“I thought the Blacks had passed. » To the astonishment of a 14-year-old hitman, coldly killing the VTC driver Nessim Ramdane, as he recognized in police custody, is added another observation in Marseille: this gang, which has taken a back seat since the war between Yoda and DZ Mafia seems to be coming back to the forefront. “Criminal nature abhors a vacuum, as soon as a place becomes available, there is a desire to reconquer,” continues Denis Trossero, journalist specializing in police-justice and author of Settling scores in Marseille (Mareuil Editions).
The “Blacks” became known in the 2000s. Their stronghold is the Cité des Lauriers, in the 13th arrondissement north of Marseille, and their leaders are siblings of Comorian origin: the four Ahamada brothers. From 2008 to 2015, the year the clan was dismantled, around thirty score-settlings were attributed to the war they were waging with the “Gypsies” of the neighboring city of Cèdres. “With the Blacks, we are no longer in the sole logic of perpetual revenge and retaliation,” rewinds Denis Trossero. We will realize that they anticipate the blow, that they kill anyone who could come and attack them. »
In 2017, their trial revealed lucrative trafficking: a turnover of 60,000 euros per day. The heaviest sentences were handed down against Djoussouf Ahamada, then aged 42, nicknamed “Senator”, and Oukoutoub Ahamada, 28 years old, nicknamed “Beur”. They received twelve and ten years in prison respectively.
The “new Blacks”
The summer of 2021 saw a new outbreak of violence in Marseille, which Éric Arella, then head of the judicial police, analyzed in these terms to 20 Minutes : an “old dispute” between rival clans is currently being resolved, revived by a deadly triptych, “releases from prison, young people with long teeth and betrayals”. Among these clans, we find the “Blacks”, opposed to their neighbors Oliviers A, whose bloody conflict is the origin of at least seven assassinations. Two men were sentenced to eight years in prison for the shooting that caused this new outbreak.
While La Paternelle, in the northern districts, was at the center of the deadly war between Yoda and DZ Mafia – to which the wave of arrests at the end of 2023 dealt a serious blow – the deal point at the heart of the drama of Friday is located near the city center of Marseille. And has little to do with it in terms of profits. For two years, however, the control of this town of Moulin-de-Mai, in the Belle de Mai district, has been the cause of several assassinations. And the latest events.
These take place, according to the Marseille prosecutor, in “the context of the conflict between the DZ Mafia”, which took over Yoda, “and the so-called Black clan from the Félix-Pyat city” to the Beauty of May. It is still difficult to know who, exactly, is behind these “new Blacks”. “These are clans with drawers, which are reconstituting themselves,” explains Denis Trossero, who nevertheless emphasizes that compared to last year, “there was a 60% reduction in settling of scores. »
