A woman in her forties was shot dead in the night from Wednesday to Thursday in Marseille in a city near a hotly contested drug outlet, we learned from the emergency services and police source.

This woman was hit by shots at the Traverse du Vieux-Moulin, in the city of Saint-Joseph (14th arrondissement) in the poor neighborhoods of the north of the city, said these sources confirming an initial information of the daily La Provence. The victim died shortly after being taken to hospital. No link could be established at this stage with drug trafficking, the victim was not known to the police, according to a police source. The judicial police was asked to conduct the investigation.

Increase in drug-related homicides

Homicides linked to drug trafficking have multiplied in recent months in the second city of France, especially in the 14th arrondissement, around the deal point of Vieux-Moulin and the cities of Paternelle and Micocouliers. In early April, after three shootings that left three dead, including a 16-year-old boy, the prosecutor of Marseille, Dominique Laurens, had evoked a "logic of vendetta" between rival gangs reigning over drug trafficking.

The year 2022 had already been particularly deadly in the Bouches-du-Rhône, with 32 victims of homicide in organized gang, including 28 in Marseille, according to figures from the prosecutor's office. More than 30 of these shooting deaths in 2022 were directly "related to drug trafficking," the police prefecture said.

  • Miscellaneous facts Marseille
  • Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
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  • Marseille
  • Drug trafficking
  • Miscellaneous facts