Inside the French drug gangs recruiting children to kill

Case Background and Initial Discovery

• Video Feature: “It destroys people, but we all make our own choices” – Marseille drug-gang members talk to
• Content Warning: This report contains references to strong language and descriptions of sexual violence.
• The Triggering Event: Although she had just bought hashish from a drug dealer, the woman decided to call the police.
• The Note: It was because, along with the illegal drugs, she had been handed a note by the young seller during their brief meeting on a Marseille housing estate in 2022.
• The Plea: “We’re being held captive and need help. We are 15-years-old,” it read.

The teenage dealer, a French court heard earlier this year, was one of two boys being held by a gang which they had both initially approached looking for paid work – albeit illegal. The dynamics of their exploitation were stark and brutal. One boy had been tasked with handling money, the other worked streets around the Frais-Vallon estate. Soon though, bosses had accused them of being responsible for “shortfalls” in takings. What followed were regular beatings, the court was told, and being forced to dance naked in front of a camera as a form of blackmail. Hours after the woman was passed the note, the two teenagers had tried to escape from a second-storey window. Subsequent police intervention led to several arrests, and photos on the phone of one of the boys’ alleged torturers showed several other young men involved in similar activities. From prison, one gang member accused of involvement in several murders explained how his “cold-bloodedness” had helped him rise through the ranks. We find ourselves cornered, thirty-seven seconds after entering one housing estate. Stop filming,” Fadella warns, as a grey 4×4 forces us to the side of the road, car horns sound the moment Fadella’s Peugeot passes a gang checkpoint – the teenagers manning the post immediately spot our camera. “Wait. He eventually agrees to let us leave if we stop filming. It is unnerving to see a non-police vehicle move so assertively and a relief to watch it leave. Lately, the gangs have been very aggressive,” explains Fadella. “What we simply try to do is make sure our young people understand what’s happening is wrong. Fadella speaks to a wider fear among local families: that their children are enticed by huge sums of money to take a criminal path that robs them of their innocence. They give to you,” he says, whatever you want. To drugs and prostitutes, he explains, this can range from nice cars and spacious apartments.

The boys’ story highlights the grip that drug gangs hold over parts of France’s second city. While the blend of Mediterranean culture, street art and the hip-hop scene has made Marseille a popular tourist destination, there is a far darker reality. After months of trying, a team managed to enter this dangerous world—centred on deprived streets and high-rise housing estates in the port city, which police do not enter lightly. We found an environment where ruthless gangs lure vulnerable young people with promises of easy money, but the reality is entrapment and extreme violence. We witnessed how gangs use social media to recruit hitmen and spoke to several young men caught up in the cycle of violence. Almost as far from the Mediterranean coast as you can get, few know the human cost of Marseille’s gangs like mother Karine Brouillard – who lives at the other end of France.

The Rise of DZ Mafia

The city’s most powerful gang, DZ Mafia, emerged victorious from a bloody turf war and is now one of the most significant criminal entities in the region. DZ is the official internet country code for Algeria, where one of the gang’s founders, a French-Algerian called Mehdi Laribi, was detained earlier this year under a French arrest warrant. The criminal outfit rose to prominence in 2023, when it became the first French gang to capitalise on its notoriety by releasing video statements—using social media to market itself as a brand—says the head of the country’s anti-drug trafficking unit, Dimi. Its most recent statement came in July, when the mayor of a nearby town had to be placed in police protection. In an online video, six masked men dressed in black stood behind a table as one of them read a statement, demonstrating a level of brazen confidence that has alarmed authorities. Karine was called by a doctor about her son Hugo: “Your son arrived last night. Her son, Hugo, first ran away aged 15 – from his home in a village in the Nord department – after an argument with his family. In 2023, Hugo planned to return south, telling his parents he had secured a holiday job at a restaurant near Marseille, but several years later. He gave regular updates,” Karine remembers. “He called me, everything was going well. Where DZ Mafia wields power, is with the help of resident Fadella Ouidef, a 41-year-old mother-of-four who gives us a tour, our best way into Quartier Nord. Camil, who claims to have left DZ Mafia, only agreed to speak to away from the city – on a boat. Who claims to have left the group, is highly suspicious of our presence, but agrees to tell us how the gang recruits young members, the now 20-year-old. Or because of safety concerns, we have agreed to protect their identities, in order for our interviewees to speak freely.

France’s expanding illegal drugs market has seen a surge in cocaine imports alongside high volumes of cannabis, creating massive revenue streams for these organizations.

The number of cocaine users in France is expected soon to reach two million, up from 600,000 in previous years, says Zoulas. According to the number of cocaine users in France is expected soon to reach two million,, Zoulas, up from 600,000 in 2017.

This explosion in demand drives the violence. Many of those distributing the drugs are children, and the authorities say the number of minors caught up in the trade is growing. DZ Mafia is a prime example of this strategy; to reach more customers, it needs more gang members, specifically more children. We found it is now recruiting young people from across France, not just to sell drugs, but to carry out violent attacks. They are a generation seen as easy to corrupt, but also expendable, by the kingpins who typically control operations from afar. As police and judges warn, once these children enter Marseille’s underworld, it is very hard to escape. Involving 200,000 people, he adds, drug smuggling across France generates €7bn (£5.9bn) a year. During 2025, more than 10,000 children were involved in some way, according to official figures.

The broader impact of these gangs on the city is profound.

There are road accidents, as well as family violence, depressions, suicides and more than 700 overdoses each year, experts note, and it fundamentally distorts the local economy. “We are heading towards a potential systemic breakdown of the criminal justice system,” authorities have warned.

However, police have reported successes in Marseille and other cities against drug gangs.

Criminal operations are being frustrated, more kingpins are being arrested and drugs are being seized.

Since 2024, about 1,000 individuals associated with DZ Mafia have been arrested, and 600 incarcerated, police state. Almost 1,000km (600 miles) away in Marseille, with money and cannabis on him, he was picked up by police three days later.

As gangs seek to widen their operations, or replace members who have been arrested or killed, social media has become a potent recruitment tool—especially since the Covid pandemic, when many street-drug sales transitioned online, making the reach of these criminal recruiters wider than ever before.