Warning: This article contains strong language and descriptions of sexual violence.
Even though she had just bought hashish from a drug dealer, the woman decided to call the police.
This was because, along with the illegal drugs, the young seller had given him a note during their brief meeting in a housing estate in Marseille in 2022.
"We are kidnapped and we need help. We are 15 years old," the message said.
As was learned earlier this year in a French court, the young trafficker was one of two boys held by a gang whom both had initially approached looking for paid, albeit illegal, work.
One of the boys had been entrusted with managing the money, while the other worked on the streets around the Frais-Vallon housing estate. However, their bosses soon accused them of being responsible for the "deficits" in collection.
What followed, the court was told, were constant beatings and being forced to dance naked in front of a camera as a form of blackmail. One of the boys was also raped.
Hours after the woman received the note, the two teenagers attempted to escape through a second-story window, getting injured in the process. One managed to flee, while the other was captured, beaten and stabbed, but survived.
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Arrests were made. Photos found on the phone of one of the boys' alleged tormentors showed other young people in a similar state of anguish. Six men have since received severe sentences for what happened to the two teenagers.
The story of these young people highlights the control that drug trafficking gangs exercise over some areas of France's second largest city.
While the mix of Mediterranean culture, street art and hip-hop scene has made Marseille a popular tourist destination, outside the city center it's a different story.
After months of trying, a BBC team managed to enter this dangerous world, centered on the marginal streets and high-rise housing complexes of the port city, which are not easily accessed by the police.
We encounter an environment where ruthless gangs lure vulnerable young people with promises of easy money, but end up trapping them in a world of drug trafficking, brutality and exploitation.
We saw how gangs use social media to recruit hitmen and spoke to several young people involved in violence. From jail, a gang member accused of participating in several murders explained how his "cold blood" had helped him rise in the organization.
image copyright, Networks
Territorial war
The most powerful gang in the city, the DZ mafia, emerged victorious from a bloody turf war and is now one of the most feared criminal organizations in France.
DZ is the official internet country code for Algeria, where one of the gang's founders, a French-Algerian named Mehdi Laribi, was detained earlier this year on a French arrest warrant.
According to Dimitri Zoulas, head of the country's anti-drug unit, this criminal organization rose to prominence in 2023, when it became the first French gang to capitalize on its notoriety by publishing video statements and using social networks to promote itself as a brand.
His most recent statement came in July, when the mayor of a nearby town had to be placed under police protection after intelligence services suggested he was at risk of being targeted by the group.
In a video posted online, six masked men dressed in black appeared standing behind a table, while one of them read a statement denying the involvement of the DZ mafia.
Minor traffickers
The growing illegal drugs market in France, which has seen an increase in cocaine imports along with large volumes of cannabis and synthetic drugs, has also contributed to the gang's rapid growth.
According to Zoulas, the number of cocaine users in France is expected to soon reach two million, up from 600,000 in 2017. Drug trafficking in France generates US$7.83 billion a year and involves 200,000 people, he adds.
Many of those distributing drugs are children, and authorities say the number of minors involved in drug trafficking is increasing. According to official figures, during 2025, more than 10,000 children were involved in some way.
The DZ mafia is a clear example. To reach more customers, you need more gang members, more kids.
We have discovered that he is now recruiting young people from all over France, not only to sell drugs, but also to carry out kidnappings, torture and murders.
They are a generation considered easy to corrupt, but also expendable, by the ringleaders who usually control them from prison or from abroad.
And, as the police and judges warn, once these children enter the underworld of Marseille, it is very difficult to get them out of there.
image copyrightLea Guedj / BBC
"A shot in the head"
Few know the human cost of the Marseille gangs like Karine Brouillard, a mother who lives on the other side of France, almost as far from the Mediterranean coast as possible.
His son, Hugo, ran away from home for the first time at the age of 15, in a town in the department of Nord, after an argument with his family. The police arrested him three days later, almost 1,000 km away, in Marseille, with money and cannabis in his possession. They took him back home.
But several years later, in 2023, Hugo planned to return south, telling his parents that he had gotten a summer job at a restaurant near Marseille.
"I kept up to date with everything regularly," Karine recalls. "He called me, everything was going well."
Three weeks later, a doctor called. Karine says she will never forget his words: "Your son arrived last night. He was shot in the head."
Police believe Hugo was taken for medical care from a gang-controlled area and suspect he was involved with one of them.
That area was the Quartier Nord.
cornered
The best way to access the Quartier Nord, where the DZ mafia exercises its power, is with the help of Fadella Ouidef, a 41-year-old resident and mother of four who offers us a tour of the area.
Thirty-seven seconds after entering a housing development, we found ourselves cornered.
The moment Fadella's Peugeot passes a police checkpoint, the car horns sound; The teenagers guarding it immediately notice our camera. "Wait, stop recording," Fadella warns, as a gray SUV forces us to stop on the side of the road.
"I'm making a report for my neighborhood association," he tells the driver. Finally, he agrees to let us go if we stop recording.
It's disturbing to see a non-police vehicle move so decisively, and a relief to see it go.
"Lately, the gangs have become very aggressive," explains Fadella. "What we're trying to do is make sure our young people understand that what's happening is wrong."
Fadella refers to a widespread fear among local families: that their children will be tempted by enormous sums of money to take a criminal path that will take away their innocence.
"They give you whatever you want"
Money was what led a young man to spend his adolescence with the DZ mafia.
So that our interviewees can speak freely, or for security reasons, we have agreed to protect their identities.
Camil tells us that he rose through the ranks of the gang until he became "in charge of security" in an area they control.
The young man, who is now 20 years old and claims to have left the group, is very suspicious of our presence, but agrees to tell us how the gang recruits young members.
"They know how to get into your head. They give you whatever you want," he says. This can range from luxury cars and spacious apartments to drugs and prostitutes, he explains.
"You feel loyalty for what they give you. You will stay until the end, until death or prison."
Camil also offers a stark assessment of what happens if the gang identifies a weakness in a recruit: "They'll exploit it. You're their puppet, it's over."
Adam (not his real name), a member of the DZ mafia, tells us that he was part of a hit squad during a Snapchat video call.
He is currently in prison awaiting trial, after having been implicated in several murders.
"People noticed my determination, my coldness and, without meaning to, I rose through the ranks of the band," says Adam. "That became my place, and I had to accept it."
During the conversation, he admitted that the murders of which he is accused were "pretty shocking."
"Attempts in broad daylight, in traffic jams... can range from hitting a guy, slapping him, to taking him in front of his mother and burning him alive in a car. I think I have good self-control, I handle it quite well."
image copyrightMarianne Baisnee / BBC
We challenge Adam by asking him if he feels remorse in committing such acts of brutality.
He says he feels "partly guilty," but says he doesn't regret anything.
"If I hadn't done all this, there would have been other people who would have done it for me, and so on. I'm just another cog in the machine," he says.
Like so many other teenagers from Marseille, he knew that a lot of money could be made quickly in drug trafficking. Now in his twenties, he admits that the environment he entered was a trap.
At an alleged sales point in a social housing complex, cordoned off and controlled by the DZ mafia, there are price lists for cocaine, hashish and marijuana painted with graffiti on a wall.
The farm functions as a natural fortress for drug traffickers. With only one main way in and out, they can control the flow of customers and see if the police are approaching.
It is not uncommon for the sound of automatic gunfire to fill the night air in these areas.
After months of negotiations, a manager from a rival group, who was at a strategic point in the market, agreed to meet us at his workplace.
"Everyone makes their own decisions"
We entered the farm early in the morning; The chirping of birds and children walking to school contrast sharply with the industrial-scale criminal operation taking place there.
"Joe" says he earned more than $3,000 a month when he was 13. Now he says that figure has increased to between US$5,000 and US$11,000 a month.
It seems that he considers his life path to be predestined, even if it is a lucrative path.
We asked Joe if he thinks about the lives lost to the violence perpetrated by his gang, but the 23-year-old has also long since resigned himself to the pain and destruction that drug trafficking can cause.
"It destroys people, but everyone makes their own decisions," he says with a shrug.
According to Zoulas of the anti-drug unit, the activities of the Joe gang and the DZ mafia represent a threat to national security.
According to him, every year there are traffic accidents, domestic violence, depression, suicides and more than 700 overdoses, "and that distorts the economy."
"We are heading toward a possible systemic collapse of the criminal justice system."
image copyrightSocial media
Networks to recruit
Police have had success in Marseille and other cities in fighting drug gangs.
Criminal operations are being thwarted, more ringleaders are being arrested and drugs are being seized.
According to the police, since 2024, around 1,000 people linked to the DZ mafia have been arrested and 600 imprisoned.
But overall, this is a battle that is becoming harder, rather than easier.
As criminal gangs look to expand their operations or replace arrested or killed members, social media has become a powerful recruiting tool, especially since the Covid pandemic, when many street drug sales moved online.
On social media, we found countless posts advertising jobs in Marseille for aspiring drivers, couriers and hitmen, often with idealized AI-generated images.
In addition, recruitment horizons are expanding, since it is more difficult to attract young people in the area because they know better the possible consequences.
According to police, the ads can reach teenagers in almost every corner of France, including Paris, Nantes and Lille, and have a powerful appeal to Marseille and the Quartier Nord.
According to law enforcement authorities, online advertising has also changed the typical profile of someone who joins the ranks of a gang.
Now, this is usually someone without a criminal record, but who has vulnerabilities that can be exploited, such as having a difficult family life.
"These people are recruited by unscrupulous sponsors who send them into the den of the wolf," explains Thibaut Fontaine, head of the French unit against organized crime.
According to him, their lack of criminal experience makes it easier to arrest them quickly.
Karine still has no idea why her son Hugo was shot.
When asked what he would say to the gang leaders who recruit children and young people in Marseille, he responded: "They destroy families. Little sisters, little brothers, grandparents. But of course, I don't think those people have a heart."
The restaurant where her son said he was going to work did exist, but the staff told Karine that they had never hired anyone named Hugo.
The cause of his death almost certainly lies in the Quartier Nord neighborhood of Marseille.
With additional reporting by Marianne Baisnee, Lea Guedj and Paul Pradier.
This article was originally written in English and we used an artificial intelligence tool to translate it. A BBC journalist reviewed the text before publication. Learn more about how we use AI.
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