Driven by staggering revenues and fueled by methodical violence, drug trafficking has emerged as a parallel force in France. In a confidential report, the French Anti-Narcotics Office (Ofast) sounds the alarm: €7 billion generated in 2023, a sprawling system of corruption, 2 drug dealing sites identified, and foreign cartels lying in wait. From Paris to Marseille, from the Balkans to the Comoros, the country is now caught in the clutches of a globalized crime that knows no borders.
A mosaic of well-established cartels
The report describes a territory that has become permeable to criminal groups from all horizons. Latin American cartels, particularly Colombian, Mexican, and Brazilian, influence the local market, while their emissaries lay down markers as far as Lyon's neighborhoods. Albanian networks control the transport of cocaine, heroin, and cannabis, with strongholds in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Brittany. The Italian 'Ndrangheta maintains a solid presence on the Côte d'Azur, and the ultra-violent Mocro-maffia extends its tentacles to French ports, competing with Rotterdam and Antwerp. OFAST also highlights the influence of African groups: Senegalese micro-networks manage crack trafficking in Paris, while Nigerians use mules to import cocaine from Brazil. In Marseille, Comorian clans organize a parallel trade to the Comoros. Even Asian mafias are cited for their central role in money laundering, particularly through Chinese and Pakistani networks operating from the United Arab Emirates. Turkish-speaking groups, however, still dominate part of the heroin trade.
Serial violence and territories under control
The diagnosis is clear: drug trafficking imposes its law by force of arms. In 2024, France recorded 367 murders and attempted murders linked to this underground market, causing 110 deaths and 341 injuries. This violence is slightly down compared to 2023, but still significantly higher than in previous years. These acts now affect medium-sized cities like Dijon, Échirolles, and Villeurbanne, and even overseas territories. Executions are sometimes entrusted to Latin American hitmen, paid between €2 and €000, depending on the target's profile. The sponsors, for their part, are becoming increasingly discreet. They delegate kidnappings, bursts of automatic weapon fire, or "hammering" to specialized labor. Social media contributes to the spread of this violence, strengthening the psychological hold it has over the population. In some neighborhoods, residents receive letters offering services in exchange for silence. Local businesses are bought up to launder profits, while giving traffickers a respectable reputation that helps them access aid or social rights.
The local authorities, however, are wavering.
In Saint-Ouen, a nursery school had to relocate four classrooms. In Échirolles, a building was evacuated by municipal decree, as the situation had become untenable. In these gray areas, republican institutions are losing ground. Ofast denounces a counterculture made up of quick profits, armed protection, and media influence, supported by a music and film industry fascinated by figures of organized crime. What Ofast describes is an asymmetrical and systemic threat, rooted in everyday life and structured like a parallel economy. An economy of blood, shadow, and silence, which now directly challenges the state.
