GIGGLING as she tosses again her lengthy blonde ponytail, the petite French teenager is a far cry from a stereotypical drug vendor.

However this slender younger lady, nicknamed Ghost, is preventing to outlive within the harmful slum neighbourhoods of Marseille, France. 

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Though Ghost is just too terrified to share her actual identification, she dares to confess that she is chased by gun-toting rival gang members as much as ten instances a day, with the cops scorching on their heels too.

That is the truth of life for numerous younger individuals on the streets of Marseille, which has been dubbed Europe’s most harmful metropolis following a file excessive of 49 drug-related murders in 2023.

Now, a hard-hitting new BBC documentary sees Ashley Cain discover the crime capital’s darkish underworld, speaking to harmful sellers, becoming a member of police raids and even monitoring down a brazen hitman who boasts of blasting heads off with shotguns for €15,000 a pop.

Opening up on the stunning day by day threats she encounters, Ghost brags: “The one hazard is the police or rival gangs taking pictures at us. If that occurs I am going to simply crouch down or disguise behind a automobile.

“I’m a woman, so in the event that they’re males and so they catch me they will’t search me. I transfer away as quick as I can, as quick as attainable. If I’ve to run I run quick.”

Ghost brandishes a transparent freezer bag bulging with over a thousand euros price of unlawful road medicine, boasting that she will be able to promote 5 instances that quantity some days.

However whereas enterprise is brisk, she solely earns €200 for herself.

The remainder of her income are creamed off by fearsome gang leaders who rule the run-down estates north of town, the place many youngsters drop out of faculty early.

Round 40 per cent of 15-24-year-olds are unemployed – twice the nationwide common.

In 2023 authorities seized seven tonnes of hashish, €21million in prison belongings and 107 assault rifles.

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In every episode of his new collection, former footballer Ashley, 34, visits harmful places to satisfy individuals who have chosen lifetime of “excessive criminality” with “no judgement, no agenda”.

He explains: “To do this I’m going to must win their belief and get deep into their world. I’ll not condone what they do to get by, however by strolling of their footwear can I no less than perceive them?”

Narco wars

Travelling to the French port to research the lethal narco wars, Ashley needs to know what motivates children to get caught up within the underworld of rival gangs. 

However outsiders are usually not welcome and he has to maintain a low profile.

Sporting a stab vest in an unmarked automobile, he goes on an undercover evening patrol with specialist cops whose job it’s to guard susceptible children being preyed upon in probably the most harmful districts, that are dominated by drug gangs.

Medication pour into the well-connected port from Africa, and France is now Europe’s main hashish shopper. 

In Marseille, customers order medicine by way of Snapchat and they’re delivered on scooters like takeaways.

However the police are underfunded and having hassle curbing the trafficking.

“It’s spooky. I can’t imagine how organised they’re, however f*** me it was good to seek out out,” says Ashley.

Hitman horror

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Within the present’s most stunning scenes, the star dangers his security to rearrange a sinister assembly with a hitman. 

Ashley needs to know the way the paid killer can justify taking a life.

Totally disguised in a black balaclava, the hitman brandishes his collection of weapons and says: “On the streets of Marseille we use Kalashnikov rifles, revolvers and pump motion shotguns. 

“Mainly something that can be utilized to shoot. I’ve a most well-liked weapon, it’s my revolver. It is vitally very highly effective. It’s discreet and works on a regular basis.”

The hitman then pulls out an infinite pump motion shotgun and says: “That’s to clear every thing. Completed, that’s to get rid of. No extra head, nothing.

“It’s for whenever you’re confronted with lots of people. When it’s important to use it, you utilize it.”

He admits he began promoting medicine on the age of 16, earlier than shifting on to turn into a lookout, then he labored as a tout whose job it’s to herald prospects to the sellers’ dens. 

He defined: “Someday I used to be pressured to do one thing that I type of remorse. My life hit all-time low and I needed to homicide somebody for cash. You don’t assume. If you concentrate on it you gained’t do it.”

He says he earns about €15,000 (£12,800) for somebody’s life and now feels he has no alternative however to proceed his reign of terror.

Reflecting on the stunning assembly, afterwards, Ashley says: “On one hand he was open, sincere and good however I can’t cease serious about the sufferer’s household. He hasn’t been caught, he hasn’t been punished. 

“You meet excessive individuals doing excessive issues in excessive locations. Numerous the time they’re nothing such as you anticipated. You can’t take away what they’ve executed.”

Bosses behind bars

As a part of his investigation, Ashley additionally manages to talk to a big-time drug boss who has been in jail for 25 years – however nonetheless manages to make a video name by way of Snapchat. 

He has entry to a cellphone, medicine and an Xbox inside his cell, and makes the astonishing admission that he’s nonetheless creating wealth dealing medicine from behind bars.

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However to know the darkish components of life in present-day Marseille, Ashley must study of the previous, so he meets a former gangster who’s a surviving member of town’s notorious French Connection gang – immortalised within the Hollywood movie concerning the medicine commerce again within the Seventies and Nineteen Eighties. 

The veteran gangster, who spent years in jail, is nicely revered by the youthful road sellers who freely inform him that they’re promoting cocaine, hash and weed “to outlive”.

Some say they’re the breadwinners and have to deal to pay the hire and supply meals for his or her households. 

“One incorrect look and you might lose your life,” admits one nameless teen. 

They present Ashley their stashes of medicine however refuse to reply questions on how a lot cash they make and confess that they “shouldn’t have any desires”. 

“It breaks my coronary heart,” says Ashley later. “These poor neighbourhoods actually have been deserted by the authorities.” 

Sparkles of hope

However Ashley additionally meets one sufferer of a taking pictures who has turned his life round by touchdown a job in an area restaurant.

He says: “I dream of constructive issues, that everybody succeeds within the neighbourhood and everybody will get on nicely.”

And Ashley tells him: “It is a lot safer and extra sincere than what is going on on the market.” 

As a part of the movie, the previous Coventry Metropolis star is granted entry to a harmful ‘drug store’ the place there are menus of the narcotics accessible spray painted on the partitions.

Someday I used to be pressured to one thing that I type of remorse. My life hit all-time low and I needed to homicide somebody for cash

Marseille hitman

However the seedy den is raided simply earlier than they arrive.

As an alternative, he has the prospect to talk to the 17-year-old boy who’s appearing as a lookout for police – he has put out a roadblock to decelerate cop automobiles.

Ashley says: “There may be f*** all for anybody to do right here. I really feel on edge, I can’t think about having to stay right here.”

Neighborhood employee Momo explains why these children select a lifetime of crime

“The scenario has turn into chaotic,” he says. “The youth of at the moment is drifting, they’re misplaced.”

A neighborhood rapper often called Hitch goals to be a task mannequin, saying: “If my music can assist younger individuals evolve into one thing higher that’s higher.”

Ashley agrees: “It’s a technique to get out of this life, to stay a greater life, to unfold hope.”

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