The wheel turns. A “vast network” of laundering motorhomes and stolen vehicles has been dismantled in France (and particularly in Haute-Garonne), leading to the indictment of several people, the national gendarmerie announced on Monday.
It all started in Centre-Val de Loire
At the origin of the investigation, the Research Section (SR) of Orléans “made a connection, within the framework of an open procedure for theft and receiving stolen goods in an organized gang of motorhomes, between a stolen vehicle and a camper van for sale at a dealership” in Centre-Val de Loire, indicates the gendarmerie press release transcribed by AFP.
The investigations carried out on this subject then make it possible to discover other motorhomes and Iveco dump trucks stolen in the Paris region“made up and registered in the Vehicle Registration System (Siv) in new form by the same individual”. Other people, known to the services for “theft and defacement of vehicles”, are also suggested to be part of the network, reports AFP.
For her part, following this affair, Colonel Christelle Tarrolle, head of the Orléans research section, indicated: “We realized that the department of Eure-et-Loir appeared at the national level in fourth position of the most impacted by motorhome thefts”.
“It was a very, very well-functioning organization”
“We had people who had Siv access who did so for the benefit of an individual who was at the head of this network and who made it possible to launder a number of vehicles that were stolen and had a new number. It was a very, very well-functioning organization,” explained Ms. Tarrolle.
After the opening of a judicial investigation at the Chartres court in the summer of 2023, investigative elements “make it possible to demonstrate the existence of a system dedicated to the laundering of stolen vehicles”, with “misused Siv authorizations“. Indeed, a registration certificate associated with the stolen and disguised vehicle is generated, which allows it to circulate in France or to be sold.
This system would therefore have allowed those accused to launder, in 2022 and 2023, 151 motorhomes stolen and disguisedfor damage of approximately 8.4 million euros, as well as 289 commercial and private vehicles for increased damage to 13.3 million euros.
The judicial operation extends to seven other departments
The story does not end there since at the beginning of April 2024, a legal operation is carried out in seven departments : Eure-et-Loir, Seine-Saint-Denis, Val-de-Marne, Haute-GaronneParis, Oise, Meurthe-et-Moselle. Five people were then arrested and placed in police custody.
Then, from April 8 to 12, 2024, throughout France“a national operation to control and remove vehicle defacements (…) made it possible to materialize the defacement of 58 stolen motorhomes and seize them”.
In total, after all the operations carried out, six people were arrested and indicted, including one imprisoned and five placed under judicial supervision.
Still 289 vehicles to locate
Note that “there are still 289 vehicles to locate and remove, these will be the subject of separate procedures carried out by other units, including the Vehicle Investigation Plateau (Piv) of the Judicial Unit of the National Gendarmerie ( PJGN)”, concludes AFP.
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