Crime in Marseille: “jobbers”, young intermittent drug traffickers, are also “victims” for prosecutor Nicolas Bessone

The prosecutor says he has requested the opening of an investigation for “human trafficking” concerning these young people recruited throughout France via social networks to take part in drug trafficking in Marseille.

At the Marseille court, the “jobbers” follow one another during hearings in immediate appearance to answer for their “work” as lookouts, sellers or sometimes even hired killers. Young people are recruited on social networks to participate in trafficking drugs in Marseille. “I asked” the opening of investigations “for human trafficking”announces Marseille prosecutor Nicolas Bessone, considering jobbers also as “the victims”.

“I am very worried, because even if they remain perpetrators and people who have guilty complacency with things that are illicit, they are just as much victims”, believes Nicolas Bessone. For the Marseille prosecutor, they are victims of a form of modern slavery: “They are precarious, they are isolated, they can be tortured, they may not be paid. We are in the most complete sordidness. And then it’s cannon fodder for the networks. This is the reason for which, moreover, the young people of Marseillais no longer want to be at the deal points, because they know the risk. It is not simply a risk in terms of incarceration, it is a vital risk which is involved.”

Nicolas Bessone therefore “ask [s]”Colleagues and the police services to obviously pursue the perpetrators of trafficking, of which these young people are part, but also to open investigations into human trafficking at the same time.”. He specifies that it is necessary “fight fiercely against the heads of these networks who ultimately take advantage of these young people who, I repeat, retain a responsibility. The young person who speaks, if we catch him, we will pursue him. But he is also a victim. We must be completely objective .”

The feminization of “jobbers”

On the profiles of these young people, there are mainly men, but we also see “a worrying phenomenon” according to the prosecutor, who is the “feminization of trafficking” : “We have had some recent cases which do not fail to worry us since we have women between 20 and 30 years old who will be logisticians, who will organize the settling of scores, who will participate in massive drug imports. Rather people from Marseille, who either take the place or the ranks of the men because they are prevented, because they are on the run or because they are incarcerated.”