On Tuesday, November 18, Emmanuel Macron convened a high-level security meeting at the Élysée Palace with Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu and several key ministers, as the government confronts a drug-trafficking crisis it has long struggled to contain.
According to the presidential palace, the discussion aimed to assess how well current anti-drug laws are working and explore ways to reinforce them, including the creation of a new national anti-organized crime prosecutor’s office (PNACO), a centralised body that will take over major trafficking investigations on January 1.
The urgency of the meeting comes amid a series of violent incidents that police have directly linked to drug trafficking. In recent days, a string of shootings has reignited concerns that security will dominate next year’s municipal elections.
One attack, in Marseille, involved a 22-year-old French campaigner who established an association to help victims of drug violence and has now lost a second brother to suspected criminal gangs.
Amine Kessaci’s 20-year-old brother Mehdi was parking his car in the city centre when a motorbike pulled up and the passenger opened fire with a pistol. Marseille prosecutor Nicolas Bessone revealed that the backseat passenger shot the victim several times. Their elder brother, Brahim, was also murdered in 2020. He was shot and his body was later found in a burned-out car, a method common in some gang killings and locally nicknamed a ‘barbecue.’
The murder could have been a “warning” to Amine, the prosecutor said. Amine, who grew up in the northern neighbourhoods of Marseille, in 2020 founded a non-governmental organisation called Conscience, which supports the families of those killed. The activist has been under police protection since last month after writing a book that highlighted stories of the victims of drug trafficking in the city.
At least 14 people have been killed in drug-related crimes since the beginning of this year across the Marseille region, according to official figures.
Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin said on Friday, November 14, that the killing of Mehdi Kessaci a day earlier was a “frightening tipping point.”
Benoît Payan, the mayor of Marseille, struck a similar tone, stating that the crime would usher the fight against drug trafficking into “a new era” if its intimidation motive is confirmed.
Meanwhile, another shooting in Grenoble left a 13-year-old gravely wounded, authorities said over the weekend.
The incident has further heightened public alarm and underscored the growing toll of narcotics-related violence across the country. More than 10% of homicides last year were related to drug trafficking, according to Interior Ministry statistics. In the wake of such brazen violence, security issues have become a key worry for voters ahead of municipal elections set for spring 2026, surveys show. An Ifop poll released on Sunday indicated that security was the top concern for 76% of voters.
Marine Le Pen, parliamentary leader of the right-wing Rassemblement National, argued that current drug legislation is far from sufficient. She reiterated her party’s long-standing demands for mandatory minimum sentences, the deportation of foreign offenders involved in trafficking, and the suspension of social benefits for convicted traffickers.
Enough meetings, enough empty promises in the face of gangs that are bloodying France every day; it is time for a real political and legal battle. … These essential measures, which we proposed during parliamentary debates, were rejected by the government. It is urgent for the executive branch to take action now.
This incident, however, is far from unique in Western Europe. Belgian authorities are dismantling an average of three illegal migrant drug laboratories per month, with 19 uncovered in the first half of 2025, according to Interior Minister Bernard Quintin. This follows a total of 33 busted labs in all of 2024.
The Belgian minister admitted:
Belgium and also the Netherlands themselves are still among the largest export countries of synthetic drugs.
