Friday around 9:15 p.m., in the parking lot of a fast food restaurant north of Marseille, this young Marseillais was hit by “several shots from an assault rifle type weapon in the legs then in the head, while he was nearby and then in his vehicle,” the Marseille prosecutor’s office told AFP.
The victim was resuscitated on site and then transported with a life-threatening condition to North Hospital, where he died of his injuries. “A vehicle which could correspond to that of the perpetrator, declared stolen, was discovered on fire,” underlined the prosecution.
An “organized gang assassination”
The investigation, opened for “murder by an organized gang, criminal conspiracy and deliberate damage to property by fire”, was entrusted to the judicial police. On the night of December 25 to 26, a man already convicted of drug trafficking was shot several times in this same street in the 15th arrondissement, near the Cabucelle district.
If the link of this new homicide with the drug trafficking which is plaguing France’s second city were to be established, it would be the 49th “narchomicide” in Marseille since the start of the year, including seven minors, according to a count. cross between the prosecution and the AFP. A much higher number therefore than the two previous records of 2022 and 2016, which left around thirty dead.
The war between drug traffickers for control of points of sale in the city’s housing estates also left 118 injured, including 18 minors, indicated the public prosecutor of Marseille, Nicolas Bessone, during a press conference just before Christmas.