Organized crime in France

Favored criminal activity in France turned to bank robbery, drug trafficking, and smuggling from 1940 to the late 1970s.

From 1990 to 2000, criminal organizations established complex extortion rings in Marseille extending to Aix-en-Provence and the greater French Riviera.

Due to increased financial regulation, Le Milieu has collectively pushed to integrate their crime profits into the legal economy.

The port of Marseille is a hub for Le Milieu to move large amounts of product into domestic and European markets.

[4] 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.

[3] 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").

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.

[2] The Unione Corse established widespread infrastructure in the 1930s and helped guide the Milieu out of the French Connection era.

[9] During the 1980s, many "godfathers" (e.g. Tany Zampa, Jacky Imbert, and Francis Vanverberghe) fought for control over racketeering and drug trafficking in the port area of Marseille.

Claude Genova quickly assumed the gap the brothers left and continued running low-level prostitution rings until his 1994 assassination.

Low economic growth in the south of France is also leading youth to join the ranks as drug mules to gain an income alternative.

[21][22][23] On 18 October 2011, a large holding of art was stolen from the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Ajaccio, Corsica, by the Valinco, Brise de Mer, and Venzolasca gangs.

The most famous of them is the Hornec crime family;[25] they regularly participate in robberies, extortion, drug trafficking, prostitution, and illegal slots machines.