End clap for this trio of criminals who scoured the suburban houses in search of gold and jewels. These three suspected burglars, aged 21 to 27, were arrested early last week. The first was surprised on the evening of Monday October 16 on the A6 motorway near Mâcon (Saône-et-Loire) by the gendarmes. Then the other two, on Tuesday October 17 at their homes in Bondy and Drancy (Seine-Saint-Denis) by investigators from the Paris banditry repression brigade.
These members of the community of settled travelers, settled in the north of Paris, were the subject of an investigation opened in Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine) for about a year.
Spotted by the police in Rueil-Malmaison
It was on December 30 that a group of investigators responsible for itinerant delinquency from the Parisian judicial police (PJ) noticed the carousal of a trio driving in a car in a residential area of Rueil-Malmaison (Hauts-de-Seine). “Their vehicle was registered in the name of a garage and they seemed to be scouting,” notes a source close to the case. Then they try to force the shutter of a house before leaving the premises.
Suspects are quickly identified and placed under physical and technical surveillance. The police blame them for three other burglaries, committed last January in Arnouville (Val-d’Oise), Jouy-en-Josas (Yvelines) and Champigny-sur-Marne (Val-de-Marne). “Each time, they broke into empty houses and stole jewelry, watches and luxury leather goods,” adds our source. The damage amounts to 53,000 euros.
One of the burglars appears on the files as being actively sought by Swiss police for the theft in a “rip deal” – the fake banknote scam – of two luxury watches worth more than 400,000 euros. Another suspect has been sought by the Belgian authorities since August for an attempted murder committed in Brussels with an accomplice. These two facts lead to requests for mutual legal assistance from these two countries which ask the French authorities for their arrests. The trio was arrested before being brought before the courts.
They will be tried for theft in December
The Nanterre public prosecutor’s office, which is handling the burglary case, has ordered that they be judged on December 18 by the criminal court. All three were placed under judicial supervision. Me Stéphane Gas, who defends several of these men, believes “that it is fortunate that the Nanterre court did not follow the requisitions for placement in pre-trial detention. One of my clients was able to reunite with his family because his inclusion guaranteed that he would appear at the next trial.”
Concerning the attempted murder in Belgium, his other client was placed under extradition arrest by the Paris investigating chamber. Me Gas assures that the latter “can’t wait to be able to explain himself to the Belgian investigating judge in order to finally be released. He is a stranger to this matter.”
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