Residents of the Frais-Vallon housing project made their way to the mosque for the prayer service for Mehdi Kessaci, in Marseille, on November 18, 2025. ARTHUR LARIE FOR LE MONDE
Masked members of France's elite RAID unit, armed with assault rifles, bomb disposal teams, armored sedans escorting the family and a police operation entirely sealing off the Frais-Vallon housing project in the 13th arrondissement and then the Saint-Henri cemetery in the 16th in northern Marseille. The funeral of Mehdi Kessaci, the younger brother of environmental activist and prominent anti-drug campaigner Amine Kessaci, took on an unreal tone on Tuesday, November 18. The unprecedented deployment of law enforcement officers for a funeral, with tension mingling with the grief of loved ones, served as a constant reminder throughout the day of how the premeditated murder on November 13, of this 20-year-old man was a first in France.
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Brother of Marseille anti-drugs figure murdered on street
Still a student pursuing banking studies at a high school in the center of the city and preparing to retake the police civil service exam, Mehdi Kessaci had, according to Marseille's chief prosecutor, Nicolas Bessone, "nothing to do with drug trafficking." After several days of investigation, the theory that Amine Kessaci was the intended target, with his younger brother killed in his place, remained the chief line of inquiry for the justice system. "An act of intimidation," said Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez, which could mark a "turning point" in the reach of drug trafficking networks in France.
