Overview
- Authorities mounted a coordinated operation across Marseille targeting 15 points of sale with roughly 1,500 police and gendarmes, supported by seven canine teams, five drone units and pre-targeting of about twenty businesses.
- By Tuesday evening, police reported 79 arrests after an early afternoon tally of about 20, with searches and controls continuing into the night.
- On-the-ground seizures were mostly small sums of cash and quantities of drugs, even as officials highlight a 146% rise in cocaine seizures in 2025 to 641 kilograms.
- Many residents described the raids as disruptive or performative, citing frequent police interventions and skepticism about lasting effects on entrenched trafficking.
- Separately from the day’s raids, investigators recently dismantled a network in the southern districts centered on the cité Benza, with seven people jailed, 3.7 kg of cannabis resin and roughly 200 g of cocaine seized, and a suspected leader traced to La Castellane.