A prominent French anti-drugs campaigner whose brother was killed by drugs criminals last week, five years after the murder of his elder brother, has vowed to stand up to intimidation and 'keep telling the truth about drugs violence.'
Amine Kessaci, 22, was writing in Le Monde newspaper a day after the funeral of his younger brother Mehdi, whose murder last week has been described by the government as a turning point in France's drugs wars.
'Yesterday I lost my brother. Today I speak out,' he wrote in his opinion piece.
'[The drugs-traffickers] strike at us in order to break, to tame, to subdue. They want to wipe out any resistance, to break any free spirit, to kill in the egg any embryo of revolt.'
Mehdi Kessaci, 20, was shot dead last Wednesday as he parked his car in central Marseille in what appears to have been a warning or punishment aimed at his older brother, Amine, from the city's drugs gangs.
Speaking after a ministerial meeting on drugs crime at the Elysée palace on Tuesday, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez stated: 'We all agreed that this premeditated murder was something totally new. It's clearly a crime of intimidation. It's a new level of violence.'
Mehdi was the second Kessaci brother to be killed by drugs criminals. In 2020, the body of Brahim Kessaci, then 22, was found in a burnt-out car. This murder prompted Amine to launch his association, Conscience, which aims to expose the damage to working-class communities caused by gangs.
Marseille is renowned for its worsening drug wars, and Amine Kessaci recently wrote a book called Marseille Wipe Your Tears – Life and Death in a Land of Drugs.
In his Le Monde article, Amine revealed he was recently warned by police to leave Marseille because of threats to his life. He attended his younger brother's funeral wearing a bullet-proof jacket and under heavy police protection.
'I speak because I have no choice but to fight if I don't want to die. I speak because I know that silence is the refuge of our enemies,' he wrote, urging courage from citizens and action from the government.
The murder of Mehdi Kessaci has reignited the national spotlight on a drug trafficking problem that French experts and ministers agree is reaching almost unmanageable proportions, with a reported turnover of €7 billion in the drugs trade, surpassing the entire budget of the justice ministry.
Amid this backdrop, President Emmanuel Macron has called for an extensive review of anti-drug laws and a crackdown on organized crime, highlighting the urgency of addressing this escalating crisis.
Amine Kessaci, 22, was writing in Le Monde newspaper a day after the funeral of his younger brother Mehdi, whose murder last week has been described by the government as a turning point in France's drugs wars.
'Yesterday I lost my brother. Today I speak out,' he wrote in his opinion piece.
'[The drugs-traffickers] strike at us in order to break, to tame, to subdue. They want to wipe out any resistance, to break any free spirit, to kill in the egg any embryo of revolt.'
Mehdi Kessaci, 20, was shot dead last Wednesday as he parked his car in central Marseille in what appears to have been a warning or punishment aimed at his older brother, Amine, from the city's drugs gangs.
Speaking after a ministerial meeting on drugs crime at the Elysée palace on Tuesday, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez stated: 'We all agreed that this premeditated murder was something totally new. It's clearly a crime of intimidation. It's a new level of violence.'
Mehdi was the second Kessaci brother to be killed by drugs criminals. In 2020, the body of Brahim Kessaci, then 22, was found in a burnt-out car. This murder prompted Amine to launch his association, Conscience, which aims to expose the damage to working-class communities caused by gangs.
Marseille is renowned for its worsening drug wars, and Amine Kessaci recently wrote a book called Marseille Wipe Your Tears – Life and Death in a Land of Drugs.
In his Le Monde article, Amine revealed he was recently warned by police to leave Marseille because of threats to his life. He attended his younger brother's funeral wearing a bullet-proof jacket and under heavy police protection.
'I speak because I have no choice but to fight if I don't want to die. I speak because I know that silence is the refuge of our enemies,' he wrote, urging courage from citizens and action from the government.
The murder of Mehdi Kessaci has reignited the national spotlight on a drug trafficking problem that French experts and ministers agree is reaching almost unmanageable proportions, with a reported turnover of €7 billion in the drugs trade, surpassing the entire budget of the justice ministry.
Amid this backdrop, President Emmanuel Macron has called for an extensive review of anti-drug laws and a crackdown on organized crime, highlighting the urgency of addressing this escalating crisis.
