A prominent French anti-drugs campaigner whose brother was killed by drugs criminals last week, five years after the murder of his elder brother, has vowed to stand up to intimidation and 'keep telling the truth about drugs violence'. Amine Kessaci, 22, was writing in Le Monde a day after the funeral of his younger brother Mehdi, whose murder last week has been described by the government as a turning point in France's drugs wars. 'Yesterday I lost my brother. Today I speak out,' he wrote in his opinion piece. '[The drugs-traffickers] strike at us in order to break, to tame, to subdue. They want to wipe out any resistance, to break any free spirit, to kill in the egg any embryo of revolt.' Mehdi Kessaci, 20, was shot dead last Wednesday as he parked his car in central Marseille in what appears to have been a warning aimed at his older brother, Amine. Recent statistics reveal that drugs trafficking is a pressing issue in France, with an estimated annual turnover of €7 billion. Amine's call for courage is echoed by government officials who are grappling with this escalating crisis, as they seek to implement effective measures to combat drug-related violence.