Advertisement

The teen hitmen bragging on Instagram about kills in Marseille drug wars

Matteo F has been charged with the murder of three low-level rivals of the drug gang that commissioned him - Twitter
Matteo F has been charged with the murder of three low-level rivals of the drug gang that commissioned him - Twitter

Teenage hitmen hired by drug barons fighting turf wars in Marseille have begun boasting of their exploits on social media to earn bonuses on top of their payments.

Drug kingpins are using Snapchat, Instagram and TikTok to act as “crime influencers” in order to recruit new hands, brag about weapons stocks, sell their wares and bump off rivals in increasingly murderous gang wars in the southern French port.

Marseille, France’s second-biggest city, has already suffered 22 fatal shootings this year, more than the whole of 2022, making it Europe’s murder capital. Much of the violence is part of a war between two rival gangs – DZ Mafia and Yoda – who trade Kalashnikov fire on an almost daily basis.

The high death toll and tit-for-tat executions have prompted gang leaders to recruit ever younger hitmen, whom some experts have dubbed disposable “Kleenex killers”.

A propaganda film from Marseille drugs gang DZ Mafia shows off its arsenal - Twitter
A propaganda film from Marseille drugs gang DZ Mafia shows off its arsenal - Twitter

The phenomenon came to light after the arrest in April of an 18-year-old known only as Matteo F.

Charged with the murder of three low-level rivals of the gang that commissioned him, his victims were aged 15, 16 and 20. Police believe he was paid around €200,000 in all for these and other crimes. They suspect his involvement in another six or seven hits.

In a chilling video shared on encrypted messaging apps but circulating on social media, the masked Matteo can be heard cackling: “I’m going to rake in the contracts bro. I’m gonna take them down.

“On my mother’s life, I’m piling up the contracts. I’m having a laugh,” he can be heard boasting.

When caught, he showed no remorse, telling the police: “It’s just as well I wasn’t carrying a gun when you arrested me otherwise I would have died using it.”

Recruited via Snapchat

The teen, reportedly from a middle-class family, was recruited via Snapchat, provided with guns and a car, and told to avoid Marseille except when conducting hits. He was ordered to film his jobs to prove they were successful – the more social media coverage of the crimes the better.

“The price was €20,000 per contract but it could go up to €50,000 depending on the number of views on Instagram,” one source told Le Parisien.

“One of their strategies is gaining media attention to say ‘look how strong we are’,” said Dominique Laurens, Marseille prosecutor.

“They film themselves, challenge and provoke each other all the time,” a local police source told Le Parisien. “It’s done to intimidate rivals and to galvanise soldiers on the frontline when drug ringleaders are on the run abroad or in prison far from the theatre of war.”

Marseille is not the only city affected. In another case of young hitmen recruited online, police arrested nine people in Paris in March, including a 16-year-old caught over the fatal shooting of a 38-year-old man in the capital’s 11th arrondissement last July. Police said the commando offered their services around the country.

‘Cyber network of young killers’

Another “cyber network of young killers” was recently arrested in Marseille after travelling from Paris to carry out a hit, police told Le Parisien.

A few months ago, another group was nabbed after hiding out in a hotel for a fortnight awaiting orders. They had been given a Golf GTI for the getaway and a hire car for the beach while waiting for the job.

Experts say that the “sociology” of gangland killers is changing.

“Before, a limited number of professional killers paid €100,000 per contract at the behest of a given network,” one police source told JDD. “Now we are coming up against less experienced but no less dangerous profiles. They are handed a weapon before being given a target, which can be a deal point or a group of people.”

Younger targets

Frédérique Camilleri, state prefect of the Bouches-du-Rhône region, said the younger hitmen also reflected younger, lower-level targets.

“Three or four years ago, those targeted in drug-dealing disputes were usually high-ranking in the ring’s hierarchy. They were harder to reach as they took precautions. Such hits were more complicated,” she said. “Now they go after dogsbodies.”

“It has gone from lieutenants to the ‘choufs’ [scouts], who are often very young – that’s why 15- or 16-year-old kids die. And as the killers, often themselves young, do not know how to use their weapons and they shoot in bursts, no one is safe from a stray bullet,” said Jérôme Pierrat, a journalist specialising in Marseille gang warfare.

The interior ministry has dispatched more than 200 extra police officers to Marseille in the past two years to try and quell the violence, including another 30 this month.

But the killings continue.

The 22nd murder took place this week in the Paternelles housing estate, epicentre of the drug war.