Saint-Ouen Narcobanditry Trial: Malsain, Morocco and the Drug War

French justice began a major trial this Monday, February 2, focusing on a spiral of violence that plunged the town of Saint-Ouen into mourning in autumn 2020. At the heart of the case is El Mehdi Zouhairi, nicknamed “Malsain” or “the Big Man,” who is being tried for a double murder and six attempted murders committed within a few weeks. Absent from the defendants’ box, the man described as the leader of the “Boutes” drug-dealing spot allegedly orchestrated these punitive expeditions from Morocco, where he settled after the assassination of his rival Mohamed Gacem in 2019.

Read more: Tidiane and Sofiane murders: the killers in the dock, the alleged mastermind still in Morocco?

The indictment details a tragedy driven by a desire for revenge and territorial control. On September 14, 2020, 17-year-old Tidiane Bagayoko and Sofiane Mjaiber, nicknamed “the Moroccan,” were shot dead in the cellars of the Soubise housing estate while they were counting the day’s takings. Mjaiber, the brother of a former associate of Zouhairi who had switched sides to join the rival clan, was allegedly the target of a €200,000 contract. According to criminal brigade investigators, the alleged mastermind entrusted the direction of the double homicide to twin brothers Samuel and Jérémy Y., who then allegedly recruited the suspected shooters, reports Paris Match.

Read more: From his flight to Morocco to the defendants’ box, Karim Harrat’s trial opens in Marseille

The investigation shed light on a brutal modus operandi, based on the technical analysis of telephone conversations. An alleged right-hand man in the organization stated that the network leader wanted to “spread terror” by ordering murders directly from Morocco. This intimidation strategy continued on October 3, 2020, at the Ampère housing estate, where a burst of Kalashnikov fire targeted six people in an attempt to seize a strategic drug-dealing spot. Searches conducted during the investigation led to the seizure of a substantial arsenal, including submachine guns and handguns along with large quantities of ammunition.

Experts have been struck by El Mehdi Zouhairi’s dual profile. A former president of a production company that launched the careers of well-known rappers, this man—whose intelligence quotient was deemed well above average—grew up in an environment marked by the absence of a father who had returned to live in Morocco. Already sentenced in absentia to ten years in prison for other criminal schemes, he remains the central figure in a trial whose proceedings, scheduled to last one month, are expected to shed light on the logistical organization behind these settling-of-scores attacks.