EAre we entering a new era of drug trafficking? The recent murder of Mehdi Kessaci, the younger brother of anti-drug activist Amine Kessaci, tends to demonstrate this. Darkness has fallen on Marseille, where the criminal organization DZ Mafia appears to have taken on an unprecedented scale, to the point of opposing the State. At the end of 2023, two journalists from ProvenceJean-Guillaume Bayard and Éric Miguet, started producing podcasts full time, Northern Cartelto return to the origins of this phenomenon.
After 4 seasons and more than 2 million listeners, the fifth season will be released in early 2026. From this podcast, the author has produced a book, Northern Cartel (edition du Cherche Midi), released at the end of October. While drug trafficking and its consequences made headlines in Marseille this week, an interview with the author.
The main thing is: The first episode of your podcast was published in November 2023. Two years later, has the threat of drug trafficking increased?
Jean-Guillaume Bayard: At the end of 2023, we are in the midst of open conflict between two criminal groups linked to drug trafficking in Marseille, DZ Mafia and Yoda. This was an eventful year with 49 murders in the city, more than 70% of which were related to the conflict between the two clans. These groups began using social networks to recruit labor and assassins. Since then, it has become commonplace.
Eric Miguel:The threat is more serious. Experts see this increasing, but most importantly, it is getting more media attention. When the Baumette prison director and prison officials were intimidated, we knew we had achieved something.
In 2012, former mayor of Marseille Jean-Claude Gaudin thought that the shootings were only about “thugs killing each other”…
they: The road to awareness is still long. When Jean-Claude Gaudin made this statement, it was a way of freezing everything. At that time, Marseilla residents in the city center may not be worried. Because Marseille is a city divided in two. In 2011, a shooting that killed a 16-year-old in the Clos-La Rose district caused initial shock. Then, there were a series of additional victims, including the case developed in the book by Kawtar, 17, who had just graduated with a baccalaureate (the young girl was hit by a bullet in July 2021 while in the car of a man who was the target of the gunfire, Editor’s Note).
Mafias often have a pyramidal or even familial structure. Instead, what we are dealing with here is a consensus of leaders who share skills, but none appear to be superior to the others.
You’ve been following DZ Mafia for two years. Can we talk about the mafia?
J.-GB: Based on several intelligence records that we have accessed, DZ Mafia was born from plate tectonics, from various conflicts between Marseille networks which were caused by a combination of circumstances. Several major human traffickers gathered in 2022 around what Philippe Frizon, director of Marseille’s judicial police, called a “dome”, a kind of trade union that monopolized human trafficking.
they: Mafias often have a pyramidal or even familial structure. Instead, what we are dealing with here is a consensus of leaders who share skills, but none appear to be superior to the others. This actually encourages us to talk about a “cartel”, or an agreement between different protagonists. Be careful, it is not necessarily a Mexican-style cartel, because the impregnation of criminal organizations in society is not the same, as is the level of corruption… but it is more of a cartelization process than a mafia process.
You also spoke about the “Marseille model” in the exported drug trade. What’s that?
J.-GB: We know that the team from Marseille was tasked with “securing” the deal points, like in Nîmes for example. Their method is to arrive at the point of sale and sometimes “explode” blindly. We saw it recently in Sète. The idea was to restore business through terror. This type of hostile takeover bid has been observed in Clermont-Ferrand, Rennes, Dijon, Rennes, Arles, Nice…
When writing this book, you want to avoid “sensationalism.” What is your approach?
J.-GB: At home ProvenceWe already have colleagues who deal with drug bandits on a daily basis. Therefore, we asked ourselves what added value the podcast and book could provide. Our goal is to take a step back, to understand how we got there. We have to go back to the Second World War, to the period of decolonization, to see how the environment of the north was shaped.
The authorities have drawn up plans for an emergency city, which has become a permanent residence. They are not intended that way so they break quickly. Then the State abandoned these neighborhoods, the social centers disappeared, the community police too… and these neighborhoods were isolated from the rest of the city without public transportation. This impoverishment is fertile ground for a poverty economy.
To find
Kangaroo today
Answer
they: Drugs are a market opportunity. Ganja is growing especially for geographical reasons, as the northern districts have many residents with ties to Morocco, where kif is consumed. Northern Cartel tells the long process of regulating this traffic. We work at the forefront of sociology to analyze the results of years of odyssey. While being careful not to make political judgments! A theme developed in the next season, to be published in early 2026.
Northern Cartel. Immersed in Marseille’s new era of drug trafficking, Éric Miguet, Jean-Guillaume Bayard, Cherche Midi edition, 208 pages, 15 euros.
