In the gritty housing projects of Marseille, a 22-year-old activist is challenging the narcotics empires that control his community while mourning the loss of two brothers to drug-related violence. Amine Kessaci, son of Algerian immigrants, has become the face of resistance against organized crime in France’s second-largest city, where he’s running in municipal elections on an uncompromising anti-drug platform.
Kessaci’s personal tragedy fuels his political mission: his older brother Brahim was found burned in a car in 2020, and his younger brother Mehdi was killed just three months ago in what authorities believe was a targeted hit to intimidate the activist. Despite receiving death threats and requiring constant police protection—including wearing a bulletproof vest at his brother’s funeral—Kessaci refuses to be silenced.
The Frais Vallon housing project where Kessaci grew up exemplifies Marseille’s struggle: 6,000 residents living in 1960s-era concrete towers controlled by drug gangs, representing some of France’s most crime-ridden neighborhoods. Here, Kessaci founded the nonprofit ‘Conscience’ at age 17 to support families affected by drug violence.
France faces escalating narcotics problems, with cocaine trafficking at historic highs and 110 drug-related homicides recorded in 2024 alone. Particularly alarming is the recruitment of minors—19% of drug trafficking suspects were teenagers in 2023, some as young as 12. The Interior Ministry reports teenagers constituted a quarter of murder and attempted murder arrests in 2024.
Kessaci, now a law student, advocates a dual approach: strengthening police presence while addressing root causes through education, job training, and urban renewal. He proposes doubling Marseille’s police force to 1,600 officers and establishing local precincts in every district. His platform also includes practical improvements like replacing mobile dumpsters with fixed bins to eliminate barriers drug gangs use to block access.
Running on outgoing left-wing mayor Benoît Payan’s ticket, Kessaci distinguishes his grassroots approach from far-right solutions, focusing on community empowerment rather than mere enforcement. He aims to dismantle what he calls ‘narcocracy’—the systemic power drug traffickers wield over neighborhoods through intimidation and economic coercion.
Despite recent security improvements (homicides dropped from 49 to 24 between 2023-2024), Kessaci remains determined: ‘In this campaign, my only enemy is drug trafficking.’ His candidacy represents a new generation’s attempt to reclaim their communities from the violent grip of organized crime.