Near Montpellier: attempted external escape foiled at the Sète detention center

A escape attempt from the outside was foiled, on the night of Tuesday June 25 to Wednesday June 26, 2024, at administrative detention center -CRA- de Sete. Two out of three perpetrators were arrested.

The devicealarm and the system of video surveillance reinforced since the recent escapes of foreigners in an irregular situation placed at the CRA of Sète, in the building located on Quai François Maillol, in the port area, made it possible to thwart an intrusion.

Officials of the border police -Paf- on duty last night required the reinforcement of national police officers from the Sète-Frontignan police station to arrest two suspects, an accomplice having managed to escape on foot. Searches to find him were unsuccessful.

A jack and an adjustable wrench

According to a source close to the investigation, the trio who arrived from outside were equipped witha jack to move the bars aside and were found at a specific location in the CRA an adjustable wrench, placed inside by one of the individuals in detention before his next expulsion in order to dismantle the gates, which were seized and placed under judicial seal. An escape which had been well prepared in advance and which attests that the alleged perpetrators were in communication with one or more people detained.

The two suspects were placed in police custody and investigations are continuing to identify and locate their accomplice, an investigation supervised by the Montpellier public prosecutor’s office. The Sète administrative detention center has a capacity of 28 places. Last May, ten foreigners in an irregular situation or refugees had managed to escape in the middle of the night, three of them having been recaptured a few hours later. The prefect of Hérault, François-Xavier Lauch, quickly organized a meeting with the services concerned to avoid further actions.

Due to a glaring lack of space in the CRA of Sète and those of Nîmes and Perpignan, a project to build an establishment accommodating 120 detainees in the commune of Béziers is launched and well advanced, according to police and prison unions. It would be operational by 2027.

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