Organized Crime in France

Paris - La Belle Époque

Organized crime in France is primarily based in major cities like Marseille, Grenoble, Paris, and Lyon. It is often referred to as grand banditisme in France.

From the 1900s to the late 1930s, le milieu primarily engaged in prostitution, bookmaking, fencing, and hijacking. Favored criminal activity in France turned to bank robbery, drug trafficking, and smuggling from 1940 to the late 1970s. The 1980s saw a resurgence of large-scale bank robberies and heists. From 1990 to 2000, criminal organizations established complex extortion rings in Marseille extending to Aix-en-Provence and the greater French Riviera. Since 2002, Le Milieu is known for, in addition to its extortion rings, large counterfeiting and white-collar crime operations. Due to increased financial regulation, Le Milieu has collectively pushed to integrate their crime profits into the legal economy.

France's geographical location makes it an attractive venue for trafficking (i.e. smuggling) and counterfeiting. The port of Marseille is a hub for Le Milieu to move large amounts of product into domestic and European markets.[3] Low economic development continues to be the largest factor in youth joining French criminal organizations.

The most prominent criminal organization within Le Milieu is the Corsican mafia (milieu corse). Although the mafia has encompassed many criminal groups from the 1960s to the 1980s, modern (1990s–present) criminal activity is managed by the Marseille-based Unione Corse and Northern Corsica–based Gang de la Brise de Mer (i.e. "the sea breeze gang"). In 2007, an internal conflict led to the deaths of 102 people on the island of Corsica fracturing the influence of the two larger groups in the island (Brise de mer gang and Colonna family). These two mobs remain powerful as of 2024, often controlling nightclubs, bars, restaurants, apartments, and hotels in Aix-en-Provence, Marseille and the French Riviera. In 2016, it was estimated that France's organized crime net US$23 billion in its underground economy.

Terms used

The term milieu literally means middle or environment and figuratively society or environment, used as shorthand for le milieu criminel (criminal environment) or le milieu interlope (illegal environment). It's a generic term that can designate any type it criminal society (eg: le milieu chinois, short for le milieu criminel chinois, the Chinese criminal underworld), when used without additional info or context (Le milieu) it is inferred as native historical French criminal society and it refers to the set of criminal figures operating in the French metropolitan areas who are known to the public for being involved in high level organized crime. Members working within the milieu are collectively known as the French mob. This category does not include criminal organizations that were formed in another country and operate within France (e.g. the Campanian Camorra, Serbian mafia, Albanian mafia, Chinese Triads, or Kurdish terrorist PKK).[6] French gangs considered part of the milieu usually have long-standing ties to the country.[8] An increase in youth-centered gang activity lead to the separation of the Milieu.

"Traditional Milieu" (1930 to 1989): encompasses the older, foundational criminal organizations of the French underworld "French Corsican mafia" or "Milieu corso-marseillais" (1990–present): encompasses the newer, modern criminal groups in France and Corsica

Organization

Due to the early historical connection the Corsican mafia shares with the Sicilian one, the modern structure of most French mobs typically break down into crime families with a strict hierarchy. Usually the goodfellas that carry out "orders" are known as une équipe multi-qualifiée (i.e. a multi-skilled team) composed of les beaux voyous (i.e. "the good fellows"). Most of these groups of members maintain and protect "mouvances" (i.e. territory). Members of the French Mob are highly professional as compared to lower-level crime groups in that they usually split their work by specialty (e.g. some members serve as the "brain", while others the "muscle" and/or "specialist").

• Caïd (French: [kay-id] "the big boss"; "the boss")
• Parrain (French: [pah-rahn] "godfather")
• Spécialiste (French: [speh-sjah-leest] "specialist")
• Associés ("associate")
• Beaux voyous ([bow vwah-yo] "goodfella"; "the good fellows")

Externally, and more generally, the organization of the French mob is as follows:

Le Milieu (French: [luh mil-yuh]) "the underworld") / The French Mob: a general term for criminal organizations in France Mafia-type criminal organizations (e.g. the Corsican mafia): a criminal network composed of crime families Gangs (e.g. Rédoine Faïd gang, Gang des postiches): a smaller criminal group with a soft hierarchy Crime families (e.g. Carbone crime family): a subset of a mafia-type organization that executes orders and/or missions

=Origins: 1910s to 1920s

Jules Bonnot (upper right) founded the Bonnot Gang in 1911. The history of organized crime in France can be traced to the French Revolution (1789 to 1799). It is however with the turn of the 20th century that local mobsters became highly organized and created crime families. During the 1910s and 1920s, Pigalle and Rue Saint-Denis (in Paris) served as a hub for prostitution. Due to decentralized political control in Corsica during the 1900s, many criminal organizations flourished. Members of these gangs moved from the island of Corsica to the southern coasts of France during the early 20th century. From 1920 to 1930, prostitution was the most important criminal activity, controlled in Marseille by the Corsican Godfather, Paul Carbone and the Italian-French Godfather François Spirito. In Paris, the Pigalle area were fought over by Corsican godfathers such as Jean-Paul Stefani and Ange Saliceti.

"French Connection": 1930s to 1970s

During the 1940s and 1950s, many gangs — most notably the Tractions Avant gang – committed large scale bank robberies. During the 1970s, the most powerful gang in Paris was the Zemmour crime family, a Jewish/pied noir clan. The Zemmour brothers controlled prostitution in the French capital and were considered to be Godfathers of Paris. As prostitution decreased, criminal activities turned to more white-collar crimes. In 1930, the two godfathers (Carbone and Spirito) spearheaded the French Connection – a global heroin smuggling ring reaching its peak in the 1960s and 1970s. Drugs were smuggled from Turkey to France and then to the United States through Canada. The French Connection was guided by various crime families into the late 1970s before it was disbanded by French authorities. The "Milieu of Marseille" (i.e. "the underworld of Marseille") was left without political leadership after the French Connection was destroyed. The Unione Corse established widespread infrastructure in the 1930s and helped guide the Milieu out of the French Connection era.