Stunning! For cannabis trafficking alone, the French market generates 4.5 billion euros per year, according to a note from the economic analysis council of 2019. A teeming illicit sector which, like any activity, creates its jargon by borrowing from several languages and slangs.
Alexandre Vella, journalist from 20 minutes in Marseille, looked at this constantly evolving vocabulary, which aims to make oneself understood by one’s peers and exclude others, first and foremost the police and the justice system. These words serve to “blur the lines” in the event of wiretapping, but also to make them unusable at the time of trials, according to Marseille sociolinguist Médéric Gascquet-Cyrus.
In this episode of the podcast “ Wait a minute ! », the podcast from the editorial staff of 20 minutes, Alexandre Vella details several words and expressions linked to the sector, used both by traffickers and by the police. Can you decipher “deliver an oven”, “Wakanda” or “Fantasia”? Why the “guitar”, that the rapper SCH evokes in the tube Organized band, has nothing to do, in drug trafficking, with the musical instrument? All the answers from our journalist who opens Larousse de la rue to you in this episode… To read Alexandre Vella’s article, it’s also here. Enjoy listening to “Minute Papillon!” »