Key facts
- DZ Mafia is recruiting young people from across France to sell drugs and carry out kidnap, torture and murder, the BBC reported.
- More than 10,000 children were involved in drug trafficking in France during 2025, according to official figures cited by the BBC.
- Dimitri Zoulas, head of France's anti-drug trafficking unit, said cocaine users in France are expected soon to reach two million, up from 600,000 in 2017.
- Zoulas said drug smuggling across France generates €7bn a year and involves 200,000 people.
- Six men were handed hefty sentences over the captivity and abuse of two 15-year-old boys held by a gang in Marseille.
- Mehdi Laribi, described as a DZ Mafia founder, was detained in Algeria earlier this year under a French arrest warrant.
The DZ Mafia gang in Marseille is recruiting young people from across France, not only to sell drugs but to carry out kidnap, torture and murder, the BBC reported on November 9, 2026, after months of efforts to enter the city's gang-controlled neighborhoods.
The gang emerged victorious from a turf war and is now one of the most feared criminal organizations in France, according to the BBC. It rose to prominence in 2023 when it became the first French gang to release video statements, using social media to market itself as a brand, said Dimitri Zoulas, head of France's anti-drug trafficking unit. Its most recent statement came in July, when the mayor of a nearby town was placed in police protection after intelligence suggested he was in danger of being targeted by the group.
Mehdi Laribi, a French-Algerian described as one of the gang's founders, was detained in Algeria earlier this year under a French arrest warrant, the BBC reported. Zoulas said France's expanding illegal drugs market, with a rise in cocaine imports alongside high volumes of cannabis and synthetic drugs, has helped the gang grow. He said the number of cocaine users in France is expected soon to reach two million, up from 600,000 in 2017, and that drug smuggling across France generates €7bn a year and involves 200,000 people.
Many of those distributing the drugs are children, and authorities say the number of minors caught up in trafficking is increasing. During 2025, more than 10,000 children were involved in some way, according to official figures cited by the BBC.
The BBC reported the case of two 15-year-old boys held by a gang in Marseille, one of whom passed a note to a woman who had bought hashish in 2022 saying they were being held captive and needed help. A French court heard earlier this year that the boys had been beaten and forced to dance naked in front of a camera as blackmail, and that one was raped. Six men have since been handed hefty sentences for what happened to the two teenagers.