Amine Kessaci, an activist engaged against narcotrafficking, lost a second brother to suspected criminal gangs in Marseille on Thursday. The crime took place in broad daylight in the working-class neighbourhood of Saint-Just. "A motorbike pulled up beside the car of the victim, who had just parked. The backseat passenger on the motorbike shot the victim several times," Marseille prosecutor Nicolas Bessone said. The murder of Medhi Kessaci, 20, could have been a “warning” to his activist brother Amine, said Bessone, though the investigation was still in its initial stages, he added. Their older brother, Brahim, was murdered in 2020. His charred and dismembered body was found in a burning car, a common form of retribution among drug gangs, known as a “barbecue”. “If the hypothesis of a murder of intimidation is confirmed, then yes, we have crossed a line, and not just any line,”Benoît Payan, the left-wing mayor of Marseille, told French television channel LCI, adding that it would be an “earthquake” and “a challenge to the State”. In a recent interview with French website Konbini, Amine said he wanted to make sure that “his [older] brother didn’t die for nothing”. The son of Algerian immigrants, he began leading protests at the age of 17 through the heart of Marseille with other families. The rallies sought to bring attention to the underserved, crime-ridden quartiers populaires of northern Marseille. Young men in black ski masks monitor checkpoints in Frais-Vallon, in Marseille’s 13th arrondissement, where Amine grew up. They watch who comes and goes and ensure the perpetuation of the drug trade. With his soft voice and calm confidence, Amine came to symbolise the revolt against drug trafficking in Marseille. He founded nonprofit organisation Conscience to try and change the destiny of vulnerable youth from the projects. The group also provides judicial and psychological assistance to people who lost family members to the city’s rampant drug-related violence. Read more‘Radicalised by crime’: Teen hitmen take Marseille’s grisly drug violence to new level