Inside French drug gangs recruiting children to kill

While the port city of Marseille is widely celebrated by tourists for its Mediterranean culture, vibrant street art, and hip-hop scene, life beyond the city center tells a starkly different story across impoverished neighborhoods and high-rise housing estates that local police tread carefully.

Within this dangerous environment, ruthless criminal networks lure vulnerable youngsters with promises of easy money, only to trap them in a cycle of drug dealing, brutality, and severe exploitation. A stark example emerged from a French court detailing how two teenage boys approached a gang in 2022 looking for illegal paid work, only to be accused by bosses of causing shortages in drug sales.

Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event

The situation escalated into regular beatings and forced nudity in front of a camera as a form of blackmail, while one of the teens was also sexually assaulted. Hours later, both boys attempted a desperate escape from a second-story window, resulting in injuries where one escaped while the other was captured, beaten, and stabbed before surviving. Subsequent arrests led to six men receiving heavy prison sentences after police discovered torture photos on a suspect's phone.

At the center of this underworld is DZ Mafia, Marseille's most powerful gang, which emerged victorious from a bloody turf war to become one of France's most feared criminal enterprises. Named after the internet country code for Algeria—where co-founder Mehdi Laribi was detained under a French warrant—the gang rose to prominence in 2023 by using social media video statements to market its notoriety.