Far from the harbour of Marseille, where the sea has long carried both fortune and ruin to the young, a man in his twenties now waits in a French prison for a trial that will judge deeds he has partly acknowledged. His account, gathered by the BBC for an investigation into the DZ Mafia, sketches a familiar human pattern: a teenager dazzled by the speed of drug money, drawn into a world he now names a trap, yet still insisting that every choice was his own. The story reaches beyond one city, as the gang reaches across France for younger hands to do its violence, and the justice that follows wil
Inside Marseille's DZ Mafia: how French drug gangs recruit teenagers for kidnap and murder
Teenagers are being recruited to commit kidnappings and murders, and victims include people killed in targeted attacks, including one described as burned alive in a car.
It destroys people, but we all make our own choices
Mark
What's the central finding here?
Mimi
That the DZ Mafia, which won a turf war in Marseille in 2023, is now recruiting teenagers from across France for kidnap and murder.
Mark
And who is speaking?
Mimi
A man in his twenties, in prison awaiting trial. He says he was in a hit squad and is implicated in several murders.
Luke
Worth saying: he hasn't been tried. The killings are charges, not verdicts, and his description of his role is his own account.
Mark
He calls the world he entered a trap, yet says people make their own choices.
Mimi
Both. He knew money could be made fast, as many Marseille teenagers do, and he doesn't fully disown his part.
Luke
He says he feels guilty in part but has no regrets. That's a contradiction the piece leaves standing, and I'd leave it standing too.
Mark
What about the scale of the recruiting?
Luke
The summary says teenagers nationwide, but there's no figure here. We don't know how many, how old, or how the recruiting works.
Mimi
What we do have is the violence he describes, including a man burned in a car in front of his mother.
Luke
Described by him, though, not independently established in what we've been given.
Der Puls
- A prison cell in France holds a man who describes, without flinching, a hit squad that moved through daylight and traffic jams.
- The DZ Mafia, a Marseille drug gang that survived a bloody turf war in 2023, is reaching across France to recruit teenagers for kidnappings and murders.
- Victims include people attacked in front of their families, one of them burned alive in a car, and the violence is climbing in reach and cruelty.
- The imprisoned man calls his world a trap yet insists on personal responsibility, while his trial remains ahead and authorities weigh how to stop the recruitment.
Far from the harbour of Marseille, where the sea has long carried both fortune and ruin to the young, a man in his twenties now waits in a French prison for a trial that will judge deeds he has partly acknowledged. His account, gathered by the BBC for an investigation into the DZ Mafia, sketches a familiar human pattern: a teenager dazzled by the speed of drug money, drawn into a world he now names a trap, yet still insisting that every choice was his own. The story reaches beyond one city, as the gang reaches across France for younger hands to do its violence, and the justice that follows will show whether a society can reach those hands before they are lost.
A man in his twenties, held in a French prison while he awaits trial, describes the work he once did. He speaks of attacks carried out in broad daylight and in traffic jams, of violence that ran from a slap to a man taken in front of his mother and burned in a car. He says he handles it with composure, and that he feels guilty in part but has no regrets.
The BBC spoke to him as part of an investigation into the DZ Mafia, a Marseille-based drug gang the broadcaster counts among Europe's most powerful. The group won a violent turf war against a rival in 2023, and it now recruits teenagers from across France to carry out kidnappings and murders. The man is charged in several killings and says he was part of a hit squad.
He came to the gang as many young people in Marseille do, drawn by the knowledge that large sums could be made quickly in drug trafficking. Looking back from prison, he calls that world a trap. Yet he refuses to see himself only as a victim, holding that the life destroys people but that everyone makes their own choices.
The account rests largely on his testimony, and he has not yet been tried. What comes next is how the courts handle his case and others, and whether French authorities act to counter drug networks that are drawing in the young.
A man in his twenties, held in a French prison while he waits for trial, describes what his work used to involve. Attempts in broad daylight. Attacks in traffic jams. The range, he says, runs from going to hit a man and slap him, to taking someone in front of his mother and burning him up in a car. He says he has good composure and handles it fairly well.
He spoke to the BBC as part of an investigation into the DZ Mafia, which the BBC describes as one of Europe's most powerful drug gangs. The group is based in Marseille, and the BBC reports that it won a bloody turf war against a rival group there during 2023. The investigation finds that it is now recruiting teenagers from well beyond that city, from across France, to carry out kidnappings and murders.
The man is among those implicated in several murders, and he told the BBC he was part of a DZ Mafia hit squad. He is charged over killings that he agrees were quite shocking. Pressed on whether he feels regret about the brutality he took part in, he said he feels guilty in part, but claimed to have no regrets.
His path into the gang was a familiar one in Marseille. Like many teenagers there, he knew that large sums of money could be made quickly in drug trafficking. That knowledge pulled him in young. Now, looking back from prison, he calls the environment he entered a trap.
He also resists the idea of being only a victim of it. The BBC report is framed around his own words, that the life destroys people, but that everyone makes their own choices. Both halves of that sentence sit in his account: he describes a world that ensnares teenagers and, in the same breath, insists on personal responsibility.
The human cost in the account is stark. The violence he describes ranges from beatings to a man taken in front of his mother and burned in a car. The perpetrators in the BBC's reporting are teenagers, recruited as the gang looks beyond its home city for people willing to do the work.
The report comes from the BBC's Paris correspondent, James Waterhouse, who reported from Marseille. The material available here is limited. It rests largely on one imprisoned man's testimony, and he has not yet been tried. What to watch next is how his case and others move through the courts, and whether French authorities do more to counter the recruitment of young people by drug networks.
Bemerkenswerte Zitate
It destroys people, but we all make our own choices.— Marseille drug-gang members speaking to the BBC
He called the environment he entered a trap, while saying he feels guilty only in part and has no regrets.— Imprisoned DZ Mafia member awaiting trial
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