Confirming information from the regional daily The Parisianthe French Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, announced on Saturday March 9 that the leader of the Marseille Yoda gang, Félix Bingui, had been arrested the day before in Morocco.
“One of Marseille’s biggest drug traffickers was arrested in Morocco. Bravo to the police officers who tirelessly continue the fight against drug trafficking”wrote Mr. Darmanin onwho adds: “A big blow has been dealt today to drug banditry thanks to our cooperation with the Moroccan authorities, whom I thank. »
Félix Bingui had fled to Morocco several months ago, according to information from Parisian. He was the subject of an arrest warrant from a Marseille investigating judge for “importation of narcotics by an organized gang, transport, detention, acquisition, transfer of narcotics, criminal association (…), money laundering and non-justification of resources”said the prosecution in a press release.
49 dead and 123 injured in 2023
The General Directorate of National Security (DGSN) of Morocco, for its part, affirmed in a press release cited by the Moroccan press agency MAP that a “French national subject to an international arrest warrant issued by the French authorities for cases linked to the creation of criminal networks active in international drug trafficking” had been arrested after an operation “aiming to identify and locate all the places where the accused could find refuge in several Moroccan cities”. “The suspect was placed in police custody before being presented on Saturday morning before the competent public prosecutor’s office in Casablanca, as part of the extradition procedure”according to the press release, which does not say how long this procedure could last.
A turf war for control of deal points between his Yoda gang and a rival group called “DZ Mafia” bloodied the city of Marseille, particularly in 2023. That year was, in fact, the bloodiest in Marseille , with 49 people killed – including four collateral victims, and 123 injured – in violence linked to drug trafficking. Some 35 of these “narchomicides” were directly linked to these rivalries between two clans, according to Pascal Bonnet, deputy to the judicial police in the south of France.
The main magistrates of France’s second city had also launched a cry of alarm earlier in the week, before the senatorial commission of inquiry devoted to the fight against drug trafficking in France. “Narcobanditism acts in Marseille as a sort of gangrene which damages the social fabric”launched the president of the Marseille judicial court, Olivier Leurent, noting a war “asymmetrical” between the State and these powerful clans, and calling for a “Marshall Plan” to combat this crime.
In Morocco since February 2023
Félix Bingui, according to a source close to the investigation, was born in Gard, but had lived in Marseille since he became involved in trafficking. He regularly traveled back and forth with Morocco until the start, in February 2023, of ” the war “ with the rival DZ Mafia gang, from which point he had never left this Maghreb country.
The Yoda clan was named after murals depicting the character from the saga Star Wars designating some of its deal points in cities in Marseille. DZ Mafia refers to the national domain for Algeria in internet addresses.
With the arrest of Félix Bingui, nineteen “highly sought after individuals” for their important role in drug trafficking in Marseille were arrested, some of whom were abroad, according to figures from the Bouches-du-Rhône police headquarters. Another figure in Marseille drug banditry, Karim Harrat known as “Rantanplan”, wanted for a series of homicides by an organized gang, was extradited from Morocco to France at the start of 2023.