Several arrests took place in Nîmes and Marseille this Monday, November 13. Members of an organized gang including the shooters suspected of being responsible for Fayed’s death last August were taken into police custody.
Nearly three months after the events, the investigation into the death of Fayed aged 10 in Nîmes has made clear progress. Numerous arrests took place on the morning of November 13, 2023 in the Gard prefecture and in Marseille in Bouches-du-Rhône. Among the individuals arrested are the alleged shooters of the shooting which cost the life of the young boy on August 21, in the Nîmes district of Pissevin, reports The Parisian. At the time, investigators quickly concluded that Fayed was a collateral victim of a settling of scores linked to drug trafficking.
The four main suspects in Fayed’s death have been arrested, but more are believed to have been arrested. The operation carried out by the judicial police targeted an organized gang comprising “logistics, nannies, sponsors” according to the newspaper’s details. One of the individuals taken into custody is a minor and all the others are described as young and known to the police for their links to drug trafficking. These arrests were carried out as part of the investigation into organized gang murder, opened after Fayed’s death, but also for other offenses linked to organized crime.
Suspects found thanks to DNA traces
After the shooting that led to Fayed’s death, investigators found the Renualt Mégane model car in which the shooters had been seen. The burned vehicle was in the town of Valdegour, close to the Pissevin district. Although few elements were usable on and in the car, investigators found DNA traces on objects propelled outside the vehicle when it exploded. The balaclavas and gloves worn by the shooters as well as bullets and cartridge cases may have been used in the investigation.
These DNA traces made it possible to identify three Marseille delinquents linked to precise drug trafficking The Parisian. One of them died in a road accident on the night of September 22 to 23. He was 17 years old and “known to the courts for cases of violence and kidnapping at deal points” in Marseille.
Fayed’s death followed by a series of score-settling
Fayed and his seven-year-old brother were returning from the restaurant in a car driven by their 28-year-old uncle when the vehicle was hit by dozens of shots, fired by Kalashnikov-type weapons. Around fifty shell casings were found on site. The uncle had been injured and the youngest child had escaped unhurt.
Only two days after the shooting that took Fayed’s life, an 18-year-old teenager was shot and killed in the same neighborhood of Pissevin. The chain-settling of scores had pushed the Minister of the Interior to go to Nîmes to discuss the security of places plagued by drug trafficking.