In a video published on Wednesday October 8, individuals presenting themselves as the Marseille drug trafficking group DZ Mafia denied any link with the death of the VTC driver killed by a 14-year-old teenager.
They spoke out with the aim of “reestablishing the truth”. A group of individuals dressed in black, covered faces and with altered voices presenting themselves as the DZ Mafia, a group of drug traffickers dominating the illicit drug market in Marseille, staged themselves to deny any responsibility in the death of the VTC driver killed by a 14-year-old teenager on Friday October 4.
There broadcast of the video This Wednesday, October 9, led to the opening of an investigation into criminal conspiracy by the Marseille prosecutor’s office. The investigations were entrusted to the judicial police and the Anti-Cybercrime Office (OFAC) which are responsible for “authenticating this video and identifying the people who are at its origin” specified the public prosecutor. from Marseille, Nicolas Bessone, in a press release.
“No link” between the DZ Mafia and the death of the VTC driver
In the video, which lasts about a minute and a half, a man claiming to be part of the DZ Mafia assures that there is “no link” between the drug trafficking group and the murder of the VTC driver. As a reminder, a 14-year-old teenager was indicted for the murder of the driver after being denounced by the person who recruited him as a hitman. The sponsor is a 23-year-old man, detained in Aix Luynes prison, who told investigators that he had hired the teenager to avenge the assassination of another young man. He also indicated that he was affiliated with the DZ Mafia.
A relationship that the men present in the video deny. “This man, sick and mythomaniac, pretending to be a member of the DZ Mafia has absolutely no connection with us. We do not know him,” declared the group’s spokesperson about the sponsor. Before adding: “We have never had such people in our circle.” But should we believe the statements of those who say they are members of the drug trafficking group?
A video and explanations deemed credible
The origin of the video must still be authenticated, but several elements make the document at least credible to be studied in the eyes of investigators. First of all, its poor quality: the video recalls the staging of the Corsican terrorist group FLNC in the 90s and 2000s. “We are in this logic of the historic FLNC, we deny, we claim” explains a judicial source to Parisian. The authors of a hoax would have paid more attention to the quality of the video and would have “done better technically” adds the same source.
We must then take into account the motivations of the DZ Mafia to deny any involvement. “The logic of the DZ Mafia is to keep a good image in the neighborhoods, because they need labor” suggests the source of the Parisian. However, the assassinations of innocent people outside of trafficking are detrimental to it, as much as the involvement of young adolescents recruited as hired killers. On this subject, the DZ Mafia evokes methods completely foreign to the group: “The 14 year old child as well as the use of VTC to commit a crime has nothing to do with our methods. We have enough men, of vehicles and means to act if we were obliged to do so.
In addition to the explanations given by the group depicted in the video, investigators are clinging to other elements that could call into question the affiliation of the sponsor who recruited the 14-year-old hitman to the DZ Mafia. The individual with a worrying psychiatric profile would seek to “play a role in the DZ” according to a source close to the case contacted by the Parisian. “He already did it a year ago in another case where he denounced himself. However, he does not appear in any organizational chart of the DZ,” continues the informed source. The investigation will perhaps make it possible to effectively bury the DZ Mafia trail in the case of the death of the VTC driver. One less murder which would not remove anything from the list of crimes committed by the drug trafficking group.