Drug trafficking in Marseille: the investigation into the loss of life of Mehdi Kessaci is progressing, with ten individuals in police custody | EUROtoday

A breakthrough in an emblematic case: ten individuals have been positioned in police custody as a part of the investigation into the assassination in Marseille of Mehdi Kessaci, whose brother, Amine, a determine within the battle in opposition to drug trafficking, has simply been elected to the municipal council.

On November 13, 2025, Mehdi Kessaci was murdered by a number of bullets in the course of the afternoon within the Marseille metropolis.

The loss of life of this younger man aged 20, fully unrelated to trafficking and unknown to the police and the courts, induced a shock wave.

Four months after these occasions, ten individuals – eight males and two ladies – have been arrested within the Marseille area in addition to in Hérault in reference to this assassination, stated the nationwide anti-organized crime prosecutor’s workplace, which is now main the investigation.

See additionallyAmine Kessaci, candidate in Marseille: “I have an enemy in this campaign, it’s drug trafficking”

Created in January in Paris, this workforce of specialised magistrates now leads essentially the most advanced investigations linked to drug trafficking. The file of the assassination of Mehdi Kessaci is without doubt one of the most delicate that he has recovered.

The individuals positioned in police custody are suspected by investigators of getting participated within the “logistics” which enabled the assassination, a supply near the case advised AFP.

The Kessaci household had already been bereaved in 2020 with the loss of life of the eldest sibling, Brahim, who was concerned in trafficking, and whose physique was discovered charred.

Having turn out to be a logo of the battle in opposition to this violence, his brother Amine has lived beneath police safety since this summer time. The environmentalist and anti-drug activist was elected on Sunday, on the age of twenty-two, in third place on the left-wing non-LFI checklist of Mayor Benoît Payan in Marseille, reappointed in opposition to the National Rally.

“This victory is the victory of my little brother Mehdi,” he declared Sunday night, after his victory.

Trial beneath excessive safety

This dragnet – the primary arrests on this case – arrives on the opening day of a trial beneath very excessive safety in Aix-en-Provence, the place two alleged leaders of the DZ Mafia are being tried for a double assassination in 2019, earlier than the start of this legal group.

In the accused field is Amine Oualane who, in keeping with a supply near the case, is without doubt one of the leads studied within the assassination of Mehdi Kessaci.

Nicknamed Mamine, he should even be tried this fall with others for the loss of life of the half-brother of Amine and Mehdi Kessaci, Brahim Chabane, murdered throughout a triple murder on the finish of 2020, thought-about by the authorities as the start of “Mexicanization” of violence linked to drug trafficking.

See additionallyFrance: can the State defeat drug trafficking?

Narcobanditry price the lives of 17 individuals in 2025 in Marseille, in keeping with the authorities, a determine down in comparison with earlier years.

After a disastrous report of 49 deaths in 2023, the violence in 2024 linked to the gang conflict for management of deal factors price the lives of 24 individuals in Bouches-du-Rhône.

To attempt to cease the phenomenon, the justice system launched an enormous offensive in opposition to the DZ Mafia at the start of March by inserting 42 individuals in custody, together with the principle alleged leaders of this legal group which thrives on drug trafficking and has prolonged its actions properly past Marseille.

The operation, which mobilized 900 gendarmes, resulted in 26 indictments, together with two rappers and a lawyer.

With AFP