Here he is. After “stray bullets” that crossed the facades of buildings in Marseille and killed innocent young people in the process of violating their rights, as happened in the case of Socayna, a 24-year-old student, who died in his room in September 2023. After that, they often rummaged through the bodies of the lumpenproletariat of drug traffickers. We are now witnessing a proxy shooting in the city of Marseille.
With the murder of Mehdi Kessaci, who was murdered on Thursday 13 November 2025, his brother Amine’s freedom of expression became a target. Mehdi is one of us, a 20-year-old from Marseille, a member of a family affected by a violent death. He was killed by two assassins riding a motorbike, in the afternoon, on IVe Marseille district. If the investigation continues, the warning crime is “chosen path”said Marseille public prosecutor Nicolas Bessone, Monday 17 November. Mehdi’s older brother, Amine Kessaci (22), is a local figure in the fight against the ravages of drug trafficking. He has been involved in this path since the murder – already – of his older brother Brahim, in December 2020, after solving a number of problems.
Territorial control and “moral” control.
Organized crime in this city has struck us when, together with my colleague Gilles Rof, we visited all the neighborhoods targeted by the massacres we experienced in 2023 (forty-nine narchomicide). We met with victims, their families, associations, therapists, judges, police officers… We have just read this report, published in January 2024 in M, Le Monde’s magazine, without really being able to escape completely from this misery, violence and despair.
We then hesitated to create a platform intended to symbolically spread the sound of warning sirens, because now, in Marseille, the impacts of 7.62 mm caliber projectiles “decorate” the city walls. Living like this is not a normal life. There is great fear that this organized crime will become the Leviathan it is today. This displayed force is accompanied by a sharp jaw closure.
“Coffee” (the point of sale is also called “oven”) in the Maison Blanche district, in Marseille, in December 2023. | Guillaume Origoni / Hans Lucas
With the killing of Mehdi Kessaci, the leaders of the drug network are completing the territorial control they have patiently developed over two decades. First of all, something that is manifested physically through the “four” (narcotics sales points) that exist throughout Marseille; then with “moral” control, an example of which is the murder of Mehdi Kessaci. The network is no longer satisfied with parts of the region representing law and order. He wants to decide what can be said and what can’t, or which books can be published.
Contrary to what is written almost everywhere, it is not about intimidation but rather about submission. We often forget it, but organized crime is totalitarianism. This drama is heartbreaking. Secretly, the Marseilla family hopes this will be a big spark that will bring with it a growing system that preys on its children. At this stage, nothing is less certain.
Call March 5, 2024
However, it is impossible to assert that in good faith “we don’t know!”. One man and his team warned citizens, elected officials and successive executives. Marseille prosecutor Nicolas Bessone filed the appeal in March 2024, just as the spiral of violence seemed to have been broken in Marseille, thanks in particular to the combined action of the police and justice services, but also due to the lack of combatants.
This return to silence was later replaced by statements by Marseille prosecutors and judges before a senatorial commission investigating drug trafficking. On March 5, 2024, they made a worrying observation about Marseille, which would be a “drugs”, Where “We are losing the war against drug traffickers”.
Both surprised and worried, perhaps we have sensed, in Nicolas Bessone’s declaration, both the determination and courage of the judges and the disappointment of the Marseillais. We know very well the dynamics that, starting from ordinary crime, lead to powerful organized crime, which is the beginning of a real mafia system.
This is indeed the specter of the Italian scenario that emerged in the courtroom on March 5, 2024: looking at France’s second city with much weaker state authority, the increasing power of drug traffickers, and endemic corruption. Logically, the countries most affected by this phenomenon are the countries that have the most effective ways to eradicate it. We might as well take inspiration from it.
Pavlovian political class reflexes
We cannot accept that the warning shot given by the judge did not provoke a strong reaction from the public authorities. Many suggestions have been made; You just have to listen to them and consider the extraordinary nature of the situation we are in and which can no longer accommodate the impact of the announcement.
The effect of announcements is almost systematically accompanied by Pavlovian declarations from one side or the other. On the left, we urge legalization and improved social policies, while on the right we call for coercive and punitive measures intended to reduce the scope of human traffickers’ actions. We would love for the first party to explain to us why the level of violence, bordering on barbarism, is so high in the Netherlands, which has legalized illegal drugs since 1970, while we would ask the second party, where is the drug trade in the United States, a country that applies cumulative punishment?
In October 2023, in Marseille, during a demonstration by the families of direct victims or victims of drug trafficking, following the death of Socayna, a 24-year-old student, killed in his room in a housing complex in the 10th arrondissement of Marseille. | Guillaume Origoni / Hans Lucas
We also often hear that human trafficking is growing rapidly in this region “an environment forgotten by everyone and especially by public authorities”. In the field, this is often true… But the opposite is also true. Certain cities that have been rehabilitated, with efficient public services (especially schools) and optimal associative structures, are still being swallowed by this criminal hydra. Justice and the police are having none of it either “forgotten”. Of course, blind spots and errors are more likely to occur in this environment than anywhere else, but this is still up for debate.
Marseille must maintain its sacred union
No country in the world has succeeded in eradicating drug use. From recreational use to pathological addiction, it is now a part of everyday life and the demand is increasing, decade after decade. On the other hand, its circulation must be domesticated as best as possible so that this trade no longer causes violence like what Marseille experienced in 2023 or Thursday 13 November 2025.
This spiral risks causing global disintegration. We will succeed if and only if these three conditions are met: a population that unequivocally shows its rejection of violence, the political will to make violence a priority, and the continuous adaptation of the security forces to the changes that accompany the drug trade.
Without this sacred union, not only Marseille would experience, year after year, a trauma similar to that which occurred in 2023 or last November 13, but all of France could be defeated by hundreds of “Marseilles” of varying sizes and intensity.
Just like the judges who appeared at the commission of inquiry on March 5, 2024, we want a normal life so that we can continue to do our work in the field and, most importantly, no more Mehdi or Socayna will be hit by bullets. Marseille must not become like Palermo in the 1980s.
