A man in his thirties was shot dead overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday in a city of Marseille plagued by drug trafficking, we learned from police sources. “There were gunshots in the city of La Paternelle, a man in his thirties died,” said a police source, confirming information from RMC. The victim was at a point of sale of drugs, said another police source. The city La Paternelle, located in the north of the second largest city in France, is at the heart of a struggle between rival groups to take control of its juicy deal points.
22 dead since the beginning of the year
The man was known for facts related to narcotics, according to the same source. The judicial police are seized of the investigation. This new homicide brings the toll of violence against a background of drug trafficking to 22 dead since the beginning of the year, with 20 people killed by bullets, one lynched to death and one found in the trunk of a burnt-out car, presumably killed by bullets.
The victims are generally young men, sometimes teenagers, located at the bottom of the trafficking ladder, lookouts or sellers at deal points, targeted by killers from rival gangs. But some, like a 43-year-old mother who was shot downstairs on May 10, could be collateral victims.
Territorial disputes between traffickers for control of the lucrative deal points set up in the city’s housing estates are turning into a “vendetta”, the prefect Frédérique Camilleri and the Marseille prosecutor Dominique Laurens estimated in early April.