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Two men who entered the DZ Mafia as teenagers have described systematic exploitation that begins with offers of luxury goods and escalates to coercion and violence for those who show any sign of disloyalty. Camil who is now 20 and claims to have left the organisation after running security at one of its dealing points told the BBC that recruiters know how to manipulate vulnerabilities. “They know how to get inside your head. Whatever you want they give to you” he said adding that the gifts create loyalty “because of what they give you” until the recruit reaches “either death or prison.” Camil explained that once a weakness is identified the gang exploits it without mercy.
Adam spoke via video call from prison where he faces trial for several murders after rising through the ranks due to his willingness to carry out killings. “People noticed my determination my cold-bloodedness and without wanting to I climbed up the ladder of the gang” he told the BBC. The accounts form part of a BBC investigation that highlights how the group has expanded recruitment beyond Marseille to draw in youths from across the country for tasks including kidnapping and contract killings. Police judiciaire assessments reviewed by Le Monde confirm that such patterns have spread to cities including Lyon Toulouse and Nice.
The DZ Mafia operates a franchise system that has allowed it to dominate Marseille while generating an annual illicit economy estimated at €7 billion nationwide according to the head of France’s anti-drug trafficking unit. Dimitri Zoulas told reporters that cocaine users in France are expected to reach two million soon up from 600 000 in 2017 with the trade involving roughly 200 000 people. During 2025 more than 10 000 children were involved in trafficking in some capacity according to official figures cited in the investigation. The group relies on young recruits because they are viewed as both easily influenced and readily replaced when arrested or killed.
France’s Ministry of Justice data shows the number of teenagers involved in the drugs trade has risen more than fourfold over eight years while police judiciaire statistics indicate that nearly one quarter of solved homicides or attempted homicides in 2023 involved individuals under 20. In 2024 authorities recorded 367 cases of murder or attempted murder linked to drug trafficking that produced 110 deaths with more than 25 percent of those jailed for such offences aged under 20 including 16 minors according to AP News reporting on interior ministry releases. Marseille saw 49 drug-related deaths in 2023 before the toll fell to 24 the next year yet prosecutor Nicolas Bessone described an ongoing “ultra-violence” in which the average age of both perpetrators and victims keeps decreasing. Bessone told interviewers that networks create fictional debts to force unpaid work and torture recruits for stealing even €20 to buy food.
Social media platforms have become the primary recruitment channel with advertisements promising hundreds of euros daily for roles that quickly turn violent according to both the BBC report and a Mediapart investigation into Marseille networks. Bessone stated that many youths arrive expecting easy money but encounter misery and death while traffickers enslave them as “little soldiers.” A separate Le Monde inquiry found that minors as young as 12 or 13 are now routinely used as lookouts sellers or enforcers with some recruited from distant cities via encrypted messaging apps. The prosecutor urged residents not to succumb to fear but to push back against the trade that he estimated at €7 billion nationally.
Police have arrested approximately 1 000 individuals associated with the DZ Mafia since 2024 and placed 600 of them in prison according to figures provided to the BBC by law enforcement sources. In the Marseille region alone police judiciaire carried out 200 arrests linked to the group during 2025 with 107 placed in provisional detention a police judiciaire note reviewed by franceinfo showed. National authorities are currently pursuing 125 separate enquiries targeting the organisation including 25 handled by gendarmerie that focus on its command structure and money laundering routes according to Le Parisien reporting on judicial updates. Recent operations seized millions of euros in assets gold bars and luxury goods that prosecutors say are reinvested into the network.
Families suffer lasting damage when relatives are drawn into the networks often after answering online job advertisements that mask the true nature of the work. One mother interviewed by the BBC recounted how her son Hugo left home claiming to have secured restaurant employment that staff later confirmed never existed only for his body to be discovered after he fell out of favour. Karine Courtaud-Lamaire who directs a Marseille reintegration centre for former youth offenders told franceinfo that participants now enter the trade at younger ages than in previous years and quickly lose any sense of fear around violence or death. The pattern has prompted officials to warn that social media has transformed recruitment into a nationwide pipeline that continues to supply new members despite repeated police successes.
