Crépol drama: nine suspects arrested by the gendarmes around Toulouse and Romans-sur-Isère

This Tuesday, November 21, 2023, while he was questioned in the National Assembly about the tragedy that occurred in Crépol, in Drôme, on the night of Saturday November 18 to Sunday November 19, 2023, Gérald Darmanin announced the arrest of seven suspects by the gendarmerie, near Toulouse, in Haute-Garonne. A little later in the afternoon, two other individuals were intercepted in the Romans-sur-Isère sector.

“Seven people were arrested by the national gendarmerie around Toulouse in Haute-Garonne”announced the Minister of the Interior and Overseas Territories, Gérald Darmanin, this Tuesday, November 21, 2023, at the National Assembly, while he was questioned about the tragedy that occurred in the village of Crépol, in Drôme, on the night of November 18 to 19, 2023. Dthem others suspects were intercepted a bit later in the Romans-sur-Isère area.

These arrests are the culmination of meticulous investigative work, carried out tirelessly for almost three days by investigators from the Research Section (SR) of Grenoble (Isère) and the Departmental Gendarmerie Group of Drôme (GGD 26), after the fatal fight which left this small town of some 532 inhabitants in mourning located about fifteen kilometers from Romans-sur-Isère, in the district of Valence.

The village ball turns into drama

This Saturday evening, the town’s village hall is hosting a winter ball, a paid evening upon registration, which is attended by some 400 people. During the night, a group of around ten individuals from outside the village and not registered presented themselves at the entrance to participate, the public prosecutor of Valencia, Laurent de Caigny, would later explain. As the party draws to a close, an altercation degenerates between one of the individuals and one of the security guards, who is injured with a knife. A violent fight ensued between the hostile group and some of the participants in the evening who had come to support the security guard. During this confrontation, a 16-year-old boy was fatally injured. He died as a result of the stab wounds received during his transport to hospital. A dozen other people were injured during the evening, two of whom had to be hospitalized in a state of absolute emergency. This Tuesday morning, the vital prognosis of these two men, aged 23 and 28, was no longer in jeopardy.

Blatant investigation into murder and attempted murder by an organized gang

Acting blatantly for murder and attempted murder, the Drôme gendarmerie quickly committed significant resources to find the perpetrators. In view of their flight, their plurality and the multiplicity of victims, the Valence public prosecutor’s office entrusted the investigation to the Grenoble SR and quickly retained the aggravating circumstance of an organized gang, thus allowing the investigators to have a panel more wide range of investigative means and techniques.

In the small village in a state of shock, nearly fifty gendarmes from the SR of Grenoble and local brigades are mobilized in order to collect all the traces and all the clues at the crime scene, as well as all the testimonies they have. allowing us to reconstruct the chronology of the events. Guest of the magazine “C à vous”, on the evening of November 20, the Minister of the Interior indicated that « 70 auditions » had already been carried out by the gendarmes. They will total around a hundred.

Identification and location of suspects in less than 48 hours

The speed of the investigators confirmed by the Valencia prosecutor, who announced the same day, in a press release, that the suspects were “ being identified », thanks to the hearings of numerous witnesses, but also to the analysis of several thousand activations of telephone relays, to the exploitation of video surveillance images and to the cross-checking of the various elements collected, ” giving hope for rapid operational development”.

Throughout their investigations, the investigators managed to reconstruct the exact course of the evening and to identify and locate possible suspects, including the alleged perpetrator of the fatal stabbing, a 20-year-old individual of French nationality, indicates the press release from the Valencia Public Prosecutor’s Office, released Tuesday, November 21 in the evening.

It quickly appears that some suspects seem to want to leave their homes, reports the public prosecutor, specifying that very close surveillance of suspected individuals is then put in place from Monday in the middle of the day.

This Tuesday morning, the main suspect left Romans-sur-Isère with six other individuals, in a vehicle belonging to the mother of one of them, also suspected of having been present on the evening of the events. It is therefore decided to quickly trigger the arrest phase, indicates the prosecutor. The public prosecutor’s office therefore jointly refers the matter to the general management of the national gendarmerie alongside the Grenoble SR in order to allow the deployment of specialized intervention forces.

Arrests by the GIGN around Toulouse and Romans-sur-Isère

Arriving near Toulouse, where they are still being monitored, the seven suspects are arrested without incident by soldiers from the GIGN and the Toulouse Observation and Surveillance Group (GOS) (31) when they seem ready to recover. on the way.

At the end of the afternoon, two other individuals were also arrested, this time in the Romans-sur-Isère sector, again with the assistance of the GIGN and an observation and surveillance unit.

The nine suspects were placed in police custody, which can last up to 96 hours, specifies the press release from the Prosecutor’s Office. The seven men arrested in Haute-Garonne, whose police custody began with the support of the SR of Toulouse, will be transferred to Drôme in order to be heard by the soldiers of the SR of Grenoble, reinforced by investigators from of the different units of GGD 26. It will now be about confirmer the involvement and role of the individuals arrested », Specifies the public prosecutor of Valencia, Laurent de Caigny.

The soldiers of the Grenoble SR and the Drôme group remain mobilized, in conjunction with the Valence Prosecutor’s Office, to identify and arrest all suspects.