Drug Trafficking Violence Soars in France as Algerian Kingpins Remain Out of Reach

Drug trafficking in France has escalated into an “existential threat” to the nation with record cocaine seizures and a rise in contract killings, according to a leaked report by France’s anti-narcotics office (Ofast).

The confidential 62-page report, written in July but not made public, was obtained by French media. Its revelations come amid drug-related riots and violent clashes with police across several cities, prompting the Interior Ministry to post special forces last month. In April, a crackdown on organised crime inside prisons caused attacks against the prison system.

“Today, there is an asymmetrical battle, with police and justice services becoming overwhelmed by criminal networks,” Ofast’s deputy director Christian de Rocuigny told daily Le Monde. Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau has described the situation as a “white tsunami”, with cocaine seizures increasing by 45 per cent in the first six months of 2025, reaching 37.5 tonnes compared to the same period last year.

The roots of today’s trafficking, estimated at €7 billion ($8 billion) in France, lie in the illegal cannabis trade from Morocco. Successful groups have reinvested profits from cannabis into the more lucrative cocaine market.

“French drug actors that pose the greatest threat to national security all come from the criminal structuring process of Moroccan cannabis traffickers from the cites [low-income suburbs],” the report said, quoted by daily Le Monde. “Less than ten organisations control almost all cocaine imports into France.”

Of particular concern to French police is a drug cartel linked to Algeria, known as DZ Mafia, which operates in the southern port city of Marseille. Despite several arrests last year, the gang’s senior leaders remain beyond police reach, sheltered in Algeria.

“It’s very difficult to accept that we can’t reach decision-makers because they are abroad, in this case in Algeria, as far as the DZ Mafia is concerned,” Bruno Bartocetti, a police union representative, told radio France Inter.

In October, DZ Mafia made headlines after one of its members, detained in Aix-Luynes prison, appeared to have ordered a 14-year old to kill a taxi driver in Marseille. The group later released a mysterious press conference online denying involvement in the killing, claiming its name had become “a brand” exploited by impostors.

The staging of the video bore resemblances to Corsican organised crime of the 1980s and 1990s, with men wearing balaclavas standing around a table covered with a white flag carrying the group’s name, DZ Mafia.

The report warns that such displays of impunity may fuel further insecurity. Residents of a small town in the south of France, Bagnols-sur-Ceze, recently received a letter in their mailbox offering to help them with their shopping or handiwork, in an apparent gesture to compensate for disruption caused by drug dealing in the area.

“The appropriation of territories increases the criminalisation of daily life, establishes violence and criminal profits as a counter-culture, heavily burdening urban policies and social integration,” the report said.

The report also points at the killers’ young age. Last year, out of 176 people imprisoned for murder or attempted murder to settle scores between gangs, more than one quarter were under 20 years old, according to the Interior Ministry. They are believed to be paid between €5000 and €10,000 to assassinate the head of a rival drug network.