The gang specialized in home-jacking and mainly targeted luxury vehicles. Five individuals well known to the justice system were arrested Monday during a legal operation triggered by the surveillance and intervention squad of the gendarmerie (Psig) of Saint-Nazaire. This team of criminals, who supplied criminal structures in Nantes, Rennes and Paris, is suspected of the theft of 76 vehicles over the last three months in the Great West “for damage estimated at more than one million euros”, indicates in a press release Frédéric Teillet, public prosecutor of Rennes.
The case began on October 17 in Guichen near Rennes following a refusal to comply by an individual driving a stolen car. Inside the vehicle, several stolen objects were found, making it possible to “establish links with various home-jackings that have affected departments of the Grand Ouest”, specifies the prosecution. An investigation is then opened for acts of theft by an organized gang, concealment by an organized gang and criminal association.
Arrested after the theft of a Porsche Cayenne
Over the weeks, the gendarmes first identified five suspects, always acting at night and using the same modus operandi. They also go back to the alleged sponsor of the network, “an incarcerated individual who communicates by encrypted messaging,” specifies Frédéric Teillet in a press release. Constantly changing accommodation, three of the thieves were finally located in mid-January in Morbihan before being arrested on Monday near Rennes where they had just stolen a Porsche Cayenne.
The same day, the alleged sponsor was identified at the Argentan remand center (Orne) and another suspect arrested in Saint-Nicolas-de-Redon (Loire-Atlantique). During the searches, four stolen vehicles, including two Porsche Cayennes, several dozen license plates, around twenty stolen vehicle keys as well as identity documents belonging to the victims were found. The gendarmes also seized 1.9 kilos of cannabis resin and 190 grams of cocaine.
-Referred to the prosecution on Wednesday, four of those in custody were incarcerated while awaiting trial on March 20, while the last was placed under judicial supervision.