The revelations come from Le Monde. Drawing on a French counterterrorism investigation into the attempted assassination of Algerian journalist and opposition figure Hichem Aboud in France, the newspaper exposes methods that are as crude as they are alarming: the Algerian regime’s use of petty criminals and organized crime networks in France to carry out political contracts against its opponents.

The investigation shows that, in conducting operations of repression and retaliation against opposition figures living in exile in France, the Algerian regime appears to have adopted a strategy of concealment by outsourcing violence. Rather than deploying identifiable intelligence operatives, it relies on intermediaries linked to organized crime—particularly networks in Marseille and Aix-en-Provence—which in turn recruit interchangeable foot soldiers from the suburban criminal underworld through encrypted messaging applications such as Telegram and Signal.

As the newspaper notes, citing a judicial document from France’s counterterrorism services, the method is well established. It relies on “criminal networks activated in the service of a foreign power.” This modus operandi offers its sponsors a double advantage: minimal financial cost and, above all, plausible deniability should the operation fail, allowing a political assassination to be disguised as an ordinary criminal settling of scores.

The story of a failed operation

The case came to light entirely by chance following a spectacular robbery in the Saône-et-Loire department, Le Monde reports.

In November 2024, a gang of young criminals from Lyon stormed the Musée d’Art Sacré du Hiéron in Paray-le-Monial, using a thermal cutting disc to mutilate the Via Vitae, a masterpiece of goldsmithing crafted from gold and precious stones “valued at between €3.5 million and €6 million."

In 2025, during a wave of arrests carried out by the Dijon Research Section, gendarmes seized the mobile phone of one of the robbery’s logistics coordinators, 19-year-old Abdeljalil B. While examining his encrypted messages, investigators from France’s General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI) and the National Counterterrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT) uncovered a second contract, far darker than the museum heist, offered two months later by an individual using the pseudonym “Lapègre.69.”

“As investigators followed the trail, they made a far more disturbing discovery. Messages recovered from Abdeljalil B.’s phone revealed the existence of a plot of a very different nature: a plan to assassinate an Algerian opposition figure,” the newspaper writes.

The target was none other than Hichem Aboud.

“Suspecting a covert operation orchestrated by the Algerian regime’s services on French soil, the counterterrorism judiciary took over the case. After ten months of investigation, four suspects, including Abdeljalil B., were formally charged and remanded in custody on May 23 on charges of attempted murder—or complicity in attempted murder—in connection with a terrorist enterprise, as well as participation in a terrorist criminal organization," Le Monde reports.

The message that opened Pandora’s box was explicit.

“My brother, we’ve got to take out a guy... I’ll give you €5,000 upfront and another €5,000 after the job. I’ll give you the rifle and the car. You just need to find a driver, and you handle the rifle and blow the son of a bitch away."

Three hitmen—Abdeljalil B. (“Zorro69”), Walid B. (“John Wick,” an information technology student), and Jahid B. (“The Scotsman,” already imprisoned for violent offenses)—set off on a go-fast operation toward northern France. Traveling in a stolen car and armed with an assault rifle, they targeted a red-brick house in Roubaix. The instructions sent via Signal were precise: a photograph of the victim, a Google Maps location, and the note, “Ground floor, upper level, first windows on the far right.”

At around 5:30 a.m., the gunmen knocked on the door, shouting, “Police, open up!” in an attempt to lure their target outside. The commotion prompted a neighbor to open her window, forcing the group to flee. They returned a few hours later to keep watch while smoking cannabis, unaware that Hichem Aboud, having learned he was under threat, had already fled to Morocco.

In May 2026, the group was formally charged with “attempted murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise.” During his confession, Abdeljalil B. bluntly confirmed his role: “I’m not going to lie. I accepted it. I’m an asshole. My role was to shoot him, to kill him.”

The hand of Algiers

Although the perpetrators claimed they were unaware of the political nature of the operation and insisted they had acted solely for financial gain, the choice of target leaves little room for doubt.

Hichem Aboud, now in his seventies, is a former member of Algeria’s intelligence services, a political refugee, and a fierce opponent of President Abdelmadjid Tebboune. Followed by 750,000 subscribers on YouTube, he regularly denounces corruption within the Algerian regime.

Quoted by Le Monde, Aboud’s lawyer, Moulay Abdeljalil Dalil Essakali, offers what he believes is the obvious interpretation.

“Every attack against him over the past few years bore Algiers’ signature. In the Roubaix case, those behind the operation may simply have changed their methods by hiring young men already known to the police in order to throw French investigators off the trail,” he said.

The French judiciary is pursuing that line of inquiry closely, now treating the convergence of criminal activity and foreign state interference under the legal classification of terrorism.

The attempted assassination in Roubaix forms part of a continuing pattern of state terrorism. It was not the first time Hichem Aboud had been targeted by violent operations, attempted abductions, or destabilization efforts on European soil.

This modus operandi also recalls the treatment reserved for another leading Algerian dissident living in France, Amir Boukhors, better known as Amir DZ. The cyber activist, an outspoken critic of the Algerian authorities, has likewise been the target of kidnapping attempts and plans to neutralize him.

The use of organized crime networks and suburban delinquents to carry out these operations confirms the Algerian regime’s shift toward gangster-like methods and criminal tactics aimed at silencing dissenting voices by any means necessary, even in the heart of France.