Three men were arrested on Monday December 2 in Audincourt in Doubs following a vast investigation carried out by the French police and the Swiss authorities. The acts were committed in around ten days in Doubs, in Switzerland, in the Lyon region, in Drome and Haut-Rhin.
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It's a miracle that there was no drama and no injuries from firearms, said Montbéliard public prosecutor Paul Edouard Lallois, who took stock during a press conference on the investigation. accompanied by Police Commissioner Paul Mangin. They detailed the series of car thefts committed since November 21 by three men aged 18 to 27.
The latest facts were that there was one carjacking per day.
Paul Edouard Lallois, prosecutor of the Republic of Montbéliard
It's 5 a.m., November 26thwhen a woman under 30 had her Peugeot 308 robbed at a gas station in Montbéliard (Doubs). Two hooded individuals ask her for the keys to her car and threaten her with a weapon. She is hit after trying to resist. A third man is waiting in another vehicle. The three thugs leave with the victim's car.
The investigators quickly located the Peugeot 308, the stolen car near the Swiss border where a new car jacking was committed at 6:15 a.m., this time on the Swiss side in Porrentruy. Same procedure. Three men there too. A cross-border worker has her AudiS3 stolen at gunpoint.
Thanks to car geolocation systems and the use of video surveillance, the investigation is progressing quickly. Each time the criminals changed the vehicle plates. They use their victim's bank cards. And little by little leave traces, like a lunch in a fast food restaurant in Héricourt in Haute-Saône where a 27-year-old from Audincourt who left to live in Marseille and well known to the police is identified as one of the suspects.
November 30ththe team seizes a Cupra Formentor in Boncourt in Switzerland. They withdraw nearly 3,000 Swiss francs with the driver's bank card.
November 31stit is near the Montbéliard Christmas market that they try to seize an Audi SQ. The fifty-year-old owner defends himself, shouts, receives a blow with a rifle butt. The thugs flee.
Monday December 2two of the stolen vehicles were located near a hotel in Belfort. The Montbéliard police decided to call in reinforcements from the Dijon BRI, research and intervention brigade (BRI).
That same day, south of Altkirch in Haut-Rhin, the employee of a business was the victim of extortion. A few hours later, the intervention brigade chased the thugs, they are in Audincourt.
They are very young, absolutely unpredictable, and display completely uninhibited violence.
Paul Mangin, police commissioner of Montbéliard
The three individuals were finally arrested by surprise around 6:50 p.m. in the town of Audincourt in the Montbéliard region. Among them, the 27-year-old Audincourtois. He has 8 mentions in his record for aggravated theft, refusal to comply, drug legislation, carrying weapons. The other 19-year-old man is from Montélimar, also known to the police, and another thug is only 18 years old, he is from Marseille already convicted in a drug case when he was a minor.
The suspects placed in police custody managed to injure a police officer, detailed Paul Mangin, police commissioner of Montbéliard.
These are individuals who were immersed in hyper violence, and who express a total nonchalance… we have the impression of a total disconnection with the seriousness of the facts.
Paul Mangin, police commissioner of Montbéliard
During the investigation, the weapon used in the various thefts was found. This is a 7.65 caliber automatic pistol. “The cartridge was loaded, which means that the people who were robbed were robbed with a loaded weapon” lamented the public prosecutor.
By cross-checking, the police, helped by gendarmes from other departments, established that the team had stolen a BMW on November 23 in Saint-Paul Trois Châteaux south of Montélimar. A Honda was also stolen on November 21 south of Lyon.
What were these serially stolen vehicles going to be used for? Were they going to be resold, used for drug trafficking? “We wonder, there was a pressing order for vehicles and cash” believes the prosecutor.
A judicial investigation has been opened. The three men are presented to the prosecution for extortion with weapons by an organized gang, attempt, extortion by an organized gang and fraud by an organized gang. They face life imprisonment.
