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Marseille, France, hit by rising drug-related violence

   JEAN-PAUL PELISSIER/Reuters - French policemen check the identity
   papers with a resident during a control operation in apartment housing
   buildings at Air-Bel in Marseille, on March 15, 2013.

By Edward Cody, E-mail the writer

   MARSEILLE, France — This was supposed to be the year for Marseille.

   The gritty Mediterranean port, France’s second-largest city, was
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   turns deadly during Argentine police strike.

   But despite the cultural renaissance — not to mention Marseille’s famed
   fish soup — all people here are talking about is murder and drug
   trafficking. In the past two weeks, five killings have been recorded
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   the city’s infamous high-rise slums.

   The eruption has refocused attention on Marseille’s long-standing
   reputation as a European drug-smuggling hub, a place where entire
   neighborhoods have slipped away from police control and fallen under
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   African hashish and settle turf disputes with AK-47 assault rifles.

   “Marseille is sick with its violence,” Interior Minister Manuel Valls
   said.

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   suburbs, inhabited mainly by North African immigrants, where youth
   unemployment is double the national average of 10 percent. But he said
   ending drug violence in Marseille is mainly up to the Socialist-run
   government in Paris headed by President Francois Hollande.

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   depends essentially on the government,” Gaudin said in a Q&A with the
   newspaper Le Figaro. “I would like the government to fully realize that
   Marseille needs to be helped.”

   Gaudin’s statement underlined the political quotient in Marseille’s
   violence. The city, along with others across France, has scheduled
   municipal elections next year. A particularly important prize with
   850,000 residents, Marseille has become the target of several potential
   Socialist and UMP candidates.