly difficult to find in Marseilles due to the repetition of shootings at traffic locations.
This “interim” hiring works both ways because “choufs” (lookouts), “charcoalers” (dealers) and even “charcleurs” (killers) also offer their services on the same applications. Apps that are also used to order and deliver drugs, sometimes weapons, and assassination contracts. It was on Snapchat that Mattéo F. received the order to strike from his sponsors.
PODCAST. Drug trafficking: young people, recruited via the Internet… the disturbing profile of contract killers 2.0
“This operating mode makes it possible to gain speed. The DZ Mafia used it in uber fashion to respond as quickly as possible after a shooting affecting his clan or places of trafficking, ”says a policeman from the Marseille PJ. Thus, on April 3, less than an hour after the death by firearms of two DZ Mafia men in the Castellas city, Mattéo projected himself near a snack bar reputed to be close to the clan opposite to kill two minors of 15 and 16 years old and injuring a third 14 year old. His “employers” had provided him with a vehicle and weapons.
Residing in Gardanne, a town near Marseille, the hitman was prohibited from going to the Marseille city outside of his “missions”, accomplished by leaving his cell phones at home.
“Cyber” commandos from Paris
Similarly, a “cyber network of young killers” from Paris was recently neutralized two hours after being activated in the city of Marronniers. A few months earlier, another commando had been arrested. “The guys had been hiding in a motel for two weeks, reports a policeman from the BAC. Equipped with a Golf GTI to go shooting and a rental car to go to the beach, they spent two weeks waiting for the beep of their sponsors, they had food delivered and killed time playing games. video. »
The speed of revenge, facilitated by the use of digital applications, is another strategy of narcobanditry. “There have always been settling of accounts in Marseille, what is new and worrying is the acceleration of the pace of the aftershocks, analyzes the public prosecutor. The goal is to mark the spirits, to terrorize. »
With this radicalization of armed violence, the bosses are using the codes of terrorism. “Today we use the same terms and methods as in the era of Corsican, Basque or even Islamist anti-terrorism,” observes an experienced PJ policeman. The leaders of narcobanditry hide abroad (Dubai, Algiers, Emirates, Thailand, etc.) or opt for clandestinity – lodges, motels, apartments rented under nominees. “Unlike terrorists, they have a lot of money and therefore have more facility for logistical means and complicity”, continues the policeman.
“Locks are jumping in terms of porosity, warns the public prosecutor. When you have money, it is easier to open boxes, apartments, have access to police files or obtain information on the place of incarceration and the habits in prison of a caïd. »
Thus, on April 12, Mahdi Z., known as the Brute, close to the DZ Mafia clan, was violently attacked by six men in the Aix-Luynes remand center. An assault filmed and quickly posted on social networks. This undoubtedly resulted in reprisal attacks on the same evening on territories controlled by the opposing clan.
Undocumented migrants and abandoned minors, the cannon fodder of the networks
The change in the choice of targets, always younger and less and less experienced, simple lookouts or small dealers, also contributes to this policy of terror desired by narcobanditism. “Commando operations are increasingly targeting anyone present at deal points, regardless of their age, origin or function in the network, without sparing collateral victims” notes a white note from Sirasco, the service of criminal intelligence and analysis of the judicial police, which we were able to consult.
More and more undocumented migrants, often Nigerians, or abandoned minors – boys as well as girls – are thus acting as cannon fodder at the bottom of the towers. “Every week we have minors who call 17 to be arrested or make sure to facilitate their arrest during police raids, to protect themselves. »
The El Dorado (sun, beach, money, etc.) sold by recruiters turns into a nightmare: lack of pay, squat housing, deprivation of freedom of movement, not to mention the mortal risk. “Until 2020, it was mainly bosses in the first circle of network heads who were shot down and that caused a change in the balance of power of the networks, analyzes Frédérique Camilleri, the police chief of Bouches-du- Rhône, today they are small hands, whose elimination does not radically change the balance between the clans. »
The last lock that would not have jumped yet is the family. Kill, as in South America, parents, brothers or sisters of the trafficker who have nothing to do with the traffic. “We are getting there slowly,” confides the police officer who is a connoisseur of organized crime. There was the assassination, mentioned above, of Scar, the brother-in-law of the leader of the Yoda clan. In Marseille, it was downright the door of a drug dealer’s mother who was riddled with bullets and the video immediately broadcast on the Internet.
