A chilling video showing a terrified young man with a gun pressed to his head, reciting a desperate warning about being sent on an unpaid murder contract, has emerged following his brutal execution in an African drug gang feud near Grenoble, France.
The horrifying footage, which circulated on social media, captures what are believed to be the last moments of the victim's life. Wearing a Lacoste t-shirt, the man, his hands apparently tied behind his back, is seen looking down as a handgun is held firmly against his head. In a shaky voice, he reads out a prepared message: 'On Sunday, May 24, 2026, I was sent for a contract in Grenoble by sons of whores who hide and who send us to the fire and who don't pay us. I pay the consequences and everyone who goes to work for these same people will pay it too, like me.'
Hours later, his bullet-riddled body was discovered inside a burned-out car in Échirolles, a suburb of Grenoble in the French Alps. A second video shows a hooded figure firing multiple shots into the vehicle at night, with a jerrycan of gasoline reportedly used to set the car ablaze in a bid to destroy evidence.
French police are investigating the sickening killing as a targeted gangland execution linked to rival drug trafficking networks. The victim, believed to be a young man possibly from the Lyon area and placed in care, had reportedly been dispatched to carry out a hit on a rival but was instead captured, humiliated, and murdered as a brutal warning to others.
This marks the sixth murder in the Grenoble metropolitan area so far in 2026, highlighting the spiralling African gang violence that has turned parts of the once-peaceful Alpine region into a battleground for narcotics gangs. Locals have staged protests, marching with banners demanding 'Grenoble Stop the Violence – Not One More Bullet', accusing authorities of failing to tackle the scourge of gun crime and drug-related killings.
The videos, which appear designed to intimidate rival crews, have sent shockwaves across France, with many questioning how such medieval-style barbarity can unfold in a modern European country.
One sequence shows the victim forced to deliver his ominous message under duress, while another captures the vehicle being riddled with bullets before being torched. The grim discovery was made by firefighters called to a blaze on a parking lot in Échirolles early on May 25.
Sources close to the investigation told French media that the killing fits a pattern of escalating turf wars in the Grenoble suburbs, where drug-dealing points have become flashpoints for deadly retribution. The Prosecutor's office has opened an inquiry into 'murder in an organised band', with the National Anti-Organised Crime Division involved.
Residents in Échirolles and surrounding areas have expressed growing fear and frustration. 'When is someone going to tackle the root of the problem?' one local mayor was previously quoted asking amid similar violence. Protests earlier in May drew attention to the authorities' perceived inaction in the face of repeated shootings.
This latest atrocity comes amid broader concerns over drug-related homicides across France, with critics arguing that lenient policies and overwhelmed policing have allowed migrant criminal networks, often involving young recruits sent as disposable foot soldiers to operate with impunity.
