The southern French city of Marseille was this week shaken by two apparently drug-related killings, including the murder of a 15-year-old boy who was “stabbed 50 times” and burned alive, prosecutors said on Sunday.

Marseille, France’s second-largest city but also one of its poorest, is plagued by drug-related violence.

The historic port city on the Mediterranean coast has in recent years witnessed a turf war for control of the highly profitable drug market between various clans including DZ Mafia and Yoda.

The problem was once again thrust into public eye this week, with Marseille prosecutor Nicolas Bessone telling a news conference on Sunday that victims and perpetrators of such violence were getting increasingly younger.

The 15-year-old teenager was murdered on Wednesday in a case Bessone described as one of “unprecedented savagery”.

On Friday, a 36-year-old football player, Nessim Ramdane, was shot and killed “in cold blood” by a 14-year-old in a case linked to Wednesday’s murder.

The two latest cases mean that the number of drug-related killings in Marseille has risen to 17 since the start of the year.

Marseille’s drug lords have been recruiting foot soldiers with ads on social media, “outsourcing” street dealing to youngsters known as “jobbeurs”.

Bessone said on Sunday that now young boys were responding to ads not only to sell cannabis resin but also to kill “without any remorse or reflection”.

The teenager had been hired via social networks by a 23-year-old prisoner to intimidate a competitor by setting fire to his door, the prosecutor said, adding the youth had been promised 2,000 euros.

The detainee of the Luynes prison south of Aix-en-Provence had described himself as a member of DZ Mafia.

Shot in the head

During his mission, the teenager was spotted by members of a rival gang who searched him and discovered that he was carrying a gun. To punish the minor, they repeatedly stabbed him then set him on fire.

“He was stabbed 50 times and taken to the Fonscolombes housing estate, where, according to the results of the autopsy, he was burned alive,” said Bessone. His friend, also aged 15, was able to escape, Bessone added.

The same prisoner then again turned to social media, recruiting a 14-year-old minor to carry out a revenge attack and kill a member of the Blacks gang, promising to pay him 50,000 euros.

The 14-year-old for his part hired Ramdane, a football player who also worked as a chauffeur to support his family, the prosecutor said.

The minor, accompanied by a friend, asked the driver “to drop them off and wait for them, but he apparently “didn’t comply”, Bessone said.

The teenager then “shot him in the back of the head”, he added.

The minor was taken into custody and admitted shooting the driver, but insisted that the shot had “gone off accidentally”.

In September, Franck Rastoul, public prosecutor at the Aix-en-Provence court of appeal, warned of the scourge of drug-related violence.

“It is imperative that we fully understand the ravages of drug trafficking, which undermines the very foundations of our society,” he said.

Rastoul said young people were “intoxicated by easy drug money” to the point of “total disregard for human life.”

Drug-related violence caused a record number of 49 deaths in Marseille last year.
 

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Paris:

A 15-year-old has been stabbed to death in the latest case of teenage violence in France, and the alleged attacker and his mother have been arrested, prosecutors said on Sunday.

The country has seen a series of attacks on adolescents by their peers in recent weeks, notably the fatal beating of another 15-year-old called Shemseddine near Paris earlier this month.

The latest victim was killed in a brawl in the central French town of Chateauroux late on Saturday and died in hospital the same evening, regional prosecutor Agnes Auboin said.

The suspect, also 15, was arrested around two hours after the fight and taken into custody, said Auboin.

She also said that there was evidence suggesting that the 37-year-old mother of the teenage suspect might have been involved. 

The woman, who has no previous criminal record, was also taken into custody.

The victim, an apprentice chef and son of a restaurant owner, had no previous criminal record and was accompanied by a friend, also an apprentice, at the time of the incident, according to a source close to the case.

Authorities have launched an investigation into voluntary manslaughter.

The presumed attacker “has never been convicted of a criminal offence and has no criminal record”, according to the prosecutor.

But he had been placed under judicial supervision earlier this month following other offences.

A witness interviewed by AFP said the boy was among a group of assailants who had attacked a 22-year-old man in a local park a week earlier. 

The witness said he had “run over and… filmed the scene” to put an end to the attack.

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal has announced measures to crack down on teenage violence.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)