DZ Mafia operates as a nationwide franchise in France, organized-crime journalist Frédéric Ploquin tells franceinfo
Investigative journalist Frédéric Ploquin told franceinfo on Monday that the Marseille-rooted DZ Mafia now operates "comme une espèce de licence" across France, calling the nationwide spread of the narcotrafficking model "un échec" of successive governments as the trial of the rival Yoda clan opens in Marseille. Ploquin argued that Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin's visit to Algiers is essential to disrupting the trade — drug money flows abroad and the bosses sit there — and accused former interior minister Bruno Retailleau of having "complètement fâchés" France with Algeria. He separately called the French Epstein investigation "beaucoup trop lente," as Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau confirmed about ten new alleged victims have come forward.
The Marseille narcotrafficking model has spread across France and now operates "comme une espèce de licence" through DZ Mafia franchises in cities and suburbs nationwide, investigative journalist Frédéric Ploquin told franceinfo's 8h30 programme on Monday. He called the spread "un échec" of successive French governments and said the circulation of weapons had reached the point that "il y a quelque chose qui est hors de contrôle." The interview, with Agathe Lambret and Paul Barcelonne, aired as the trial of the head of the Yoda clan opens in Marseille, three years after the violent 2023 feud between Yoda and the DZ Mafia.
Ploquin said France had "engendré une génération de sicarios à la française" — a French-style generation of contract killers — though he warned against direct comparisons to the Mexican model: "On n'est pas sur la même échelle de valeurs, néanmoins, ce qui est intéressant, c'est l'adhésion culturelle au modèle." He credited the police: "L'État marque des points tous les jours, la police fait son boulot, il y a des réseaux qui tombent," but argued operational wins do not close the franchise pipeline.
Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin's visit to Algiers, the visible part of a tentative Franco-Algerian thaw driven by migration and security imperatives, sits at the centre of that pipeline argument. Ploquin set out two reasons that diplomacy is "une arme essentielle" in the drug fight. Drug money flows abroad, so seizures and dismantlements depend on working relationships with the countries where the cash ends up. And the cartel bosses themselves are hidden outside France: "Les barons de la drogue sont cachés à l'étranger et ne s'entretuent pas. Au contraire, ils s'entendent, ils s'accordent." With money, he said, they corrupt local police "pour être tranquilles."
He named former interior minister Bruno Retailleau as having "complètement fâchés" France with Algeria, and called the fluidity of contacts between French and Algerian security services essential to French security itself — a sharp rebuke of Retailleau's hardline posture during his time at Place Beauvau.
Ploquin used the same interview to attack the pace of the French Epstein investigation now sitting with Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau. Beccuau confirmed "une dizaine" of new alleged victims have come forward; Ploquin called the judicial response "beaucoup trop lente, beaucoup trop longue à se mettre en marche" and said he had personally "retrouvé toutes les victimes" and traced the predators. The victims share a profile, he said: minors aged 17 to 18, foreign nationals with limited French, isolated in Paris. Beccuau had publicly raised the same victim count on May 17, the day before this interview.