On the murder of Mehdi Kessaci – urgent need for ambitious European action against drug trafficking

B100058/2026

European Parliament resolution on the murder of Mehdi Kessaci – urgent need for ambitious European action against drug trafficking

(2025/3020(RSP))

The European Parliament,

–having regard to the murder of Mehdi Kessaci on 13 November 2025,

–having regard to the Commission’s statement of 15 December 2025 on the murder of Mehdi Kessaci and the urgent need for ambitious action at European level against drug trafficking,

–having regard to Rule 136(2) of its Rules of Procedure,

A.whereas Mehdi Kessaci was murdered in a mafia-style killing intended to intimidate his brother Amine and his family, who are involved in the fight against the scourge of drug trafficking, particularly in Marseille;

B.whereas this murder is part of the overall context of daily violence linked to drug trafficking, which is blighting entire neighbourhoods in our cities, and more recently rural areas;

C.whereas there are countless victims of this lucrative trade; whereas these are both direct victims of the internal violence inherent in drug trafficking networks and indirect victims, who are collateral victims of drug-related score-settling, such as Socayna, a 24-year-old woman who died on 13 September 2023 after being hit by a stray bullet while in her bedroom in Marseille, and Fayed, aged 10, fatally shot in the head on 21 August 2023 while in his uncle’s car in Nîmes;

D.whereas, given the level and scale of this violence, it is necessary to address narco-terrorism and to adapt political will and resources to this scale;

E.whereas the rapid adaptation of drug trafficking requires flexible and operational responses on the ground;

F.whereas this situation is the result of too long a period of political and societal complacency, and even benevolence, towards drug addiction;

G.whereas the fight against this scourge cannot, as a matter of principle, be based on removing responsibility from consumers;

H.whereas the EU has developed, within the framework of its justice and home affairs policies, legal, operational and technical tools enabling Member States to cooperate with each other, with the support of specialised agencies, both within the European area of freedom, security and justice and at its external borders;

I.whereas these tools can be used to strengthen the fight against drug trafficking at EU level and at international level alongside non-EU countries;

J.whereas this fight must also involve the countries of origin of drugs, which cannot be regarded as reliable partners of the EU unless they cooperate genuinely and effectively in this area;

1.Condemns, in the strongest possible terms, the cowardly murder of Mehdi Kessaci and offers its full support to his family in this ordeal and, more broadly, in their heroic struggle;

General framework for combating drug trafficking

2.Considers that we must speak of a real war against drug trafficking and equip ourselves with all the legal, political, financial and material means to wage it;

3.Stresses that police forces across all continents have established the link between migrant smuggling and drug trafficking networks, with drug transport logistics also being used to transport illegal immigrants; notes that more than 90 % of migrants entering the EU illegally are believed to use these criminal networks;

4.Recalls that illegal migrants, particularly minors, are an ideal source of ‘labour’ for traffickers, as they are more discreet, mobile, dependent and therefore easier to exploit than others;

5.Considers that the EU should treat identified drug cartels as terrorist organisations, thereby facilitating the intelligence work of the national authorities in relation to them;

Police and judicial measures

6.Calls on the Member States concerned to significantly strengthen, with the support of Frontex where necessary, the human, material and technological resources allocated to external border controls in the fight against trafficking in arms, human beings and drugs, particularly in large ports, some of which have become veritable ‘cocaine hubs’;

7.Calls on Europol, with the assistance of the EU Agency for the Operational Management of Large-Scale IT Systems in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (eu-LISA), to strengthen its support for national law enforcement agencies in order to give real priority to the fight against narco-terrorism;

8.Calls on Eurojust to improve its support for joint investigation teams set up by the competent national authorities;

9.Calls on the Commission to ensure that the creation of the new European customs agency does not undermine the current synergies and cooperation between the national customs authorities of the Member States, Europol and Frontex in preventing and combating drug trafficking;

10.Instructs the new Anti-Money Laundering Authority to focus immediately on financial flows linked to drug trafficking;

11.Instructs the Commission to provide the necessary legal and material resources for this fight and for the agencies concerned by reallocating existing budgets;

12.Calls for closer cooperation with Interpol in the fight against trafficking in arms, human beings and drugs; recalls, in this regard, the encouraging example of the arrest in February 2025 of Mohamed Amra, who was the subject of an Interpol red notice;

13.Calls for a proportionate relaxation of data protection rules in the fight against drug trafficking;

External dimension

14.Stresses that an effective fight against this scourge must begin at its source and continue throughout its entire process;

15.Calls for the EU to cooperate with the countries of origin of drugs and to denounce and sanction non-EU countries that refuse to cooperate or that turn a blind eye, in one way or another, to trafficking, the financial flows it generates, or the traffickers themselves;

16.Notes with concern that the overseas territories of Member States have become prime targets for South American cartels, with the French West Indies, for example, becoming a gateway for cocaine to ports such as Le Havre;

17.Calls for the careful consideration of the massive presence of powerful cartels in certain candidate countries and in countries covered by the European neighbourhood policy;

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18.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, Frontex, Europol, Eurojust, eu-LISA, the Anti-Money Laundering Authority and Interpol.