The Haute-Loire gendarmes succeeded in dismantling a network of theft of commercial vehicles which was rampant in the Loire, the Rhône and the Haute-Loire. Thursday, March 4, 3 of the defendants were placed in detention and another under judicial supervision. This case began in the fall of 2019.
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It is a long affair led by the gendarmes of Haute-Loire which has just come to an end on Thursday March 4. In the fall of 2019, the gendarmerie noted a significant increase in thefts of utility vehicles such as flatbed trucks. These thefts of vehicles belonging to communities or kept in garages were committed at night, in the Rhône, Loire and Haute-Loire. The preliminary investigation was entrusted to the Yssingeaux Research Brigade (BR), which takes the matter very seriously: “Faced with the scale of the phenomenon and in order to put an end to it, on September 1, 2020, the Groupement de Gendarmerie Départementale (GGD) de la Haute Loire created a working group made up of 6 investigators, called“ Latitude 43 ”. On September 4, 2020, a judicial investigation was opened for thefts, aggravated thefts and participation in a criminal association. The rogatory commission is entrusted to the BR of Yssingeaux which receives the support of the research section (SR) of Clermont-Ferrand ”, specifies the gendarmerie in a press release.
A group of 6 suspected criminals
To resolve this investigation, numerous logistical and technical means were put in place: scientific gendarmerie investigations, surveillance and intelligence gathering. All these provisions made it possible to identify “An organized criminal group made up of 6 criminals. Experienced, coming from the community of travelers settled on the Saint-Etienne and Lyon basins, they are structured into “drawer teams” “. Their modus operandi is well established: stolen vehicles are either made up then resold on national territory, or dismantled in order to sell the spare parts in Eastern Europe with the complicity of Romanian carriers. “The investigations carried out by the investigators make it possible to determine that more than fifty facts are likely to be attached to the activity of the criminals for a damage greater than one million euros”, details the press release.
200 gendarmes mobilized
The case reached its conclusion at the beginning of March: on the 2nd, a “Major judicial operation” is set up by the Haute Loire gendarmerie. This mobilizes 200 gendarmes and makes it possible to question the 5 identified suspects. “The investigators of the BR of Yssingeaux and the SR of Clermont-Ferrand are supported by investigators from the GGD of Haute-Loire, 9 Surveillance and Intervention Platoons of the Gendarmerie (PSIG) of the Auvergne-Rhône region -Alps, 1 helicopter from the gendarmerie air section (SAG) of Bron, 4 SAMBI dog teams (Narcotics, Armament, Ammunition, Tickets), soldiers from the Annecy mobile gendarmerie squadron and the GIR ».
5 people arrested and 3 detained
In total, 6 vehicles worth 140,000 euros, 100 cartons of cigarettes, 1 computer, 2 heat pumps, 4 guns and 10,000 euros in cash were seized. The people arrested were taken into police custody: “At the end of their police custody, on March 4, 2021, 4 of the 5 accused were presented to the investigating magistrate and indicted. One of the people involved was placed under judicial supervision. The three others were imprisoned after the debates held before the judge of freedoms and detention ”, explains the press release. The latter was not indicted.
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