What’s Happening on Foreign Correspondent Tonight Thurs 22 September on ABC TV

What’s Happening on Foreign Correspondent Tonight Thurs 22 September on ABC TV; A drug war has engulfed Marseille, athe port city in France. Rival gangs have engaged in conflict with police and one another while being funded by large profits. People are dying as a result of the gangs’ access to potent weapons.

Dealers sell cocaine, marijuana, and MDMA out of housing developments on the outskirts of the city, where they have established sophisticated and successful networks.

“We’re just traders,” says one gang boss. “Our mothers…they can’t even pay the rent so they can’t even support us. We have to do all this alone.”

In this dramatic documentary, French broadcaster M6 gains rare, inside access to the police’s elite drug squad as it tries to bust open the drug trade.

The cameras capture the high-risk operations as heavily armed police units raid the estates, arrest the dealers and confiscate their stash.

The French filmmakers also gain access to the drug gangs who explain their hierarchical structure, from the teenagers who act as lookouts at the estates’ entrances to the managers who oversee the street dealers.

“It’s a business, everyone has a role to play,” says one organiser.

The gang members also reveal that the threats from rivals means they need to be armed.

“Always keep something aside, in case they want to attack,” says one organiser.

“Between Marseille and the Kalashnikov, it’s always been a love story. Every problem has a solution. And with a Kalashnikov, the solution is quick.”

Airdate: Thursday 22 September 2022 on ABC TV.