France's DZ Mafia accused of recruiting children for violent crimes

A BBC investigation has found that one of Europe's most powerful drug gangs in France is recruiting teenage children from across the country to carry out kidnappings and murders. The group, known as the DZ Mafia, is said to have expanded its reach beyond Marseille, where it won a bloody turf war against a rival gang in 2023. The findings point to a widening public-safety threat that now extends well beyond the city that helped build the gang's reputation.

The investigation includes testimony from a man who is in prison awaiting trial after being implicated in several murders. He told the BBC he had been part of a DZ Mafia hit squad and described the killings he has been charged with as "quite shocking". He also described attacks carried out in broad daylight, including violence in traffic jams, and said the gang's methods could range from assaulting a target to abducting someone in front of their mother and burning them in a car.

His account offers a rare glimpse into how the group says it operates. The same man said he felt "guilty in part" but claimed to have no regrets about the brutality involved. He is now in his twenties and said the environment he entered was a "trap", reflecting the pull of fast money in drug trafficking for young people in Marseille.

The report suggests that the gang's recruitment model is not limited to adults already embedded in organised crime, but is drawing in teenagers from across France. That raises concerns about how deeply the gang has embedded itself in local criminal networks. The case matters because it points to a shift in the scale and geography of organised crime in France.

Marseille has long been associated with drug-related violence, but the report says the DZ Mafia is now recruiting from further afield, suggesting a broader national footprint. If teenagers are being used for kidnappings and murders, the implications go beyond gang rivalry and into child exploitation, public security and the criminal justice system. It also raises questions about how authorities can disrupt recruitment before young people become fully absorbed into violent networks.

The DZ Mafia emerged as a major force after the 2023 turf war in Marseille, which the report says it won against a rival group. That conflict helped establish the gang as a dominant player in the city's drug economy. The new allegations indicate that its influence may now be spreading beyond its original base, with recruitment reaching children in other parts of the country.

The report does not say how many teenagers have been recruited, or how many cases are directly linked to the gang. What remains unclear is the full scale of the recruitment effort and how far the network extends outside Marseille. The investigation provides a detailed account from one jailed member, but it does not set out official figures for arrests, prosecutions or confirmed child recruits.

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