Teen’s Killing Highlights Escalating Youth Violence and Drug Conflict in Marseille

MARSEILLE — A group of schoolchildren discovered the body of 15-year-old Adel early one morning, just as his parents were on their way to the police station to report him missing. His remains, burned and left in a reclining position, were found on a beach—another victim in a growing pattern of execution-style killings linked to Marseille’s evolving drug wars.
Adel was shot in the head before his body was doused in petrol and set alight. Video footage of the killing has circulated online, underscoring how social media has become entangled in the city’s increasingly brutal narcotics trade, where violence is both public and performative.
According to France’s Ministry of Justice, the number of teenagers involved in the drug economy has more than quadrupled in the past eight years. Criminal networks are recruiting minors in growing numbers, often coercing them into roles as lookouts, couriers, or street dealers.
A young gang member, who identifies himself as “The Immortal,” described a collapse of the informal codes that once governed rival groups. Now in his early twenties, he showed scars from multiple bullet wounds, the result of a failed assassination attempt.?“Everything has changed,” he said. “There are no rules anymore. Bosses use kids, pay them almost nothing, and people get killed for no real reason. It’s anarchy.”
Across Marseille, police officials, lawyers and community workers describe a climate of psychose—a pervasive sense of fear and psychological strain—affecting neighbourhoods caught between deep poverty and territorial conflict. Many residents say criminal groups now exert more influence locally than the state.
“It is clear that traffickers dominate and gain ground every day,” said one lawyer, who recently stopped representing victims of gang violence due to fear of retaliation. “The rule of law has become subordinate to the gangs.”
Community organiser Mohamed Benmeddour said the drug market’s competitiveness is driving increasingly reckless violence.?“Children aged 13 or 14 are being pulled into this. They see dead bodies regularly; it no longer shocks them,” he said. “They are no longer afraid of killing or being killed.”
The city’s sense of crisis deepened last month after the killing of 20-year-old trainee police officer Mehdi Kessaci, who had no connection to the drug trade. His death is widely believed to have been intended as a warning to his brother, Amine Kessaci, a 22-year-old anti-gang campaigner and emerging political figure.
Now under police protection, Amine said the loss of his brother has left him questioning whether he should have moved his family away from the city.?“My life’s struggle will be this fight against guilt,” he told the BBC.