In Marseille, three more people were killed last week in a drug war, one of them burned alive in a car. So far this year, there have been 15 gangland murders in France's second city, 12 since the start of the summer. Two weeks ago a 14-year-old boy named Ryan in northern Marseille was shot dead outside the Les Maroniers housing estate, injuring two other boys in the same attack. Last year there were 28 deaths; 23 in 2018. Police, magistrates, social workers and local journalists all agree that young children are falling prey to these drugs. "The first time a 16-year-old died in 2010.

Many young recruits become indebted to gang leaders. Some start taking medicine on their own. Police raids are frequent. There is a belief that drugs are only part of the problem. Poverty and urban poverty are also a problem. But are Marseille's problems worse than other French cities like Paris or Toulouse? Police Commissioner Frederic Camilleri, says. "The level of violence here, intra-gang or inter-gang, is on a different level, forced labour, intimidation, blackmail, even torture. It is very organized and very hierarchical."

Of course, Marseille has a special history, geography and character, all of which set it apart from the rest of France. For more than 2,500 years it has been home to immigrants from the Mediterranean. Bandits and underworld crimes have always been thriving; Unlike elsewhere, its problem estates are not in the outskirts but in the heart of the city.In other words, drug gangs, turf wars, even murder of teenage look-outs are commonplace here.

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