• Two men opened fire on July 18 on two customers of a shisha bar in the 11th arrondissement of Paris. One of the two victims, aged 38, died at the scene after being hit by Kalashnikov fire.
  • One of the assailants, aged 16, was subdued by the hotel's guests. This teenager, already involved in a case of attempted murder, had been indicted for "murder in an organized gang, attempted murder in an organized gang, acquisition and possession without authorization of weapons of categories A and B in assembly, and criminal association for crimes and offenses" and placed in pre-trial detention.
  • Eight months after the facts, the investigators of the judicial police arrested on Monday, nine other suspects, all very young, whom they suspect of having been paid by a sponsor to execute a contract.

"They are a bit of hitmen," summarizes a source close to the file. In searching for the perpetrators of a shooting that left one dead last summer in the 11th arrondissement of the capital, the investigators of the judicial police have uncovered a team of young criminals they suspect of being involved in several settling of scores, committed throughout France. According to information from Le Parisien, confirmed by several sources to 20 Minutes, police officers from the Paris criminal brigade and the Central Office for the Fight against Organized Crime (OCLCO) arrested nine suspects on Monday, March 13. They were placed in custody as part of the judicial investigation opened in July 2022, including counts of murder and attempted murder with premeditation in an organized gang, says the Paris prosecutor's office.

It is a "very organized, mobile team, composed of people who commit ultra-violent actions throughout the territory," says a police source. Investigators suspect them of having been hired by a sponsor to eliminate Mamadou T., a 38-year-old man who was killed on July 18 in Paris. That evening, a Peugeot 308 stopped in front of a shisha bar, "La petite échappée", located at the corner of Breguet and Popincourt streets. Two men came out. One held in his hands a handgun, a 9mm, and the other a Kalashnikov. The duo opened fire in the direction of two men sitting on the terrace.

16-year-old suspect already implicated

Mamadou T., who was known to the police for drug cases, died at the scene as a result of his injuries. Four other people, who received shards of glass, were more lightly injured. The Peugeot 308 used by the perpetrators of the shooting was discovered two days later by a BAC crew in the Pissevin district of Nîmes, near the Richard-Wagner shopping mall.



One of the two assailants, aged 16, was subdued by customers and arrested by police, while his accomplice fled. At the end of his police custody, he was indicted for "murder in an organized gang, attempted assassination in an organized gang, acquisition and possession without authorization of category A and B weapons in assembly, and criminal association for crimes and offenses" and placed in pre-trial detention. As revealed by 20 Minutes, this teenager born in 2006 in Mayotte is involved in another case of attempted murder.

A settling of accounts "against a background of stup trafficking"?

On July 3, 2021, Lyam*, then 15, stabbed a 16-year-old in Vieux-Menton during a fight. He was arrested three days later by the municipal police of Beausoleil. Lyam was then taken into custody and brought before the court where he was brought before a juvenile judge. A judicial investigation for attempted intentional homicide and violence with weapons was then opened. In February 2022, the liberty and detention judge of the Nice judicial court released him and placed him under judicial control. "The case is still under investigation. Everyone has been heard, we are now waiting for him to be fired, "says to 20 Minutes the lawyer of the victim, Me Mireille Otto-Oberthur.

Five months after his release, the young man was arrested in Paris, a weapon in his hand. He is suspected of having been paid, with other accomplices, by sponsors who would have placed a contract on the head of the victim. Investigators are still questioning their identity and motivations, but the hypothesis of a settling of scores "against a background of drug trafficking" seems preferred. The nine other suspects arrested on Monday "are adults but all very young," says a good connoisseur of the case.

*First name has been changed

  • Miscellaneous facts Paris
  • Miscellaneous facts
  • Paris
  • Ile
  • Police
  • Criminal investigation department
  • Murder
  • Homicide
  • Inquiry