2023-08-18 18:15:17
“(Gang war in Marseille) Are you team Yoda or team DZ Mafia”?, questions this title of a topic discussed on the forum of the site jeux-vidéo.com. The “narcotics war” between these two Marseille networks now has little notoriety, to the point of appearing on a forum relatively large public inviting to comment on this “war” as one would comment on a reality TV show.
A very real TV in Marseille, where around thirty young men have been killed and around a hundred injured since 2023 in clashes against a backdrop of drug trafficking. According to police chief Frédérique Camilleri, 80% of these facts have their origins in the dispute between Yoda and DZ Mafia. Both clans hail from the same district of La Paternelle and are on the way to achieving sinister fame. An ad on a black background that their members have helped to develop. On social networks, videos of intimidation, exhibitions of weapons and settling of scores are circulating. “We are entering a new world concerning drug-related violence with a logic of staging assassinations on social networks”, noted this Wednesday Frédérique Camilleri, during a press briefing. Symbol of this “new world”: Mattéo F., a young 18-year-old hitman arrested on April 4, filmed himself on the order of the client during the execution of his contracts.
“Consolat is and will always be there to satisfy you team »
One more brick in the construction of the image on the networks of a Marseilles “narco-culture”. For several years now, on Snapchat, Tik-Tok and other Telegrams, traffickers have been touting the diversity and quality of their products and services using enticing visuals and videos. They also publish “guide” videos to help the customer get to the “store” where they are greeted by murals detailing the menu (see photo above)
On the Telegram of the “oven” (a point of sale) of the city of Marronniers, a thread is even dedicated to “customer return reviews”. On that of Consolat “and its best cocaine from the Bouches-du-Rhône”, is announced this Thursday a trip to 83 (Var) and 04 (Haute-Provence). Interested persons are invited to place an order. “Consolat is and will always be there to satisfy you the team”, writes at the end of the message the “community manager” of the channel with just over 1,400 subscribers.
These marketing strategies “are a way of imposing oneself, whether through products, identity or violence”, observes David Weinberger, sociologist researcher at the Institute of International and Strategic Relations (Iris) and specialist in analysis of illicit drug supply. Speaking of identity: DZ Mafia has taken as its symbol a fennec, a canine originating from the Sahara and mascot of Algeria, DZ referring to the ISO code (international nomenclature) of Algeria. Yoda obviously opted for the Jedi Master of Stars war. In the same vein, the Frais-Vallon oven has chosen a joint-smoking SpongeBob as its mascot, La Cabucelle has taken on Donald and Les Rosiers, a bee that sells its “honey”, the promise of a particularly soft and creamy (and therefore good).
In Marseille, an “appropriation of an identity with violent codes”
Donald, bee or SpongeBob aim for “marketing stunts”. The challenge is thus to impregnate popular culture with sometimes total success: let us quote Jul who in the chorus of its title Guadalajara balance “I don’t do yoga / I smoke Yoda’s hit”. The identity also contributes “to strengthening the organizational links of the group”, notes David Weinberger, who adds: “all this is part of a subculture, a ”narco-culture” that we can see in South America South, Mexico. There is in Marseille this appropriation of an identity with violent codes, even sometimes ultraviolent with small traffickers who mimic their idol ”. This is demonstrated once again by the career of Mattéo F., baptized “sicario” on the networksnamed after contract killers working for cartels in Latin America.
According to David Weinberger, however, this is not the time for the “Mexicanization” of Marseilles, where genuine cartels would develop: “For that, these groups would have to start wanting to intimidate the State. “. “Drug trafficking follows changes in society and technology. From a “bazaar market” with a single price and products, we moved in several stages to a diversification of products, then to marketing with promotions and packaging and to an evolution towards delivery and sale. at home”, develops the sociologist who emphasizes a “narco-culture” rather fruit of his time.
Thus, if today all young people are on social networks and put themselves on stage, “some become dealers”. And they are many. Of the 114 victims (dead and injured) identified in Marseille at the start of the summer, 65 were under 25, specifies The world. Young people who form a kind of “proto [prototype] organized crime,” analyzes the sociologist. They seek their place, their identity and feed off the ultra-violent acts of traffickers across the Atlantic. A mimicry inspired and inflated by social networks which generates in Marseille and elsewhere a cycle of extreme violence which seems, to this day, endless.
#Marketing #narcoculture #ultraviolence.. #Mexicanization #Marseille