Organized Crime in Paris

When you hear about OC in France, the city which immediately comes to mind is Marseille. But Paris is a lot bigger, so there must also be a lot of organized crime going on. But there isn't much information about that. So far the things I've found are these :
The Hornec clan is said to be the most powerful OC gang in the capital. They are of Manush descent ( french gypsies, but these aren't the same gypsies as the more well known pickpocketting Roma community) and the bulk of their gang consists of other younger Manush people and also a lot of Algerians. They are very organized and the closest thing to a 'homegrown' ( excluding the Algerians) ''mafia'' in the French capital.
It is said that there are also some more or less organized and extraordinary brutal Tamil gangs active in Paris.
There are of course also some black African and French Antillean gangs active, mostly in the suburbs, but they are not very organized, not all that powerful and more involved in petty crime than in serious organized crime.
There may be some Corsican gangs active, but they are far more prevalent and noteworthy in the Cote D'Azur.

For the rest not much is known about OC in Paris. Who else has some information on what other ( organized ) gangs there are in Paris ?

The Corscican Mafia now control the streets of Paris. They are involved in Racketeering, Robbery, Extortion, Prostitution, Money Laundering, Drug Trade, Gun Trade, Contract killing, Loansharking. The Corsican's are maped (all over the world). They are also involved in Political Corruption with Presidents and Priminster's. The Corsican's control some Las Vegas Casinos and Gambling operations. The Film American Gangster, The Corsican's had a failed assassination on Frank Lucas after he put them out of business through the Harlem Drug Trade in the 1960s through the 1970s.

American Gangster is not a very accurate portrayal. Although he was a big time drug dealer in new york, frank lucas did not put the corsicans out of business. In real life he was not the one bringing heroin into the country it was another black gangster army vet named ike atkinson who was based in north carolina who was smuggling heroin in from south east asia and then selling it to american distributors lucas being one of them. Corsicans were the suppliers, lucas would not have been a threat to them. the french connection had even worked with some black gangsters directly such as melvin williams in baltimore and frank matthews who were way bigger drug dealers than lucas. Nicky Barnes was the guy that controlled harlems drug trade from the top down throughout the 70s.

i didn't know corsicans were still so active in mainland france

In Marseille they are very active and still one of the strongest, although there are also a lot of Italian clans active there.
I didn't know they were really active in Paris though

yes they are strong in marseille but i doubt they are so strong in paris

As far as I know Marseille is for Corsican what Ontario is for the Calabrians.
This article by Le Figaro gives you a general idea of how many criminal organizations are currently believed to be active in France.

Unfortunately for non-Quebecers, Babel Fish gave me some real poor results. Anyone knows any good free translating software?

- Criminal organizations in France:
http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/...t-en-france.php

Here's some links related to the Corsicans:

- Updates of the clan wars in Corsica and Marseille:
http://www.lepoint.fr/societe/la-decomposition-des-clans-criminels-corses-08-08-2012-1494119_23.php

- General info of the clan war (posted by Ciccogol on another Corsican thread):
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/19/opinion/the-corsican-connection.html?pagewanted=all

- Corsican crime boss Jacques Mariani sentenced to 7 yrs for racketeering
http://www.corsematin.com/article/papier...aix.589754.html

obviously corsica, marseille and maybe grenoble are the capital of organized crime in france
in paris and other cities there are only little local gangs and some crews of italian, chinese and russian mafia at most

it's strange they dont include algerians between african groups, they should be very active in france

It was a movie basic example of them.

I know that the Algerians where included in the Hornec gang, which consists of both French gypsies and Algerians. They were very powerful, but I think their power has declined a bit. In Marseille there also were a lot of Algerian gangsters active like Farhid Berrhama and Saïd Tir, but they mostly cooperate with the Corsicans and Italians.
It looks like in Paris nowadays the most active crews are some Russian groups, Triads, Tamil gangs, some Albanian crews and then the characters from the French 'milieu' ( mostly French Gypsies along with Algerians).
Hells Angels are said to be pretty big in Bretagne.

i think among balkan groups only serbians are really active in france

I don't think the Serbs are that active in France nowadays. Maybe in theft. Serbs are more active in the Scandinavian countries, Netherlands, it's neighbouring Yugoslav countries and Austria. In those countries they still are involved in a wide range of criminal activities such as drug trafficking, arms trafficking, contract killing, fraud,...
Maybe they're also still strong in Germany but I'm not really sure about that, since Germany in recent years is home to Albanian, Turkish, Russian and Vietnamese mobs and Germany has also seen the rise of particulary brutal and increasingly powerful criminal organizations composed of Mhallami people such as the 'Miri clan'.

i mean that among balkan groups probably they are the most active in france, albanians are not active in france or if they are on a very low level

according to german police turkish, serbian and italian organized crime groups are the most active among foreign groups

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57523337/poverty-pulls-marseilles-into-deadly-gang-war/

Forget about Paris, Marseille is apparently where the brutal stuff happens. If the Corsican mafia clans constantly warring against each other weren't enough, the 'caids des cites' ( literally 'big boys from the ghettos' ) are growing up, becoming involved in higher-level criminal activities like multi-million drug trafficking, extortion and contract killing. In addition to the Corsicans, they now have French Gypsy, Algerian and Tunisian criminal gangs and clans ripping each other to pieces with their favorite weapon of choice : the Kalashnikov. Assassinations in broad daylight, bodies set on fire,...it's beginning to look like a war zone.
The same thing is happening in Grenoble. The Italians who used to run things over there have been put out of business and the more loosely organized, but more numerous and far more brutal Gitanos and Maghrebians from the poor banlieues are taking over ( or have already taken over).

Here's an article in French :
http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/...-grenoblois.php

marseille was always more violent than paris
i remember there was a violent mafia war between sicilians and corsicans in grenoble in the 70s and 80s

Montreuil: the fief of the Hornec clan raided

http://www.leparisien.fr/faits-divers/un-frere-du-clan-hornec-en-fuite-14-01-2019-7988499.php

In French Law they are Travellers, remaining very vague to avoid any stigmatization, prejudices or misconceptions related to a sensitive subject and not to hurt anyone.

Black gangs in Paris not well organized??
You should read about Kevin Doure. A guy from Martinique who was sending drugs in France. Caribbean groups from the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Martinique and Guadeloupe are sendings drugs to African groups in the « banlieus » of Paris.
Place like the 92 and 93, black african gangs are heavy and well organized.

https://www.google.ca/amp/m.leparis...devant-la-justice-27-05-2018-7738122.php

Marseille is run by Corsican and people from the Maghreb. And of course you will always find the Italians.

Also the Doumbia brothers were or are still pretty heavy in Paris. They have clubs, agency for football players, cars dealerships etc.
Their origins are from the Ivory Coast

That theme with Afro/Black crime groups being unorganized is a running gag by now. They can't help themselves with being interested in what catches their attention and others don't.

Yeah for real, because just in France, you had Kevin Doure, the french media called him the French Pablo Escobar. You have frwnch documentary about him, talking about how he’s sending kilos of cocaine from Martinique to the Havre (port in France). And the Doumbia brothers got guys working in the docs, to take the cocaine and distributing it in the 93 and other places in Paris.
The Doumbia brothers have many buisnesses in Paris, night clubs, agency etc. One of the Doumbia brother was well known in the football scene. They were even trafficking football matches.

And Kevin Doure got a company in Dubai, Miami, France and China.

You can read about it in French articles

Very interesting.

French street gangs in particular Black African gangs, the Zoulous, have modelled themselves after American gang and rap culture, since the 1960s.

Les Zoulous were african groups that were fighting the skinheads in the 80s.

And yes, hip hop has influenced europe, just like it has influenced africa, asia or other place of the world.
Even the new generation of italians are influenced by hip hop.

Well if anybody has been reading my posts it's clear that I don't consider black crime groups to be disorganized by default. There's plenty of African American as well as Caribbean groups in North America that move unreal amounts of dope, have diversified their rackets and make a ton of money.

Same in the Netherlands where there have been Surinamese individuals active in large-scale cocaine trafficking, less in the form of a "group" but more as key sources for cocaine cooperating with the local Dutch crime firms. In more recent years there are Curaçaoan gangs that have scaled up their activities in a similar way to the Caribbean groups in North America: importing as well as distribution among other things.

Several black crime groups should definitely be considered organized crime and I never stated otherwise.

It's just that there doesn't seem to be a lot of information on the black gangs in France, especially not in regards to large scale stuff. Whenever I do some research on local organized crime in France what comes up the most seems to be the Corsican mob, the Traveller crime families (Hornec, Bengler, Morival...) as well as the Algerian gangs (Hakkar, Remadnia, Tir...) in which the Travellers and the North Africans are mostly in direct cooperation.

I wasn't aware of Kevin Doure though. Thanks for sharing the article.

Are there any predominantly or exclusively ethnic French OC groups in Paris besides ( perhaps ) certain chapters of the Hells Angels ?

The Hornec's and their direct entourage in Paris (as is the case with most of the other infamous "Traveller" crime families in France) are not "gypsies" like the traveling Roma people from Eastern Europe or the Sinti people from Western Europe, but they're described more like "Voyageurs" - indigenous traveling people that are of European descent, mostly from France, Germany or Switzerland. It's the same like in the Netherlands where the "Reizigers/Woonwagenbewoners" are mostly of indigenous Dutch or sometimes of German descent or the Irish Travellers in Ireland that are of indigenous Irish descent.

The Hornec's for instance have their origins in the Alsace region of Germany, but they'd consider themselves French more than anything. The crime families from the settled Traveller communities are probably the closest thing to indigenous "French" organized crime.
You could consider Corsican OC as indigenous "French" OC as well, but they probably don't like hearing that lol.

There are however quite a few ethnic French individuals from France that are definitely involved in upper tier organized crime; mostly with connections to the Corsicans and the Voyageurs. In Brussels in the 80's there were a couple of French brothers, originally from a town at the Belgian border, active in large scale narcotics trafficking, prostitution, forgery, art theft... One in particular was probably one of the biggest and most successful criminals in Belgium ever. Very well protected individual with far-reaching law enforcement and "high society" connections.

KJ is right the native french caïds have always been intertwined with italians, corsicans and travellers. It's part of the Paris nightlife with the cabarets, nightclubs and casinos, but the days of Jacky le Mat are over.

Aren't the Hornecs Yeniche and/or Jenish ( don't know which term is more appropriate ) though ? Also what's the name of that fellow you mentioned or are you not at liberty to say ?


Anyways thanks for the information .

The Hornec's are of German descent, yeah. German-speaking Travellers of white European descent (mostly from Germany and Switzerland) are often described as "Yenish". The Yenish moved en masse to France. Secretly they might be one of the biggest Traveller populations in France; maybe even bigger than the French Sinti, which is the oldest "gypsy" community in the country.

A lot of the better known Traveller criminal families in France seem to be Yenish. The Hornec's (as well as other clan members like Bauer and Dorkel), the Bengler's...in Wallonia you also have the Becker's (notorious in the 80's and 90's)...
Christophe Dettinger, that boxer that beat up a few cops during those 'gilets jaunes' protests is Yenish as well. Tough bunch.

After the Romani and Sinti the third largest travelling group in Europe is the Yenish.
There are several other groups like the Calé in Spain and Portugal, scottish gypsies, irish travellers, dutch travellers, norwegian travellers etc..