The judicial police describe the worrying "spread" and "exacerbated violence" of organized crime in France

As the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, inaugurated the new "interministerial headquarters for the fight against organized crime" in Nanterre on Wednesday, May 14, a detailed note prepared by the national directorate of the judicial police, which Le Monde has been able to see, paints a chilling picture of organized crime in France. Dated March, this thirty-page document is full of examples of the consequences of the rise of organized crime in France, where its "dissemination" poses a "growing threat to representatives of institutions" against a backdrop of "the digitalization of activities leading to increased accessibility to criminal services (drug trafficking, arms trafficking, pimping, false papers)." Without concession, this report delivers an analysis whose most worrying aspect undoubtedly lies in the recourse to "exacerbated violence" , no longer considered as an ultima ratio intended to punctually settle a dispute or eliminate a rival, but as an immediate mode of operation without warning.

Thus, "murders and attempted murders between offenders recorded by the Central Office for the Fight against Organized Crime - a very large proportion of which are linked to drug trafficking - have been on the rise since 2021 (+33% between 2021 and 2024)" . With 418 incidents and 598 victims, 139 of whom died, the year 2023 saw an unprecedented peak, mainly due to an "exceptional succession of fatal clashes between traffickers in Marseille as part of the conflict between the DZ Mafia and Yoda groups" , two competing criminal organizations. At the time, investigators from the judicial police (PJ) estimated that this dispute resulted in 63 murders or attempted murders out of the 81 similar incidents committed in Marseille. The year 2024, with 368 incidents, saw a decline (-12%) due to the extinction of this real low-intensity conflict, but the trend remains upward in the long term and the toll is very heavy: 525 victims, including 110 deaths.

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