Félix Bingui, the alleged leader of one of the most powerful drug trafficking gangs in Marseille, was arrested in Morocco on Friday.
Published on 09/03/2024 16:39
Reading time: 2 min A police officer in front of a deal point in Marseille, December 11, 2023. (NICOLAS TUCAT / AFP)
The arrest in Morocco of the alleged leader of the Yoda clan, Félix Bingui, on Friday March 8 in Casablanca, will not be without consequences for one of the two most powerful drug trafficking gangs in Marseille. This is what Bruno Bartocetti, national secretary for the southern zone of the SGP-FO Unit police union, believes. “It was a very hard blow that was dealt to them,” he explained on franceinfo on Saturday March 9. “[Le clan] had already been weakened in the context of the settling of scores. The brother of Félix Bingui, who was killed in Spain a few months ago; now, it is he who is arrested, who will be extradited, he explains. It’s true that it gives them a very, very strong blow.”
Félix Bingui, nicknamed “the cat” and aged 33, was the subject of an Interpol red notice issued by France as part of an arrest warrant issued by the French authorities in the summer of 2023 for trafficking of narcotics. To locate him, the Moroccan authorities worked in conjunction with the National Fugitive Search Brigade. He will be “extradited quickly”according to this same source.
Yoda vs. DZ Mafia
The Yoda clan has been violently opposed in recent months to the DZ Mafia, the other dominant group in Marseille drug trafficking, causing the death of several dozen people in the Marseille city according to the authorities. But the arrest of Félix Bingui should not put an end to this violent rivalry, according to Bruno Bartocetti. “On the other hand, what also happens is that there will always unfortunately be this incessant fight that we are waging once morest narcotics, responds Bruno Bartocetti, national secretary southern zone of the police union SGP-FO Unit. Because as long as there are consumers, we will have drug networks.”
In 2023, “70%” of the “narchomicides” or attempted homicides by an organized gang in Marseille were linked to this dispute between DZ Mafia and Yoda, with a “very strong peak” in August, the Marseille public prosecutor indicated on franceinfo on December 22. It was as part of this rivalry that another member of the Yoda clan was assassinated in Salou, Spain, in May 2023. Nine people were indicted in this case at the beginning of January.
In 2023, 49 people were killed in Bouches-du-Rhône amid drug trafficking, according to the police headquarters.
