00:00Here in France, a cabinet meeting devoted to drug trafficking and organized crime,
00:06this after the nationwide shock over the murder of the Juncker brother of a Marseille militant
00:14against organized crime, Mehdi Kessacy, whose funeral took place Tuesday,
00:21today, earlier, in the Mediterranean port city. Eliza Herbert has more.
00:27France plans to step up its war on drugs. Cabinet ministers convened on Tuesday after Mehdi Kessacy,
00:37the brother of prominent anti-drug campaigner Amin Kessacy, was shot dead in Marseille last week.
00:44His death has marked a turning point, according to the country's interior minister.
00:48What's certain is that most of the participants collectively agreed that this was clearly not a
00:58classic settling of scores, as is unfortunately often the case in the fight against drug trafficking,
01:05but rather a crime of intimidation.
01:10Marseille has long experienced drug-related crimes and turf wars,
01:14but residents are now fearful the violence has become more extreme.
01:20I can't talk because I have teenagers. I'm scared. If I talk, that's it, it's over.
01:25They could kill my children or me.
01:27Even when you've lived in precarious conditions, you've not experienced this level of violence.
01:32If Mehdi Kessacy's murder was meant as a warning to silence anti-drug campaigners,
01:37then it could be having its intended consequence, according to the family's lawyer.
01:45There are people indeed among the activists who, since Mehdi's death, are saying,
01:50we're stopping. They're strolling in the towel. They're not taking any more risks.
01:54I also think that people faced with this horror will, on the contrary, get involved.
02:00Across France, four people have been killed in narco-trafficking-related shootings in less
02:05than a month. And experts say drug traffickers are slowly trying to gain
02:09more territorial control. President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday urged his team of ministers
02:15to focus on international cooperation and better intercepting drugs entering the country.
02:23Emmanuel Macron will be headed to Marseille, he says, next month.
02:29For more, let's cross to the southern port city.
02:32And journalist Richard Ashton, thank you for being with us here on France 24.
02:38We can add to those statistics, since the funeral this morning of Mehdi Asseti,
02:44the shooting death of a man aged between 45 and 50 in those working-class northern
02:50neighborhoods of Marseille.
02:54It's a state of shock where you are. It's a state of shock across the country over this shooting.
03:00Absolutely. It's a state of shock.
03:06As you say, the fact that the president, Emmanuel Macron, has convened this meeting this afternoon
03:13just gives you a sense of the import of this issue here.
03:18I mean, there's so much going on in France, as we know, in politics and outside.
03:23But this is a story and a problem that won't go away for the government.
03:30And it's just a steady stream of tragic stories.
03:33There was another story just recently in Grenoble, a 12-year-old injured in a shooting there.
03:41He was thought to be close by.
03:44And yes, the words coming out of the NSA and this meeting this afternoon suggest that as we head into
03:54legislative, as we head into elections and going forwards in the next couple of years,
04:02this is going to really become a key issue.
04:06And polls suggest that French people are very worried about it.
04:10As I say, there's so many other things that they are worried about at the moment.
04:15But people just feel it in their everyday lives.
04:18If you go to some of these neighborhoods in the northern part of Marseille,
04:26there's no escaping it, really.
04:27People are feeling disillusioned.
04:30The jobs market is not good.
04:33And in some of these deprived areas, it is simply a case of living day to day for some people.
04:40And they quite easily get caught up in this violence, as we've seen horrifically this week.
04:47And the annual meeting of the Association of Mayors taking place this Tuesday,
04:54ahead of those municipal elections that you refer to next March.
04:58And Mayors saying that eight out of ten cities in France have a drugs problem.
05:04In Marseille, this particular case, you have this activist, Amin Kessassi.
05:12He's now lost two of his brothers.
05:15And the most recent killing clearly looks like a calling card to intimidate those who want to speak out against traffickers.
05:23Absolutely. This young man, Amin Kessassi, is a really extraordinary guy.
05:32He was only 17 when he set up a charity, which is basically a sort of talking shop in order for him to raise awareness of these issues.
05:44And, yes, as you say, he already lost his older brother, Brahim, who was shot, murdered in 2020.
05:56Now he loses his other brother.
05:59And the Marseille prosecutor suggesting, as your report reflected, that this is a real turning point.
06:08This suggests that the gangs are bold enough now to target those who dare to stand up to them and not just target them, but to target their family members.
06:19Amin has been living under police protection for a while.
06:24He hasn't said anything publicly since the killing of his second brother.
06:31And what's more, there are reports that other activists in the city and elsewhere in France are perhaps considering themselves stopping talking publicly.
06:44One guy was quoted in one of the French papers this afternoon saying, I'm not a kamikaze bomber.
06:50I'm not prepared to commit suicide by speaking out publicly.
06:54He was quoted anonymously.
06:57And it's a real menacing hush that has descended in some ways on Marseille.
07:04But as you say, this is a national issue.
07:06There is no large town in France, an even smaller town, that is not impacted by this.
07:15Sébastien Lecornu, the prime minister, suggests that the country needs to treat this issue as it has treated terrorism.
07:24He calls for national unity.
07:27The previous interior minister, Bruno Wattaya, was fond of using language around Mexicanization, as he called it, suggesting that France was becoming more and more of a cartel state.
07:39The new government seems less inclined to use this language.
07:42But it's clear that there is a relatively cross-party agreement that France must find a solution to this issue.
07:54Richard Ashetton, so many thanks for joining us here on France 24.
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