A police officer at the scene where two people were killed and three others injured during a shooting in the Moulins district of Nice, May 11, 2026 (AFP / Frederic DIDES)
Two men and a woman suspected of being involved in the shooting which left two dead and six injured in Nice last week have been indicted and placed in pre-trial detention, a new case illustrating the “turf wars” linked to narcobanditism.
Among these three people is the presumed shooter who arrived on a scooter, a 30-year-old man suspected of having opened fire in broad daylight in a shopping square in the popular Moulins district, on the outskirts of Nice, the Marseille prosecutor said at a press conference. Nicolas Bessone.
This suspect had come from the Paris region a few days before the events, “had gone to Marseille where he was offered to go to Nice to carry out missions”, described Mr. Bessone. The man’s phone was geolocated to several locations linked to the shooting.
The context is that of an escalation “between two teams of drug traffickers” from the west and east of Nice, said Commissioner Eric Antonetti, head of the interdepartmental service of the Alpes-Maritimes judicial police.
“We are dealing with acts of narchomicide, acts of territorial war linked to drug trafficking,” said the Marseille prosecutor.
In these rivalries, “there are teams which are projected and which come from Marseille”, he added, his counterpart from Nice, the prosecutor Damien Martinelli, also mentioning “Parisian influences”.
– New drama “averted” –
Emergency services at the scene where at least two people were killed and three injured during a shooting in the Moulins district of Nice, May 11, 2026 (AFP / Frederic DIDES)
In addition to the alleged shooter, a 19-year-old man was indicted for transporting vehicles used in criminal operations. But also a 26-year-old woman who is accused of “playing the role of logistician” for having made apartments available to the team.
“These three people partially deny the facts with which they are accused,” underlined Mr. Bessone, the investigation into the shooting having been placed under the direction of the specialized interregional jurisdiction (Jirs) of Marseille.
He added that the arrests, which took place a few days after the events, had made it possible to “avoid a new tragedy”: another criminal operation was in preparation the next day, presenting the same operating mode.
Monday, May 11, the shooter on a scooter fired on the Place des Amaryllis, in front of a café and a candy store, killing Ahmed, 57, and Adilson, a 39-year-old football coach, two fathers who were strangers to drug trafficking, according to the investigation.
The shooting left six injured, men aged between 23 and 52. Five of them are “totally out of danger,” said Nicolas Bessone.
But the sixth victim risks after-effects due to “very serious injuries” to his legs.
– Growing involvement of minors –
In the Moulins district, violence linked to drug trafficking has caused eleven collateral victims in less than two years and has intensified in recent weeks.
Thus, the attack on May 11 would be linked to violence that occurred a few days earlier: shootings and an explosion against a grocery store on May 8, then shootings the next day targeting young people at an intersection, in another district of the city.
And in October 2025, this same Amaryllis square had already been the scene of a double murder – for which seven people are indicted: the judicial authorities speak of “unemployed young people” who are beginning to engage in deal points.
“There is a real explosion in the presence of minors in drug trafficking, particularly in Moulins,” recognized Nice prosecutor Damien Martinelli.
“If I take Nice as a whole, between 2020 and 2024 we have an increase of 300% in terms of the involvement of minors in drug trafficking,” he regretted.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuez affirmed last week his “determination” to “win” the “war” against drug trafficking, the day after another shooting, this time in Nantes, in which a 15-year-old boy was killed.
A few days earlier, three people died during an arson attack in a building in the suburbs of Lyon, the suggestion of a settling of scores between drug traffickers being considered “serious”.
