Narcotrafic à Marseille : 50 ans de guerre

50 ans de narcotrafic à Marseille retracés à travers la French Connection, les caïds historiques comme Milou ou Tany Zampa, jusqu’aux dealers armés des quartiers nord. Fusillades, saisies record, justice et douane : plongeon immersif au cœur du trafic le plus violent de France.

Réalisateur
Widemann Christophe, Images Philippe Pujol Nicolas Margerand Sébastien Girodon Stéphane Surace Julien Nativel Anthony Casabianca Xavier Muntz Julien Diaz Anduig Cyril Thomas Benjamin Geminel

#Narcotrafic #Marseille #FrenchConnection #TraficDeDrogue #Banditisme

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00:00 Introduction immersive
00:12 Milou, ex-baron de la French Connection
01:07 Le bar-traffics et narcotrafic 1960‑70
03:07 Bourreaux actuels & quartiers nord
06:13 Douane et saisies maritimes
17:58 Règlements de comptes historiques
23:02 L’“Immortel” Jackie Lematte
25:12 Démantèlement par la justice & juge Michel
37:01 Saisies record de cocaïne en 2022
49:03 Arche du Belge jusqu’en 2000
55:33 Violences enfants & victimes civiles
1:03:35 Le rôle des éducateurs de terrain
1:16:22 Comparutions immédiates & justice
1:22:58 Évolution des points de deal
1:28:12 Focus sur l’économie criminelle
1:37:05 Trafic d’armes et armes lourdes
1:44:56 Témoignages de jeunes dealers
1:48:23 Conclusion : Marseille, violence ordinaire

You should definitely not be fooled by his quiet grandfatherly demeanor. Emile Diaz, said Snowy, is a figure of Marseille’s organized crime. When he owned this bar 50 years ago, The establishment was a den of thugs. I remember, Who dedicates Dede, No, He died a long time ago. He died a long time ago, Dede. He is dead, He served 14 years in prison. He is still alive. He’s hanging on. Milou is also a survivor, one of the last pillars of the famous French Connection. A criminal organization that made Marseille a hub for heroin trafficking in the 1960s and 1970s. Milou’s bar was then a cover and served as a clandestine gaming circle for traffickers. These are the best years of my life, That. Because there were number 1s who came here. The number 1s in French. There, it was worth hundreds of millions, deep down, and up. It was a glorious time. Milou also experienced the dark hours of a drug trafficker’s life. He spent 16 years in prison. And he lost many close friends in the settling of scores that bloodied Marseille in the 1970s. Come on, Hello everyone. Goodbye everyone. It is men like Milou who have made the Phocaean city a hotspot for drug trafficking for over 50 years. Child from the poor neighborhoods, He experienced the rise of the most feared godfathers. Like Tany Zampa, Francis Le Belge or Jackie Lematte. The people of Marseille, They went to the other side of the world to traffic. How did these old-school thugs make their way among the godfathers of global drug trafficking? The robber Tony Cossu, former close friend of Francis the Belgian, knew all the secrets of the French Connection and all its excesses. So, The war started there and then it caused all these deaths. That’s when I realized that drugs, It was in the middle of… Facing them, in the ranks of the police, Antoine Ciblo was part of the Dream Team, which blew the French Connection apart. He led a merciless fight alongside Judge Pierre Michel, who paid the high price. It was a terrible shock. It was something that was ultimately inconceivable. But it happened. Today, Cocaine and cannabis replaced heroin. But the struggles for traffic control have never caused so much bloodshed in the streets of Marseille. Yet, The repressive arsenal has grown considerably since the French Connection. Marseille customs have been on the front line against traffickers for 50 years. Marseille, 1970, Marseille, 2023, or the fate of a city plagued by drug trafficking, a business where fortune is rare and death is frequent. 50 years after the French Connection, The thugs of the traditional milieu have given way to a new generation of traffickers from the northern districts of Marseille. And to new codes. That day, in the city, Jean Jaurès, rapper Credo is shooting his latest video, a reflection of the violence that reigns here. Credo himself was a drug dealer before devoting himself to music after his release from prison. This is where I grew up, so when I write, I take inspiration from there. This is what I saw. I’m not clean, I’ve done some stupid things in my life, So sometimes I talk about that too. And there you go, that’s life. It’s real, I’m not going to lie, it’s real. In 2021, Two men were killed in the city, to the weapon of war. A settling of scores linked to drug trafficking that punctuates daily life. Besides, a few meters from the filming of the clip, the dealers are at work, without hiding in the least. We’re dealing with a big drug deal here. This is the Jean Jaurès district and inside you have the seller and I am the manager. Come on, come on. The stairwell is barricaded to slow down the police in case of a raid. Come in. And in the hall, The building’s residents are forced to go around the dealers to leave their homes. Cannabis or cocaine are packaged in packages, copy of major brands of cakes or sweets. A way to attract customers in a very competitive and perfectly structured market. According to official figures, There are said to be around 130 drug dealing points like this one in Marseille. A sprawling traffic against which the police wage a daily battle. In the heart of the cities, the 15th arrondissement police station. At its head, Commissioner Sébastien Lautard, a big name in the Marseille police force. This former head of the narcotics unit is responsible for coordinating the fight on the ground against drug trafficking networks. Mafia organizations that operate practically under his windows. There, we are in the heart of the cities of the 15th arrondissement, which give us proximity to be able to work and intervene quickly in the cities. Our neighbors and closest neighbors, This is the Bassens city, which is on the other side of the street and the railway track, where they quite frequently go and question the lookout or the seller on site. The Bassens City, one of Marseille’s iconic points of sale. A neighborhood completely under the control of drug dealers, known for its drive, In other words, its direct sale to motorists, as for fast food, despite the presence of the police station. Right opposite. We know very well that we are not going to eradicate drug trafficking. We are here above all to cause problems, disorganize, pounding, drug trafficking, to call out to people, present them to justice. And to make seizures. Our pleasure, It is to be able to put pliers on and to be able to grab goods from them and understand, to go back up, To understand who is in control of the network and whether we can actually catch them in our procedures. Hands on it, I’ll leave your hands on the van. The same. For several years now, The police are increasing the number of raids. A policy of bombardment that would bear fruit with the dismantling of around twenty Deal points last year. Yet, The image of Marseille remains more than ever associated with drug trafficking. A story that did not begin with the Caïds of the cities, But in the aftermath of World War II, in the poor neighborhoods of the city center. It was the Corsican or Italian thugs who then ruled the roost. La Belle de Mai is one of the crucibles of Marseille’s organized crime. Today it is one of the poorest neighborhoods in Europe. And it already was. When Milou, the French Connection trafficker, was born there 80 years ago. But here it is, That was where I lived. This is where I lived when I was young. Hello Mrs. I look, This is where I was born. I was born in this apartment and that’s why I’m watching. Yes, I give you my word. We were on the ground floor. We all lived there in the same room. Then there was a small room that served as a bedroom. There were mattresses on the floor. There was no furniture, we didn’t have a bathroom, we didn’t have a bathroom. The bathroom was in the hallway. And it was really disgusting. We spent our lives on the streets. Orphaned, very young, Milou was raised by his mother’s Corsican family. His uncles are all thugs, specialized in racketeering. I was raised in this climate of violence, of banditry. I was saying, you’re going to act like a thug because that’s how it is, you were born a thug, You will live, thug, and you will die, thug. Milou committed his first thefts as a teenager. Saint-Charles station is only a few hundred meters away. And freight trains are a target for Belle de Mai’s gang of kids. Very young, We came to this street and there wasn’t this fence. We had access to the railway. There is a railway track 10 meters behind this wall. And so, We knew the train was going to pass and there might be something to steal. SO, we opened the doors and the strongest among us, The elders, opened the doors and sent the packages to whatever was there. Sometimes, there were good things, sometimes, there was nothing. Sometimes, There were bags of coal. It was always like that, because we had nothing. So, the little we had, it was easy, It was good to scratch. Among the young people from Belle de Mai who take part in these flights, a future godfather of drug trafficking in Marseille. Francis Vanverberghe, said Francis, the Belgian. Francis, the Belgian, Yes, He was there. It wasn’t the last to come. He was… It’s valiant. Valiant, He’s a good thug. So, what you might call a real thug. He had it in his blood. And then he had a leader side, too. Milou and Francis’s paths will then separate. The Belgian began his meteoric rise through pimping and armed robbery. He joins forces with another thug of the Belle de Mai, the robber Tony Cossu. Nicknamed Tony the Eel, for his extraordinary abilities to escape the police. After several weeks of negotiations, the octogenarian, who remains a respected figure in Marseille circles, agreed to share some of his youthful secrets with us. I was good friends with Francis’s cousin. One day he said to me, “Fuck, Tony, Francis, my cousin wants to come with you to go stealing and everything, to go robbing”. And there you have it, Good morning, I say to Francis, “Okay, come on, come on. I had done a lot of work there, a big robbery. If I have the balls, we’re going to go there. I brought it, we hit the jackpot and there, he was happy. He said, “I’m only going to do this in my life.” But in the 60s, The young, greedy thugs of Belle de Mai discover a new opportunity to fill their pockets. Drug trafficking, which is just beginning to develop in France. We are not talking about cannabis or cocaine, but heroin. A more profitable business than robberies, and above all, much less risky. If the drug is still little present in France, She is already making discounts in the United States. And heroin is the most sought-after substance by users. Marseille residents, such as Francis Lebelge, then began mass production of this morphine derivative, which Stone exported to America from the port of Marseille. Milou will also benefit from this new business. At that time, he enlisted as a sailor, Not for love of the open sea, but to transport contraband weapons and dirty money for the benefit of the underworld. The people I hung out with, the people I was with all day, I was going out, I went to restaurants with them, They were doing drugs. And me, I followed, I did like them. I said, them, they do drugs, Me, I do drugs. The heroine then leaves for the United States, hidden in cars, furniture or in the holds of trawlers. The port, This is the very basis of trafficking. Because it was a port that was less guarded than other ports. We have the complicity of the people who work in the port. Whether it’s the dockers, whether it is customs officers, We entered the port like a mill. And we came out of it like in a mill too. The success of the traffic also rests on an unstoppable commercial argument. The French Connection then produced the best heroine in the world. Enough to stir up rivalries between Mafiosi and soon trigger the first drug wars in Marseille. In the 60s and 70s, The French Connection traffickers become the world’s leading producers of heroin. The drug is manufactured in dozens of clandestine laboratories, hidden in anonymous villas in the Marseille region. The key to all this, the key to the French Connection, It’s the transformation. No one has ever transformed, never created a commodity. So pure. She did it 98%. The Americans were not mistaken. They always wanted to have that one. The rest, They weren’t interested. Milou became an essential link in the French Connection by supplying laboratories with morphine base, the ingredient, essential for making heroin. He gets his supplies from Türkiye, to their world’s leading producer of poppies, from which morphine is derived. Milou repatriates the merchandise by hiding it on cruise ships that connect Istanbul to Marseille. In a few years, the poor child of the Belle de Mai becomes one of the great fortunes of the French Connection. $150,000 profit on one trip. I must have made more than 40 of them. I was, let’s say, entered another world. I went from a guy who counts his pennies to someone who no longer counts his pennies, Who thinks that all it takes is reaching into a trunk and saying, “I’m going to buy a Porsche.” I believed. That I was the strongest in the world, the king of the world and that I was a prince. In the 60s and 70s, The traffickers are living in luxury. They invest the heroin money in bars and nightspots on the French Riviera. But there is a downside to this success. Because power struggles for traffic control are beginning to spill blood on the streets of Marseille. Milou witnessed one of the most important settling of scores of the time. During the summer of 1967, while he was having a drink in his bar. I hear cracking, no no no. I say that, my friends, Those are some serious shots. Because it cracks hard. The shots were fired about fifty meters away, in a gas station that has since been converted into a bakery. Upon arriving on site, Milou discovers a macabre scene that will mark a turning point in the history of Marseille banditry. I quickly understand that it is Antoine Eguerini’s car, Patriarch Eguerini. And so I see it, him, completely dead, he didn’t move. I see that, I panicked. He was a personality, It’s as if the mayor of Marseille had been killed. Antoine Guérini has just been shot dead by two gunmen on a motorcycle. Since the 1950s, he has been the undisputed godfather of the Phocaean city, ruling over prostitution and illegal gambling. He was also one of the main financiers of the French Connection. Antoine Guérini’s assassins will never be arrested. But the death of the godfather… Leave the field open to a new generation of Marseille thugs and a new leader, Tani Zampa. Tani Zampa, He was an imposing character. He had courage. He knew how to bring people together. He knew how to bring people together. And that’s why he had this godfather image. In addition to gambling and prostitution, Zampa then became one of the main heroin exporters from Marseille. And he looks askance at the ambitions of another rising trafficker, Francis, the Belgian. In 1972, Tani Zampa sets a trap for her competitor. Using common knowledge, the robber Tony Cossu. A day, Zamba, Tani, makes me say, “Tony, I know, damn, you are into drugs, I need 50 kilos. I say, my faith, They are good people. At the time, Tani, he had his rating, You see. But like me, I’m quite whole and a little… How could one say A little naive too, you see. I say to Francis, I say no, I’m not going to advance them 50 kilos. I say, You are the ones who make them. He said, then Francis, I’m giving them the range. And from one moment, the war, she left. Because Zampa is not going to give up the drugs. And on the contrary, He sends killers after Francis, the Belgian. I realized he was a twisted man, That’s all. With the money he was interested in. If he could take a little more for himself, You see. Which led him to have people refuse to give a share. So, the kind that was an archaeologist. Then begins a series of score-settling between the two rival gangs. Zampa had several of Bel’s close associates executed. And the bloody response of the Cahier de la Belle de Mai came on March 31, 1973. In this bar in Vieux-Pogne. 6:45 p.m., Three men park their white car a few meters from the Tanagra bar. They quietly take out their weapons, a submachine gun and two revolvers, and immediately open fire. The toll is heavy. Four dead, including the bar owner and two of Tanizampa’s main associates. The war was finally interrupted a few months later by the arrest of Francis, the Belgian, who will be convicted of heroin trafficking and pimping. To 15 years in prison. Zampa then becomes the undisputed godfather, but not for long, because a new competitor quickly comes to overshadow it. Jackie Imbert, nicknamed The Fool, the madman in Provençal, a close friend of Francis’s gang, the Belgian. The mast, he was a complete guy, square. With the mast, it was a bit of this osmosis, You see. When there is madness in the air, I’ve been there. When there is madness in the air, he was there. He created a friendship, me, and the mast, with the Francis, the Belgian. So. An osmosis that is created. This osmosis, It’s gone in Tannis. In 1977, Tani Zampa orders the execution of his new rival. Jackie Lematt is riddled with bullets in front of his home. But the unthinkable happens. Tani told Kamayi that he was the one killed. It’s that he thought he was dead and he wasn’t dead. Jackie Imbert miraculously survives his injuries and acquires a new nickname, the Immortal. Left disabled in his right hand, He then learns to shoot with his left to take revenge. From then on, he becomes a myth, including in the ranks of the police. Roland Gauze, the former head of the Marseille narcotics department, whom he has already questioned, remained marked by the character. He was gifted, he certainly had superior energy. He was a warrior, this gentleman. To suffer what he suffered, he took more than ten, about fifteen. What followed in terms of deaths that were counted in Marseille after this bloody episode. The boy was resourceful. Yes. Yes. He weighed. The war between Jacques Illematte and Tannis Zampa claimed dozens of victims in just a few years. Another problem for the sponsors of Marseille, The first deaths from overdoses in France have attracted everyone’s attention. And the fight against drugs has become a priority for the State. In 1970, The sentences for heroin trafficking increase from 5 years to 15 or 20 years in prison. The same year, The mayor of Marseille, Gaston Defer, calls for the death penalty for traffickers. I consider it criminal to compromise the future of an entire youth. If any of them were sentenced to death and executed, I think it would give others something to think about. Police, Justice and Customs then launched an all-out war against drug trafficking. In February 1972, The trawler Caprice des temps is seized by Customs, off the coast of Marseille, as he heads towards Florida. 425 kilos of heroin were found in its holds. It was the biggest catch ever made at the time. It marks the end of the golden age for the French Connection. From, the war on drugs has never stopped, with constantly increasing resources. Today, Marseille customs has state-of-the-art tools, like this surveillance plane. With three customs officers on board, He inspects maritime traffic around the port of Marseille on a daily basis. The device is equipped with a highly sophisticated camera that can film a ship from several dozen kilometers away. This camera will allow us to identify or recognize ships while maintaining safe distances, discretion distances as well. So, there we are at a little bit, we are a little less than 12 kilometers away. According to the providence of the ship, we’re going to look for some unusual things. It could be a gathering of people that would not be normal on this type of ship. And after, we check whether the route he declared on his system is consistent with the actual route. The plane transmits its information in real time to the Customs PC in downtown Marseille. We have an air mission in progress. The plane is here. Eric Salle heads the Customs Control Center, the best equipped in France. Because since the beginning of the war on drugs in the 70s, Marseille has always been considered by the State as a city of bars. Marseille has a heavy history surrounding drug trafficking. Everyone has heard of the French Connection. The older generations, who directly experienced these seizures in the 1970s, always spoke out before leaving for France. Retired, it has still evolved a lot, Traffic has changed a lot. In French Connection, We were talking about heroin trafficking which is now almost zero. Really, our concern today, It is rather cocaine and cannabis destined for Europe. To find the right targets, A team of specialized agents provides thousands of pieces of information on each boat sailing in the Mediterranean. Like this trawler, spotted on the High Seas in August 2021. It is not properly registered and, above all, it is located outside the fishing zones. A Marseille customs commando intercepts him. Customs officers are looking for a hiding place where narcotics may have been hidden. To do this, they use an endoscopic camera that they slide through the walls of the boat. They look like cows. It looks like cows, Yes. That’s good, that Great there! Here is the style. This is a record seizure for Marseille customs officers. It’s confirmed, hundreds of balloons. Hundreds of balloons, two as two. In all, The commando will take 134 balloons of cannabis from the trawler, weighing a total of 4 or 2 tonnes. Such a quantity sold at retail can bring in more than 20 million euros for traffickers. Since the days of the French Connection, the volume of traffic has exploded. And Marseille, first Port of France, is more than ever on the front line. The new drug kingpins are taking advantage of the exponential growth of maritime trade, which offers them multiple opportunities to evade controls. They use container ships, in particular, these giants of the oceans, which represent a nightmare for customs officers. That day, The Marseille Customs patrol boat must check this container ship coming from South America. We’re going to make a beautiful beast, 328 meters. There are quite a few floors, I think there are 7, We counted, I think. So, you will have to bring your little legs, because there will be plenty of going up and down. We will have beautiful buttocks. The control of this ship owes nothing to chance. The shipping company that owns it has been in the crosshairs of Customs for several years. It will be pretty amazing, we’re going to look for something stupid. There have already been seizures on this company. At one point, she had big problems with infiltrations, to the cartels. In 2019, on the port of Philadelphia, in the United States, in a liner of the same company, The largest cocaine seizure in history took place. 20 tons hidden in 7 containers. $1.5 billion on resale. Part of the crew was allegedly bribed by an Eastern European cartel. For the Marseille customs commando, We must act quickly. The container ship’s crew must not have time to throw any illicit cargo into the sea. First difficulty, The commando must board a boat whose hull protrudes almost 20 meters above the water’s surface. The customs officers’ priority is to check the crew for signs of possible involvement with drug cartels. Customs officers are looking for any trace of narcotics, but also large sums of cash or satellite phones. Nothing suspicious about the crew. And the liner has already unloaded most of its containers during previous stopovers. The excavation therefore focuses on the countless possible caches inside such a mastodon. After several hours of wandering through the holds and the deck, customs officers only find a small suspicious package, hidden under a railing. But this is a false alarm. At nightfall, after 4 hours of inspection, The customs officers’ work is not yet finished. They must now check the hull of the container ship, where packages of narcotics may have been hung. In the last card, It’s diving. This is a fraud that is a little different from the one we have just been looking for here. This is a fraud that is done without the crew’s knowledge. In the ship, in general, It’s not the crew. We see part of the crew. There, we will try to immerse it. There, It is possible that the crew is not very large. Sarlouk was reportedly approached under the ship. There, This is yet another part of the research. SO, not finished. It’s not over. We will follow the next episode. The diving team joins the container ship which has had time to dock at the port. After their marathon day, This is a final challenge awaiting customs officers. We are very small next to it. We’re going to be that next door. After, I do the math, it is 328 meters long and 49 meters wide. We will calculate the surface area. We cover a few hectares. There are special hiding areas. European customs are linked together. And when there are large seizures, even with the Americans, We are told where there are seizures. We are pooling resources and therefore we will be going into slightly more specific technical areas, Where are the 80-90%? of these things. But for the customs officers of Marseille, The dive will turn out to be even more complicated than expected. For Marseille customs officers, who are looking for drug packages attached to the ship’s hull, The dive starts badly. The comings and goings of container ships have made the water completely murky. Divers only have visibility of a few dozen centimeters to inspect hundreds of meters of hull. To save time, They deploy a rope between them that runs along the steel. If she encounters an unforeseen obstacle, It could be a package of narcotics attached to the hull. These conduits, which allow the cooling of the engines, are usual caches. And you should check that their protective grilles have not been recently dismantled. After 1h30 in ice water, no conclusive findings. I am cold, I cheat, but I’m glad I tried to perceive something. We didn’t find, it will be the next one. It’s cold, but we will have them. Drug seizures at the port of Marseille have never been so significant. In 2022, One ton 7 of cocaine was intercepted. The main coup by the customs officers took place in the middle of summer. In this container from the Antilles, hidden in a sofa and in furniture, 528 kilos of pure cocaine, For a resale value of nearly 50 million euros. But behind these spectacular operations, a worrying reality. Only 10% of drugs produced worldwide would be seized by customs and police. The development of the Arsenal, repressive for 50 years, has not, however, been without results. Starting with the dismantling of the largest criminal organization in the history of Marseille, the French Connection. Antoine Ciblot was 25 years old when he became a drug inspector in Marseille in 1972. He was transferred from the Paris PJ to join a new brigade specially responsible for dismantling heroin trafficking networks. When I arrive in Marseille, I have the mindset of a boy who is going to fight against drug trafficking. I arrive fully pumped. Like all the boys of the time, who were between 25 and 30 years old, who mostly came from the BRI Paris. French police officers are receiving significant assistance. Because on the other side of the Atlantic, Americans are also fighting against the French Connection, which floods their country with heroin. Several teams from the New York Narcotics Bureau are sent to Marseille as reinforcements. Antoine Ciblot then found himself at the heart of one of the most successful operations in the history of the French police. Gave us the means to work effectively in the field. We had equipment. When we asked for a listening, we got it, there was no problem. So there was physical surveillance and technical surveillance. And the support of the Americans, moreover. So, those were the good old days. And we worked constantly, night and day. There was total availability. The justice system is also fully mobilized. And a Marseille magistrate then embodies this merciless fight against the French Connection. The investigating judge, Pierre Michel. He was someone who was on a crusade. He was the vigilante. Michel, He was the vigilante. He was locked up very easily. But he was very quick to get results. In 7 years, Judge Michel and the narcotics squad dismantle the French Connection teams one by one. They arrest and convict 70 traffickers and, above all, They go back to the heart of the networks, heroin processing laboratories. In February 1978, Judge Michel and the Marseille police officers are taking over this hill 40 km from Marseille. Antoine Ciblot and his colleagues managed to locate one of the last French Connection laboratories in this district. I was quite happy to be involved in such an operation because it represented the culmination of two years of work. You had to be stubborn and determined. Judge Michel is present. He is withdrawn, he does not intervene. He is there because it made him happy and he wanted to see. But 45 years later, in a neighborhood that has changed a lot, the bloodhound has trouble finding his way around. Tell me, We are looking for a villa called Villa la Galléjeanne. Doesn’t that mean anything to you? I don’t know. I had heard about it in the 78s, I was still young. Yes, I was 10 years old. There was the French Connection, which demonstrated. Oh yes, it’s the house of the bend, over there. Only this neighbor remembers that day perfectly. And then there, She was good. It has been enlarged. Me, I was a kid, I was 9-10 years old, something like that. And do you remember that day? Yes, it had created, as we say familiarly, a monstrous mess, Because there were all the police cars there. We wondered what was going on. Really, everyone was surprised. You would never have suspected that there was a laboratory here. Thank you. At the corner of the fishmongers, the fishmongers, It’s here. It was in this villa that the laboratory was hidden. The places have changed, the house has been redone. The original lab looked absolutely nothing like this. At the time, the lab, That was it. A group climbed the gate, broke down the front door of the house. And we entered the premises and arrested everyone who was there. When the police arrive at the entrance, Three chemists are about to begin a heroin manufacturing cycle in their home-made laboratory. Antoine Ciblo and his colleagues seized 35 kg of morphine base and immortalized their victory by posing proudly in front of the villa. It took two years of work, spinning, of telephone listening and extremely important field work. Everyone was beaming, it was a big success, a great success. With its repeated successes, Judge Michel makes many enemies in the community. As long as he uses methods that disturb, not hesitating to incarcerate the wives of criminals, to put pressure on their husbands. He has been the subject of criticism. He was hated by the Marseille community, not to say hated. For us, the traffickers, He was considered a dangerous guy because he put women in prison, Something other judges have never done. He was a guy who had the idea of raking in the money. Milou also suffers from the unwavering determination of Judge Michel, which led to his arrest and imprisonment in 1979. When he questioned me, at the end of the question, he always told me “Now you tell me what you want.” You don’t have to tell me the truth. You know why you don’t have to Because you’re going to get 15 years. The court, lawyers, the file, It’s no use, Sir. You’re going to get 15 years. And it is not mistaken. I took 15 years. Judge Michel has a much bigger target than Milou. The one who is then considered the godfather of Marseille, Tannisampa. In 1981, during the dismantling of a laboratory in Saint-Maximin in the Var, Judge Michel obtains an unexpected clue, found on one of the arrested chemists. One of them, when he was arrested, had a phone number on him which was Zampa’s phone. And there, When this phone number was found, Pierre Michel decided to implicate Zampa in the Saint-Maximin lab affair. He had every intention of attacking Zampa using this phone number. But Judge Pierre Michel will not have time to go back to Zampa. On October 21, 1981, around noon, He takes this boulevard on his motorbike to go home for lunch. When he turns into this side road, he doesn’t notice that another motorcycle is on his tail. When Judge Michel reached this level, in order to get to his home, he was slowed down and had to put his foot down. It was at this point that the individuals who were following him on a motorcycle shot him point blank. The investigating judge was hit by three 11.43 bullets, including 2 in the head and one in the thorax. One thing is certain, It’s a perfectly executed professional move. It was a terrible shock to see a magistrate shot dead in the heart of Marseille at that time of day. It was something that was ultimately inconceivable. But it happened. The two killers fled without being disturbed. As soon as he hears the news, Antoine Ciblot goes to the scene. I knew Judge Pierre Michel personally, and it is true that it touched me deeply to see this man whom I particularly appreciated for his determination and his commitment, victim of the people he had been fighting against for several years. It’s true that it’s always difficult to talk about those moments. Judge Michel’s assassins and their sponsors were arrested four years later. Thugs associated with the French Connection, but whose link with Tannisampa will never be proven. Which will not save the godfather of Marseille. Because the authorities will finally bring him down using the same technique as the Americans with Al Capone. In 1983, Tani Zampa is arrested for tax fraud and sentenced to 5 years in prison. Imprisoned in the Baumettes remand center, he won’t come out alive. He had an illness, this guy, psychological. He was claustrophobic. He couldn’t stand prison. He was going crazy in prison. Especially since, behind bars, Tannisampa is awaited by mortal enemies, from Francis the Belgian’s rival gang, like Antoine Cossu. I went to see him in his cell, because I had one morning, If in the evening he opened the cell for me to go and play card games. With my friends, I went up to see him, I said you’re going to die here, I didn’t decline, I went through the door. He leaned against the wall there, It’s weird. On July 23, 1984, Tanizampa hanged himself in his cell and died in hospital after three weeks in a coma. It was the giant at the foot of Clay, there. He sank. He sank. He had a bad end. He had an end… Pitiful. Pitiful. After a long stay in prison, Francis, the Belgian, now has no rival. He was tried for the last time in Marseille in 1996 for heroin trafficking and boasting in front of the press. There is zero, triple, zero. So. There is a case that is magnetized from scratch. So. Due to lack of sufficient evidence, Francis. The Belgian is acquitted. And he left to settle in Paris. He lives in the wealthy neighborhoods and continues to make money from illegal gambling. He then goes to this brasserie in the 8th arrondissement every day. A habit that will be his downfall. He frequented his bar every day. Like once, I did it like this, I told him “Everyone knows you go to the bar over there, there. ” “I don’t have that opinion about making games, but we still have enemies somewhere, or madmen, I paid attention. But no, we fear more yesterday, we only have friends today, everyone is with us, the Corsicans, all that. Yes, there’s always a nutcase, I said. And the crazy one, That’s what happened.” On September 27, 2000, The police are taking over the area. Francis, the Belgian, has just been shot dead in his bar by a team of killers on motorcycles. They will never be identified. Habits, This is what kills a lot of people in the industry. You don’t have to be used to it. It’s a shame. A smart boy, who had balls and everything. He’s a good Jose, This is the man. The last survivor among the godfathers of Marseille will be Jacques-Yves le Mat, deserving to the end his nickname of immortal. After a life of novels, whom he will have seen rubbing shoulders with the cream of the Chaubise and become a close friend of Alain Delon, The mast spent a few short stints behind bars in the 2000s. But he will never be heavily condemned, for lack of overwhelming evidence. Upon his release from Luyne prison in 2005, He is expected by the press as a star and shows all his talents as an actor. I’m finally believing that there is a victim after all. There was nothing in the file. What are you wearing today? I have nothing more to say. You know, I am 76 years old and I would especially like to be left alone for a while. However, if I do something… Of evil Like my boyfriend, but I do nothing, Mrs. It’s been a long time since I’ve done anything. The Immortal would never actually stop his illegal business. And only old age finally caught up with him. The last godfather died in his bed in 2019. He survived the ball, settling of scores, of the cops, He survived everything. The master, It’s good, He died at the age of 90. Tony Cossu, him, Despite spending more than 30 years behind bars, is still not decided to settle down. His last arrest was just a few years ago, after an attempted robbery of an armored van in Austria. Milou decided to retire from the industry ten years ago, after dealing heroin and experimenting with cannabis and cocaine. In his childhood neighborhood of Belle-de-Mais, He regularly rubs shoulders with his young successors in the traffic. You’re the one to ask, because the future belongs to you. In this group, Most of them are dealers or lookouts in the surrounding cities. They fell with the goods. For them, repression has never been so strong, just like the risk of perishing in a settling of scores. In 2022 alone, There were six people shot dead in the streets of La Belle de Mai. You’re teaching me something. Really, you see, it touches me, That. It does something to me. We see that the time, it’s not the same anymore. Because we, the guy was making mistakes. It doesn’t exist in your country anymore. He was blacklisted. You know what it is, Tricard He was forbidden, Marseille. Ah, valve, She killed him. Oh, my! We were going to see him, we were going to see the other, his parents, They came to cry. Oh, my, it was… NOW, there is no arrangement, What. And yeah, That, it’s really sad, That, guys. Me, I tell you, You are young, you are beautiful, you are alive, you are… Try to get along with each other. Don’t hang out with scoundrels who will shoot a Kalashnikov at you like nothing. Come on In 50 years of traffic, Milou saw the bigwigs of the cities take over from the elders of the milieu. We followed these new traffickers who gave us a glimpse behind the scenes of their criminal activity. While Marseille is more than ever in mourning over the settling of scores linked to drug trafficking, We have traced the networks of the merchants of death. Try to understand how the police and justice system are trying to dismantle the networks that are plaguing the city. It is, I think, in light of the elements of this file, someone who plays. An important role in traffic. Milou ended his career in crime, ruined, but alive. How many in the new generation will be able to say the same? That day, It is a fed-up feeling that is expressed against the repeated murders that are bloodying Marseille. Yeah. Pass them on, the arms. In 2021, Nora lost her son Ryan, from a stray bullet during a settling of scores between drug dealers. He was 14 years old. Hold, little. This is the coffin of all the victims of the murder of our children. And I hope that will change things. It’s good there. 30 coffins, 30 families, 30 dead. Some of these kids had nothing to do with drugs. They were just there in the wrong place, at the wrong time. We are victims. Our children are victims of murder, not of settling scores. So. I hope this… It’s symbolic, In fact. That it will affect public opinion and justice. May she be returned to us. To date, Most of these murders remain unsolved. Pull, assassinated on August 23, 2018. Saudi Yassine, assassinated on January 6, 2019. Rabiade, 14 years old, assassinated on August 18, 2021. In less than 20 years, The drug war has left nearly 300 dead in Marseille. This violence, which is eating away at part of the Phocaean city, is not new. It all started with the French Connection in the 70s. When the police arrive on the scene, The show is trying. There are four dead, two injured. While the old godfathers kill each other, in the 90s, another generation of criminals takes advantage of this to take over. Among them, Farid, Berama. In his stuporous years, he has no mercy. He takes people, He puts them in a car trunk and burns everything. With Berama, no more street drug sales. The traffickers set up their dealing points in the cities of the northern districts. Today, Traffic is said to generate 130 million euros per year in Marseille. To have their share, Some small dealers are going independent and selling their drugs on social media. They even deliver in broad daylight and in city centers. To counter this explosion in traffic, Justice reacts by judging quickly, thanks to immediate appearances. In these companies, where you are, you were carrying 205 grams of cannabis resin and 18 grams of cocaine. Drugs and the wars that result from them play into the hands of other merchants of death. Part of the city lives to the rhythm of this never-ending traffic. This is not a show, Marseille. Marseille, It’s a daily life for people. These are the ones who are treated. They are the ones who pay. We were able to enter this world where life hangs by a thread. And follow the public authorities who are doing everything they can to combat this scourge. The northern districts of Marseille, an alternation between residential areas and large complexes. Built in the 1960s to house the pieds noirs returning from Algeria and North African immigrants. Around twenty districts concentrate a third of the city’s population. Landlocked and poorly served by public transport, They constitute a city within a city. Mohamed Benmedour is an educator. He carries out actions with young people and children in his neighborhoods. It’s very complicated, There are a lot of young people killing each other. Sometimes, It’s for drug trafficking, Afterwards, it’s the story of revenge. And there are so many deaths that it leads to even more deaths. And it’s really a mess. In the 80s, I know there was a year when the death toll reached 86. When there was the famous war between the Belgian and Zampa. So it was warmer, but the victims, they were not the same. They already had a certain pedigree in the industry. In short, These are young people who recognized it. Coming from these neighborhoods, which we can see, which are completely abandoned and in a pitiful state. It’s really sad to see all this. He takes us to the City of Corot Park, in the northern districts. It is one of the few that does not have a dealing point. On the other hand, It has another peculiarity. This is often where the Caïds come to burn the cars used in their settling of scores. A few months ago, There was a barbecue and they burned the car here. They thus erase all traces of DNA and sometimes leave a message for their adversaries by abandoning a body inside. There you still have the traces on the ground of the car that was burnt out. Gradually, in 30 years, everything has deteriorated. As an educator, Mohamed has seen several generations of young people pass through his buildings. He tried to get them out of the vicious spiral of violence. And in these kids? Most of them, they are dead. I knew them when they were little. And now, they are no longer alive. It’s funny when you see these nicknames, these little blazes. It feels funny to me. It brings back some memories. On the roof of the tallest tower in the neighborhood, the Phocaean city shows all its contrasts. So, Marseille. A big one and a real one. This is Our Lady of the Guard, our good mother who overlooks our city, protects us more or less. It is the entire coastline that goes from Joliette to Estac. There, it’s the buildings, black neighborhoods. All this piled up concrete in the north of the city, This is the largest part of the districts in Marseille. Everything happens here. In the 70s, These cities were rather quiet. Barely 20 years later, everything changed. In the mid-90s, The first organized networks emerged in the northern neighborhoods. They began selling at a specific location. They were organized behind the scenes. So, with a lookout, with a seller, a tout, Thus, Thus. And it was easier for the customers, since everyone knew where to get supplies. At that time, Roland Gauze is an inspector in the judicial police. He passed through Lyon and Marseille. In his work against drugs, he sees the emergence of a character who will change everything in the Phocaean city. Farid Berama. Coming from the northern districts, it is also close to the middle. Bérama worked with traditional thugs, and in particular those of Corsican-Marseille banditry. He worked with them, he did business. For a decade, Business is good between Farid Bérama and the Marseille underworld. Everything changed in the early 2000s, when the boss decides to free himself from the old thugs. To build his own team with the guys from the northern districts. Nelson is a former network manager. He experienced the end of this era when crime fractured in Marseille. Like the members of the French Connection before him, Farid Berama works with those he trusts the most, that is to say his friends from the city. It is true that he surrounded himself with young people from the northern districts who were determined, devoted, loyal, who were not afraid of anything. Very quickly, between 2000 and 2006, War breaks out between the traditional community and the Berama clan. The settling of scores is increasing and the violence is escalating. The Kingpin wants to impress his opponents. In those stupefied years, he has no mercy. He takes people, he puts them in a car trunk and he starts a now infamous fashion, which is the barbecue fashion. That is, he puts a person in a car, alive or already dead, having been shot in the head. And he burns it all. SO, we call him the roaster. The conflict left more than twenty dead. On March 23, 2006, It’s the murder of Trou. Berama’s lieutenants shoot a restaurateur who refuses to install their slot machine. Only problem, his family is protected by the Corsican mafia. At the wheel of his 4×4, Roch Colombani receives 60 bullets. From Kalashnikov. He backed down from no one. He backed down from no one. And that’s why he started to be a bit of a nuisance. The order was probably given to kill him. The response is not long in coming. Barely 12 days later, Farid Berama is watching a football match in this bar when a team of killers arrives. There is what is called the chestnut tree massacre. We have about ten guys arriving in two or three cars, who come back, We could have had ten deaths. Absolutely. But it was more selective. They shot Farid Beraba and the two, three colleagues he had around him, And we have three deaths. There, We understand that there is a break between the traditional environment and the neighborhoods? After Farid’s death, Berama, drug trafficking is fragmenting. Dozens of small-time thugs are taking up the torch. Like him, It multiplies the Deal points in the northern districts. Today… There are around 130 of them in Marseille. In the third arrondissement, the Félix-Piat district. 3,000 inhabitants, more than half of whom live below the poverty line. Antoine is 21 years old, he grew up in the city. He wants to show us that the neighborhood is not lacking in entertainment. It’s Saturday, weekend. There, It’s moving a little. Here, there are children having fun there, aside, for animations. Him, this is my guy, him. Him, This is my salt guy. It’s his life, this side, It’s his life. It’s family, the side where there is more money than anything else. After, We, we are rather on the other side, you see. It’s what, We, we are rather towards there. This is where things really happen. This is why Antoine wanted to remain anonymous. He is the manager of a Deal point located in the neighborhood. After months of negotiations with the head of the network, He was allowed to show us how this traffic works. Its role is to ensure the proper functioning of the dealing point. He guides customers to the stairs that dead end on the fourth floor. Can’t go to the fifth floor, It is reserved for sellers. The grid serves as a wicket and protection. And precisely, the inhabitants, How do they get up to their house? Impossible to verify with the locals. We take the elevator to the seller’s side on the fifth floor. In this big bag, a few thousand euros, or the turnover of this early afternoon. In the other, his drug stock. So that the seller never leaves his post, A young person from the network is paid to bring him food. Here, no break. The young man is exploited from 10 a.m. until the business closes around midnight. ” Good, Lack of work or attraction to easy money. Here, He is paid around 200 euros per day. A meager reward compared to the risk. He keeps the money and the drugs. He therefore gathered all the evidence of drug trafficking. In case of arrest, He faces up to 5 years in prison and a fine of 75,000 euros. To avoid arrests, lookouts are posted at each entrance to the city. They face the same penalty as the seller and are paid 100 euros per day. But despite all these devices, police raids are daily, like in these videos shot by a lookout in another neighborhood. A seller rarely lasts more than two or three weeks before being arrested. Lookouts at every entrance, bulky items to hinder the police, occupied stairwells. The impact of this network on daily life is a sensitive issue. The subject is taboo. But a young man from the neighborhood agreed to talk to us about life in Félix Piat. For all residents… It oscillates between drug trafficking and the classic daily life of a neighborhood. I’ll show you our neighborhood vegetable garden. We are the only neighborhood in all of Marseille to have a vegetable garden. You can search, it doesn’t exist. They can come, sow their seeds if they want, or continue the work of the people who are already there. There, you have a pumpkin. I’ll show it to you, I don’t know if you see. You see her But it’s true that there are two things that have nothing to do with each other. Here, there is a very nice vegetable garden, all clean. You just go up one floor, there, This is the line of djellers. There, that, djelle, It has nothing to do with it. There, It sells real green. Here, It makes green grow. It’s not the same green. What were you thinking? Here it is green food, there, it’s green… So. At 22 years old, Ashbad raps about resourcefulness and dreams of big money that obsess some of the youth in the suburbs. I’m talking to you because I’m alive. I’m alive without making love anymore. I’m not on that anymore. In the neighborhood, everyone gets by as best they can. I’m not going to tell you there’s no work. There is work to be done. There is work to be done. There are jobs. If you really move, you find. The problem, It’s because we all grew up here. We all grew up in this neighborhood. And when you get into this vice, you come home little one. You don’t come home when you’re big. You see You come home little one, It means that when you are little, you don’t have the mentality to go and put down a CV. Or go do this or go do that. There are some, they have it. It’s good for them, It’s good. But most people, they don’t have it. This means that the simplest way, What will it be? You know there’s money in your neighborhood, you know there are positions, You don’t need a resume for that. You come, you put yourself, you do your part-time, you take your money, Most people just fall into this vice like that. Unemployed youth and a lot of cheap labor for these organized networks. Little hands that often end up here, at the courthouse. With the 130 Deal points, which are plaguing the Phocaean city and the daily police raids, The courts are not idle. In Marseille, of the 2,300 immediate annual appearances, almost a third concerns drug trafficking, the most common offense. Vincent Clergerie is vice-president of the court. In the early morning, he consults the 10 cases of the day, a considerable amount of information to integrate. I reread everything. The file, so roughly in the morning, depending on the number of files I have, But we are looking at between 1200 and 2000 pages read in the morning. Today, we are essentially on the narcotics chart, which is common since in Marseille, there is a fairly strong public policy, particularly at the level of police force interventions, for some time now, We talk about terms, about bludgeoning, to come and harass the points of sale because there are many points of sale. So justice is reactive. After police custody, the defendants appear before the immediate appearance judge. An expedited legal procedure when the prosecutor believes he has enough evidence. This young man was arrested in a stairwell known as a drug dealing spot. The president of the court seeks to know what role he played. He suspects him of being a salesman like the one we filmed. The police officers state that they saw you on the first floor and that they saw you holding a transparent plastic bag containing brownish material. They explain that they will follow you up the floors to the 15th floor and that at that level, They saw you throwing away the plastic bags you had in your hands and you ended up being arrested on the 16th and last floor, Sir. And you were carrying the sum of 1,600 euros on you. 205 grams of cannabis resin and 18 grams of cocaine. I would like to point out that following this, a number of investigations will be carried out. First, an exploitation of the two phones, since you had two phones on you. And we find in the notes a bank statement that could be linked to the drug network. And we see a conversation on signal for a job to deliver narcotics. His phone reveals some more evidence. Regarding the account sheets, Sir, that we find on your cell phone, what is this Why are you copying and pasting drug-related account sheets? Sir You’re going to have to explain to me why someone involved in drug trafficking is sending you notes. That’s why Because you are the manager and we have to justify it to you Because you see Not necessarily, Sir. But me, what I am asking you as a question, that’s why someone would go, While he takes the trouble to keep an account of a drug sales point, would go and justify it to you If he sends them to you by message, This means that you are the manager and he reports to you, Sir. I’ll give it a go. All right. Out of simple intellectual curiosity. To justify the 1600 euros in cash found on him, The young man puts forward an argument that the judge hears very often. So the money, where does he come from And how do you find the starting bets to win at the casino, Sir You are a lucky one, In fact. The percentage of people who manage to make a profit in games like Paris Match over a period of one year, You know what it is How much, Sir 0.5%. That is, for people who play regularly, the only ones who manage to make a profit, And you, You are extremely lucky, since you won 5,000 euros in the space of two or three weeks. You can sit down, Sir. We will listen to your submissions, Mr. Prosecutor. Mr. President, Ladies of the court, It is, I think, in light of the elements of this file, Someone who plays an important role in trafficking. So, certainly, he is not a manager, but in any case, The manager trusts him, since he sells, he keeps the accounts, and in any case, He has access to trafficking money. So that still positions him in the traffic, in a role that is not a minor role, if attempted to play a minor role in drug trafficking. So I will request, since it is accessible to the reprieve, A sentence of 12 months imprisonment for a misdemeanor offence, suspended for 2 years, and a ban on appearing in the 13th arrondissement. And finally, I will request the confiscation of the seals. Thank you Mr. The prosecutor. Mr. Kofano, You have the floor. Thank you, Mr. The President, ladies of the criminal courts. I am still very worried, because justice can move at a very rapid speed, compared on a 48-hour police custody media. You find yourself in court, you are here, then suddenly, we tell you, Sir, your prison number, it’s such and such number. That’s the worry I have. I will always repeat it at this bar, Mr. The President, that the solution, when we compare this young man with a virgin crate-tière, Maybe it’s the accompaniment. It is often the accompaniment, which can perhaps also. Help these young people, including the president of OMLA, who appears before you today. The president and his assessors withdraw to deliberate. In a few minutes, The decision is made. The court, before pronouncing its decision, would like to ask you a question. Would you agree to do community service? that is, work for society without being paid? Yes. Under these conditions, Sir, the court finds you guilty of the facts with which you are charged. In repression, he sentences you to 12 months in prison, fully accompanied by a probationary suspension for 24 months. He has no criminal record. The court decided to give him a chance. The ball is in your court, it’s up to you to do what you want with it, Sir. You may have 10 days to appeal this decision. That day, Fewer than ten convictions have been handed down. Surprisingly, Some of these young people did not grow up in the northern neighborhoods. They also come from other regions, such as Île-de-France. They were arrested by the police. Near Point-de-Dille, within the framework of the criminal policy defended by Dominique Lorenz, the Marseille prosecutor. As we work on the lower traffic, the lookouts, those who resell, etc., It is also becoming increasingly complicated for them to recruit. It’s getting harder to access certain points. It’s becoming more complicated to generate the same revenue as we used to. If you want, gradually… We can see that what was easy, that is to say, we recruit easily in the districts of Marseille, It’s over. We need to bring in people from outside. What we actually want, is that young people who come from outside realize that here, in Marseille, There is a criminal policy which consists of bringing them before the courts, go before the court. Is sentenced to bans from appearing in Marseille and bans from appearing, in addition to the penalty. You will tell me, It’s not much. But for us, every time, we try to mark the ground. A policy that seems to be showing its first effects. In two years, The number of points in Deal has dropped from 156 to 127, according to the police headquarters. A 20% drop. But then again, Traffickers are adapting to the situation. In an attempt to escape police raids, dealers have chosen to work alone, far from organized networks. He calls himself Baba. He is 22 years old and has started his own business. Under this trapdoor, his precious treasure They pay rent to hide their merchandise there. This is called a nanny apartment. Pocket money, completely illegal. Cannabis herb is one of the most consumed products in France. In 2021, The police seized nearly 40 tons of it. To sell his merchandise, Baba doesn’t need a stairway cache or a salesman, but just from his phone and social media. If he gets caught with his stock, Baba faces 5 years in prison. So when he leaves delivered, he only takes the bare minimum. This reduces his criminal risk to a fine of 150 euros. For Baba, no question of getting arrested, he has other plans for the future. If he doesn’t go to prison, He would then have to abandon his studies. For now, He waits for his customers in the parking lots of fast food restaurants. Baba goes from one parking lot to another. To avoid being robbed, he rarely accepts new clients. He knows them all. There is one point on which the young man is very careful. Always stay on neutral territory, that is, it does not belong to any organized network. 50 euros in one hour, Baba assures him that it is enough for him, that he doesn’t need more to live. Only, The young man will end up giving in to the sirens of temptation and it will cost him dearly. In Marseille, Deal’s points are nicknamed coals. They all work the same way. There are the lookouts, the sellers. And above all, the manager, the network’s trusted man. His name is Zach, he is 21 years old. Every week, Kilos of drugs pass through his hands. At the beginning of this afternoon, These teams have already sold out the day’s stock of drugs. Deal Point is at a standstill. With 130 networks in the city, the competition is fierce. Zach has to hurry. If Zach is manager, It’s because the big boss of the network trusts him. To preserve it, he has to make sure everything is working. Maybe it’s a bit of a business. The managers are also responsible for collecting money. Amounts that can reach several thousand euros. They are coveted and are the main target of armed attacks between gangs in the northern districts. So Zach never goes out without his gun. And why do you have that? A weapon to defend its territory, but also to attack those of others. For a long time, in Marseille, Shootings are making headlines. But over the years, shooters and targets have evolved a lot. It was a real settling of scores. They were leaving in the middle. And not among local kids. Before, when you got shot, It’s that you had done something serious and that you already had a long journey behind you. NOW, People kill each other for a yes or a no. It has become commonplace, This is what is serious in Marseille. On November 19, 2010, the City of Clos de la Rose sadly enters history. A young 15-year-old lookout, Jean-Michel, is shot in cold blood. This is the first time that the drug war has claimed the life of a teenager. All the young people of the City are marked forever. Jean-Michel was not targeted in persona, but we didn’t want Jean-Michel. But we killed the lookout for the plan. And behind, a burst of fire on number 41. A Rafale which, there, does not target anyone in particular. She aims at the building. But there, we have a kid who comes home with pizzas, who is with his sister. This kid is 11 years old, little Leny, who leaves him for dead at first, but fortunately, He’ll be okay. We are sending a strong signal. By saying, NOW, this plan, he will be ours. It was a bit of a shock wave in the city, because he was the first kid who actually died in these shooting stories. It’s true that it was shocking, then actually… It has exploded again since then and has become worse than in 2010. It’s 12 years after the events, It got worse. It has no words, That. It has no words. It has no words. And that’s why I’m fighting a little to help these young people because I’m afraid they’ll end up lying on the sidewalk. Because today, weapons speak almost every day. The various wars that have plagued Europe for years, like that of the Balkans, and now, Ukraine also brings its share of deaths to Marseille. In 2022, Customs and police have increased their seizure of weapons by 80%. A record. Assault rifles and other handguns are crossing borders. It ends up in the hands of resellers. This man is a merchant of death. The clients of this arms trafficking range from small dealers to members of organized crime. THE Cheap antique weapons are particularly popular with younger people. These small caliber weapons often come from burglaries in French gun shops or private homes. But heavy weapons, they, arrived in the 90s, after the conflict in the former Yugoslavia. Trafficking networks between Kosovo, Serbia and the French suburbs are regularly dismantled by the police. And the fact that these weapons are used to kill, What is your position on this? For arms trafficking, He faces 7 years in prison and a fine of 100,000 euros. Up to 10 years, if one of his weapons is involved in a homicide. Site thugs have become the new godfathers of the city, who shoot Kalashnikovs in the street. Constantly increasing score settling. Despite the 2,300 traffickers arrested in 2022. And for good reason, Prisons are not completely watertight. Some network leaders manage to run their businesses from their cells. To communicate with the outside world, They call on little hands. Nicolas is 18 years old. The day, He’s a high school student like any other. But after class, the young man’s face changes. He becomes a Frog, his nickname in the industry. Phones like these, Frog can bring in up to ten of them per week. In addition to phones, Frog brings in cannabis resin, a highly sought-after commodity behind bars. The young high school student leaves his signature so that the package is delivered to the right person. In his bag, He was carrying 100 grams of cannabis and five cell phones. They were brought to him by relatives of the prisoners. He is only responsible for throwing them over the walls of the Beaumettes prison. If he gets caught, he risks joining his clients, up to one year in prison and a fine of 15,000 euros. The area surrounding the Beaumettes remand center is under particular surveillance. It’s impossible to follow Grenouille without being spotted by the guards. But the throw looks like these pictures, filmed a few years ago around another prison. A week later, we find frog on Prado beach, in the chic districts of Marseille. For each of these outputs, Frog earns between 200 and 300 euros. What will these phones be used for? The high school student prefers to cash in his money and turn a blind eye. Frog sees his activity as banal, almost carefree. He has never had any dealings with the police before. Nor to the violence inherent in this environment. This is not the case with Baba, the student who delivers drugs with his car in the parking lots of Marseille. When we find him, he is not calm. He had 3 kilos of cannabis bought on credit stolen. He had to sell them for double. But instead, he finds himself in debt to the tune of several thousand euros. The student lives in fear. If he delays in repaying, he risks a fine, as they say in the industry. So, inevitably, It’s climbing. Eventually, Baba was able to get help from his cousins to repay his debt. He was lucky. In drug trafficking, 10,000 euros can cost your life. For decades in Marseille, This violence strikes everyone who comes into contact with the drug world. Already in 1981, Judge Pierre Michel was assassinated for trying to put an end to the activities of the French Connection. Today, It is in a courtroom that bears his name that justice is attempting a new approach. Prosecutor Damien Martinelli summoned around thirty consumers. Ladies, Gentlemen, Good morning. You are here because you are consumers. You are a consumer of resin, cannabis, cocaine for some of you. So you have been arrested, control, near cities that sell narcotics and where tragedies occur very regularly. The objective, It is about trying to contribute to a form of awareness. Deaths, directly linked to drug trafficking, I’m talking about homicides, since 2009, in Marseille, That’s 252 deaths and 185 injured. So, behind these numbers, there are individual realities. July 9, 2021, among the tragic examples, we are in Septem-les-Vallons, She is a 17-year-old girl who has nothing to do with drug trafficking. She just got her baccalaureate, It’s the beginning of summer, and she is mowed down by a burst of Kalashnikov fire. On August 18, 2021, we are in the City of Chestnuts. A 14-year-old boy was killed at the foot of his building. Violence, It is also the one that is exercised on the small hands of the networks. There was a young man who came to work, in quotation marks, in Marseille on a drug trafficking plan. Among the abuses he suffered, there were some in particular… Blowtorch burns on his testicles. This is the reality of how the drug plans operate, from which consumers come to stock up. All this, it’s for you, for your money, for what you collectively represent in terms of turnover, for all drug trafficking networks. You are the targets of these networks. You have a share of responsibility because in the end… It is your money that is at the heart of these conflicts. Today, This is a clear warning that is given, and that if, again, you continue to be a buyer, consumer, you do it with full knowledge of the facts, in what is happening around drug trafficking. The defendants still have to pay a fine. Those caught driving under the influence of drugs will also have their driving licence suspended. In Marseille, Initiatives are multiplying to find answers to this drug tragedy that is engulfing an entire generation. On one hand, young people who fall into addictions. On the other hand, the most vulnerable populations who have to live with trafficking networks. This is what prosecutor Dominique Lorenz explains to us. As long as we are not there, immersed, It’s impossible for someone from outside to understand what’s going on here. This is not a Marseille show. Marseille, It’s a daily life for people. This is what you need to see. They are the ones who pay, They are the ones who pay for it. They are the ones who don’t see social workers because they no longer want to go back to the housing projects. They are the ones who no longer have mail at the post office because, brutally, the post office, They decided to stop delivering mail to their father because everyone is scared. It is the firefighters who are forced to fight every day to be sure of having access in the event of a fire, etc. When you see the state of the stairwells and everything, that’s it, What. It is something that hurts, somewhere, the conception we have of our country, of our democracy. If you want, Me, What’s happening, It is the very negation of why we live in this beautiful country.