The city’s most powerful gang, DZ Mafia, emerged victorious from a bloody turf war and is now one of the most feared criminal organisations in France.
DZ is the official internet country code for Algeria, where one of the gang’s founders, a French-Algerian called Mehdi Laribi, was detained earlier this year under a French arrest warrant.
The criminal outfit rose to prominence in 2023, when it became the first French gang to capitalise on its notoriety by releasing video statements – using social media to market itself as a brand – says the head of the country’s anti-drug trafficking unit, Dimitri Zoulas.
Its most recent statement came in July, when the mayor of a nearby town had to be placed in police protection, after intelligence suggested he was in danger of being targeted by the group.
In an online video, six masked men dressed in black stood behind a table – as one of them read a statement denying DZ Mafia’s involvement.
France’s expanding illegal drugs market – which has seen a surge in cocaine imports alongside high volumes of cannabis and synthetic drugs – has also helped the gang grow rapidly.
The number of cocaine users in France is expected soon to reach two million, says Zoulas, up from 600,000 in 2017. Drug smuggling across France generates €7bn (£5.9bn) a year, involving 200,000 people, he adds.
Many of those distributing the drugs are children and the authorities say the number of minors caught up in trafficking is increasing. During 2025, more than 10,000 children were involved in some way, according to official figures.
DZ Mafia is a prime example. To reach more customers, it needs more gang members – more children.
We have found it is now recruiting young people from across France – not just to sell drugs, but to carry out kidnap, torture and murder.
They are a generation seen as easy to corrupt, but also expendable, by the kingpins who typically control them from prison or overseas.
And, as police and judges warn, once these children enter Marseille’s underworld, it is very hard to get them out.