Three men were killed this Sunday in a shotgun attack in Marseille, a French city that police say has seen an increase in drug-related gang homicides in recent months.
The three men were part of a group of five, aged around 20, who left a nightclub shortly after 5 a.m. and drove away when their car was attacked by unknown men with Kalashnikov rifles.
The two survivors of the attack — which took place in a residential area in Marseille, France’s second-largest city — suffered no injuries and fled, as did the gunmen.
Police found a burning car nearby but could not confirm if it was the gunmen’s getaway car, but it could be linked to previous murders in Marseille as criminals often set vehicles on fire to destroy evidence.
According to a source close to the investigation, the first indications indicate that the men attacked lived in a neighborhood with a lot of drug trafficking and were known to the police.
“The entire police force has been mobilized on the ground to find the perpetrators of these despicable crimes and to dismantle the drug trafficking networks behind this violence”declared Regional Mayor Frederique Camilleri.
This weekend alone, police arrested five people for possession of firearms related to drug trafficking after seizing three Kalashnikov assault rifles, a submachine gun and a handgun, he said.
This latest attack brings the number of drug-related homicides in Marseille since the beginning of the year to 21according to an AFP count.
Victims are usually young men who occupy a lower position in the hierarchy of drug traffickers and are targeted by hitmen working for rival groups.
Camilleri and the city’s attorney general, Dominique Laurens, warned last month that competition between rival groups for control of the city’s most lucrative drug-trafficking outlets was turning into “revenge.”
The statement comes after a night of violence in early April in which three people were shot dead, including a 16-year-old, and eight people were injured in the shootings.
Laurens said at the time that the “carnage” in Marseille was getting worse and predicted that “it would continue in the coming months”.
After that attack, special police units were deployed to key drug hotspots in the city.
Marseille mayor Benoit Payan said this month that “this war has gone on for too long” and called on the French government to act “firmly and forcefully” to end the violence.
“Killers don’t even bother to hide anymore,” Payan said.
Source: DN
