Colombian and Venezuelan cartels attack the French Antilles

The case dates back to November 3, 2024, in Fort-de-France, Martinique. That evening, around 11 p.m., four hooded and armed men burst into the heart of Jambette Caraïbes, a housing project built around a courtyard covered with grass and concrete walkways, at the entrance to the Rivière-Roche business park. Arriving on two large scooters, they knew the area and headed towards the apartment of the family of a certain Youri Louisy-Louis. This 27-year-old man is known to the police for being the head of a Martinican gang linked to the Only the Family movement, described by the local prosecutor's office as a "versatile criminal phenomenon" , involved in cases of armed robbery and homicide.

That Sunday evening in late autumn, the killers probably knew that Youri Louisy-Louis wasn't at home, but in prison. Only members of his family were present. "They're all going to die!" one of the attackers reportedly shouted in Creole to his accomplices. Did they see that there were no adult men in the apartment when they opened fire? A teenager collapsed, killed instantly: Keemayan Louisy-Louis, 15, brother of the gang leader. A 22-year-old woman died while trying to protect her 9-month-old baby, shot in the leg. Emergency services counted four seriously injured: a 5-year-old child and three teenagers aged 13, 15, and 16. In town, the news spread quickly, everyone sensing that this sequence of extreme violence was a turning point. Having received the case, the specialized interregional jurisdiction (JIRS) responsible for combating organized crime in the Antilles-Guyana region gave it an evocative nickname: “OK Corral.”

The authorities have not publicly reacted to this massacre, but drug trafficking specialists believe that it has highlighted a reality that many feared: the advance of the Colombian and Venezuelan cartels, or their affiliates, in the French Antilles. It is now a certainty: strong, structured links exist between Martinique gangs and powerful foreign criminal groups involved in the cocaine business. Two neighboring countries where these ultraviolent groups operate – Saint Lucia, south of Martinique, and Dominica, north of Martinique and south of Guadeloupe – thus serve as relays for the cartels to transport drugs to Europe, via the Antilles. "South Americans are settled permanently in Martinique and Guadeloupe," also notes the Anti-Narcotics Office in Nanterre.

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