Men recruited to French gang as children to kill give rare insight into drug underworld

What the report says

BBC World News reports that a BBC investigation has uncovered how a powerful drug gang in France, known as the DZ Mafia, is recruiting teenagers from across the country to carry out violent crimes including kidnapping and murder. The group, which won a bloody turf war in Marseille in 2023, is now said to be drawing in younger recruits beyond the city as it expands its reach.

The report includes rare interviews with alleged gang members, including one man in prison awaiting trial over several murders. He described being part of a DZ Mafia hit squad and spoke about shootings and attacks carried out in public places. He acknowledged the brutality of the violence, while also saying he had become used to it and felt only partial guilt. Another member told the BBC that the gang’s world had trapped him after he was drawn in by the promise of quick money from drug trafficking.

The story offers a glimpse into the pressures and incentives that can pull children and young adults into organised crime in Marseille and elsewhere in France. More broadly, it reflects a wider European problem: drug gangs using increasingly young recruits for high-risk violence, while maintaining distance between leaders and the street-level killers who do the work.