Fear in Marseille Following Unprecedented Violence Among Teenage Drug Gang Members

The city of Marseille in southern France has been plunged into fear due to violent clashes between two rival drug gangs, whose perpetrators and victims are much younger than in the past, leading to public outrage. The prosecutor of Marseille described these incidents on Monday, October 8, as 'unprecedented and extraordinary violence' and stated that drug traffickers are increasingly employing teenagers. According to him, a 15-year-old was stabbed and then burned alive. A 14-year-old also killed a taxi driver who did not stop for him by shooting him in the head. The newspaper 'Le Parisien' reported, citing prosecutor officials, that this violence appears to be the result of an ongoing battle between two drug gangs named 'D.Z. Mafia' and 'Clan des Blacks' (Black Tribe) over a lucrative drug-selling area in Marseille. The 15-year-old was instructed by a 23-year-old convicted drug dealer, who is currently imprisoned, to shoot at the door of a building to scare rival gang members and then set it on fire. He was reportedly promised 2,000 euros for this task. However, according to the prosecutor's office, the teenager got caught, and a member of the rival gang discovered his weapon during a body search, stabbed him fifty times, and burned him alive. The imprisoned gang member, who devised this plan, hired a 14-year-old for revenge by paying 50,000 euros. However, according to the prosecutor's office, this plan also failed. Evidence shows that the 14-year-old, who was traveling in a taxi at night, suddenly felt he had seen his potential victim on the street. He told the taxi driver to stop at that point and wait for him because he had to do something and would return soon. However, the taxi driver, a 37-year-old man with two children, did not heed his words and continued driving. The prosecutor's office believes that at this moment, the armed teenager shot the taxi driver in the back of the head and killed him.