The case comes before the departmental criminal court of Haute-Corse, eight years after the first facts. Five men of Estonian nationality are being tried from Tuesday November 12, 2024 by professional magistrates for armed robbery by an organized gang and criminal conspiracy.
Riivo Nugis, Roland André Marjamaa, Vitali Guk, Marek Viidemann and Andres Sepp were arrested in the fall of 2020 for two violent jewelry store robberies in 2016 and 2017 in Bastia. The suspects aged 28 to 49 were arrested in Estonia but also in Finland, and extradited after a long-term investigation by the Bastia judicial police branch, with the assistance of police from several European countries and Europol. and Eurojust.
On October 3, 2016, three individuals with makeup entered the Vannucci jewelry store on Boulevard Paoli. One of them, armed with a handgun, threatened two staff members and a customer. He speaks English but with an Eastern European accent. The robbers were given fine jewelry with a resale value of one million euros. The robbery lasts barely a minute.
On May 4, 2017, still on Boulevard Paoli, the Danesi jewelry store was targeted by three robbers. The operating mode is identical, the attack is also very rapid.
Hatchets to break windows
The criminals smash windows with hatchets, seize luxury watches and, like the first time, they flee on foot, through the streets of Bastia. The harm is roughly similar.
With the second attack, the Bastia police officers were contacted, via Europol, by their Estonian counterparts who had information on people suspected of having been part of the team which committed the first robbery. The PJ's investigations highlight, concerning two of them, entries and exits from Corsica around the first attack.
“Drawer” teams
A hatchet was also found at the scene of the second attack, along with DNA. Enough to identify another Estonian national. This DNA matches that discovered on the wall of an interior courtyard in Bastia. Two men were seen stepping over it the day before the attack on the Danesi jewelry store.
Thanks to European cooperation, the police realize that other countries are affected by similar facts. The investigations shed light on “drawer” teams, suspected of having links with the Estonian or Russian mafia.
Once released for a judicial administrative error, due to a failure to renew the provisional detention warrant, the defendants should finally be present at the hearing.
