Frankreich. Drug murders in France: how organised crime moves in and ruins communities
Frankreich. Drug murders in France: how organised crime moves in and ruins communities
France has reached what has been called a “turning point” in its relationship with drugs cartels after Medhi Kessaci the innocent 20-year-old brother of anti-drug activist Amine Kessaci was shot dead in Marseille last November.
The murder was taken as a warning to Amine, who had lost another brother five years earlier. Brahim had been found burnt in a car, a casualty of internal drug rivalries and business. Amine has since been very outspoken about the need to understand what is happening in Marseille and in France.
But he continues to risk his life by being outspoken. He was recently evacuated from a meeting in Aix en Provence, after a threat was made on his life.
Between 2023 and 2024, 73 people were murdered in Marseille in crimes related to the drugs business. Many of them were young people freshly recruited on the internet to make easy money by selling drugs. Similar drug-related murders have taken place in Grenoble, Paris, Nimes, Montpellier, Nice and Lyon. (The Conversation, Frankreich, 23.02.2026)