Assassinations of Tidiane and Sofiane: the killers in the dock, the mastermind still in Morocco?

The Bobigny courthouse is preparing to delve back into one of the bloodiest periods of the drug trade in Seine-Saint-Denis. This trial, scheduled to last three weeks, concerns the execution of Tidiane, 17, and Sofiane, 25, shot dead in a basement of the Soubise housing project in September 2020. The investigation identifies El Mehdi Zouhairi, nicknamed the "Big One" or the "Unhealthy One", as the mastermind who ordered this purge to consolidate his dominance over the local drug market.

The indictment emphasizes that Zouhairi, currently on the run in Morocco, was seeking to "take over" new territories after the announcement of the planned demolition of his historic stronghold, the Boutes-en-Train housing project. The act would have been hastened by the change of allegiance of a drug dealing point manager, who had joined the rival Gacem clan. To punish this betrayal and regain the Soubise territory, the network leader is said to have mobilized intermediaries and shooters, some of whom are appearing in the dock today.

The debates will also focus on a second violent operation carried out a few weeks after the double murder, on October 3, 2020. During this attempted assassination with automatic weapons, the perpetrators are said to have mistakenly targeted a civilian vehicle, confusing it with that of a rival. This series of score-settling illustrates the ultra-violent drift of a clan war that has traumatized the population of Saint-Ouen for a long time, leading to several white marches to denounce the grip of trafficking on the housing projects.

Despite Zouhairi’s absence, already convicted in absentia to twenty years in prison in other cases, the French justice system intends to shed light on the logistics of these attacks.