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