In Marseille, France, a teenager was “stabbed 50 times” and then burned alive

The southern French city of Marseille was rocked this week by two apparently drug-related murders, including the murder of a 15-year-old boy who was “stabbed 50 times” and burned alive, prosecutors said Sunday.

Marseille, France’s second largest city but also one of the poorest, is plagued by drug-related violence.

In recent years, the historic port city on the Mediterranean coast has seen a turf war for control of the highly profitable drug market between various clans, including DZ Mafia and Yoda.

The problem came into public focus again this week when Marseille prosecutor Nicolas Bessone told a news conference on Sunday that victims and perpetrators of such violence were becoming younger and younger.

The 15-year-old teenager was murdered on Wednesday in a case Bessone described as one of “unprecedented cruelty.”

On Friday, 36-year-old soccer player Nessim Ramdane was shot “in cold blood” by a 14-year-old in a case linked to Wednesday’s murder.

The two most recent cases have brought the number of drug-related murders in Marseille to 17 since the beginning of the year.

Marseille’s drug lords recruit foot soldiers with ads on social media and “outsource” street trafficking to young people known as “jobbeurs.”

Bessone said on Sunday that young boys were now responding to advertisements not only to sell cannabis resin but also to kill “without remorse or thought.”

The teenager was hired via social networks by a 23-year-old prisoner to intimidate a competitor by setting his door on fire, the prosecutor said, adding that the teenager had been promised 2,000 euros.

The inmate at the Luynes prison south of Aix-en-Provence had described himself as a member of the DZ mafia.

– Shot in the head –

During his mission, the teenager was spotted by members of a rival gang, who searched him and discovered he was carrying a weapon. To punish the minor, they stabbed him several times and then set him on fire.

“He was stabbed 50 times and taken to the Fonscolombes housing estate where, according to the autopsy results, he was burned alive,” Bessone said. His friend, also 15, was able to escape, Bessone added.

The same prisoner then took to social media again and recruited a 14-year-old minor to carry out a revenge attack and kill a member of the Blacks gang, promising to pay him 50,000 euros.

The 14-year-old in turn hired Ramdane, a soccer player who also worked as a chauffeur, to support his family, the prosecutor said.

The minor, accompanied by a friend, asked the driver to “drop her off and wait for her, but he apparently “did not comply,” Bessone said.

The teenager then “shot him in the back of the head,” he added.

The minor was taken into custody and admitted to shooting the driver, but insisted the shot was “accidentally fired.”

In September, Franck Rastoul, prosecutor at the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal, warned of the scourge of drug-related violence.

“It is imperative that we understand the devastating consequences of the drug trade, which undermines the foundations of our society,” he said.

Rastoul said young people ranged from “intoxicated by easy drug money” to “complete disregard for human life.”

Drug-related violence caused a record 49 deaths in Marseille last year.

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