Ten people were arrested last Tuesday in Seine-Saint-Denis after five months of investigation, franceinfo learned on Monday.
Seven people were indicted last Thursday, suspected of being involved in a network of burglars which acted throughout the country, franceinfo learned on Monday April 17 from the gendarmerie. Ten people were taken into custody last Tuesday at 6 am, and at the end seven people were prosecuted. Four of them have since been in pre-trial detention, three are placed under judicial control. The last three, including a minor, saw their police custody lifted at the end of 48 hours. 69 burglaries were recorded.
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A judicial investigation was opened on December 22 by an investigating judge from Charleville-Mézières (Ardennes). An investigation was opened for “organized gang theft” and “organized gang theft”, “criminal association”, “organized gang fraud” and “organized gang laundering of fraud”, as well as “laundering of organized gang robbery”.
Jewelry, bag, shoes, luxury clothes found
The operation mobilized 80 gendarmes and 25 police officers to arrest these ten people, all arrested in four different places in Seine-Saint-Denis. During this operation, “230 jewels and watches of fraudulent origin or from theft laundering, 190 seals consisting of shoes, bags and luxury clothing (Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Yves-Saint-Laurent, Gucci)” were found, said the gendarmerie in a press release. In detail 86 gold rings, 62 pairs of gold earrings and 58 gold necklaces were seized. 120,000 euros worth of leather goods were seized during searches. The amount of the jewelry seizure is being assessed.
These arrests came after five months of investigation by the research section (SR) of Reims and the departmental gendarmerie group of the Ardennes. Following intelligence work, carried out by the observation and surveillance group (GOS) in Reims, “a family clan of about ten people, originating from the Balkans, has been identified”.
The gendarmes first identified the suspects when last August a burglary and a second attempt were committed in two villages in the Ardennes department. Jewelry in particular had been stolen. Two young girls were then identified as well as their vehicle, they were walking the streets at the time of the events. This vehicle was then located in Île-de-France, in Drancy (Seine-Saint-Denis).
Monitoring work has thus begun. “The gendarmes detect suspicious comings and goings and identify a home, its occupants and several vehicles used”, reports the police. The survey shows that in this network two young girls “at the bottom of the ladder” committed aggravated thefts in homes, during the day, in the absence of the occupants. “Jewellery, cash, watches, handbags, shoes and designer clothes are stolen en masse”.
Eight regions targeted
Another young woman directed the two young girls from a vehicle and then made the trip to Seine-Saint-Denis. The gendarmes estimate that between August 2022 and March 2023, “This organized gang operates in eight regions of France: Grand-Est, Hauts-de-France, Normandy, Brittany, Pays-de-la-Loire, Center-Val-de-Loire, Nouvelle- Aquitaine and Burgundy-Franche-Comté”. The trips lasted about a week, the suspects were lodged in hotels.
The gendarmes also identified individuals presented as logisticians who were in charge of hotel reservations and the provision of vehicles for travel. They also recovered stolen objects to repatriate them to Drancy. With the stolen money, they bought luxury watches and leather goods.
