Explosion of an ATM near Perpignan: twelve people arrested

Eleven individuals arrested. Last week, law enforcement busted what appears to be a very large network. In January 2024, in the middle of the night, the suspects allegedly attacked at the explosive the ATM of the municipality of Saint-Feliu-d’Avall, near Perpignan (Pyrénées-Orientales). The attackers are believed to have committed other major crimes.

Several explosive attacks

The attack had awakened almost the entire city. On the night of January 24, the Crédit Agricole ATM in Saint-Feliu-d’Avall was the subject of an attempted theft using explosives. If the two explosions had caused panic among the residents, the attackers had not managed to leave with the loot from the bank.

From then on, an investigation was opened by the Perpignan public prosecutor’s office and the investigations made it possible to implicate eight criminals in this attempted theft, but also in a second attack, committed on an ATM Valencein the DromeDecember 31, 2023.

Kidnapping and sequestration attempts

On February 26, a national investigation unit called “DAB EXPLO 66” bringing together investigators from the seized services was created, reports the Pyrénées-Orientales gendarmerie group. “Incidentally, the investigators noted that one of the suspectsassociated with other individuals, attempted twice to kidnap and sequester a person to attack their property,” specify the police.

A second investigation was opened by the Perpignan Public Prosecutor’s Office, then entrusted to the Montpellier Research Section. On Tuesday June 18, two coordinated legal operations were launched in France and the Netherlands, with the support of Europol.

A big device

130 soldiers of the national gendarmerie and 15 Dutch police officers were involved in this device. In total, twelve people were arrested. “During searches, a bulletproof vest, a gun and handcuffs, all the equipment of a team specializing in kidnappings and kidnappings has been found,” explains the gendarmerie group.

100 grams of cannabis and 4,100 euros in cash were also discovered on site. Of the twelve suspects, eleven were indicted then referred and indicted by the investigating judge in Perpignan. Nine of them were placed in detention provisional (in prison), and two others under judicial supervision.

In Saint-Feliu-d’Avall, several months after the explosive attack, residents were still without an ATM. A petition had even been launched by the town hall, which underlined an “imperative” and an “emergency situation” for its citizens.

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