Abdelwahad and Salwa, the two children of five and seven years old, kidnapped on Tuesday by their father in Drancy (Seine-Saint-Denis), were found unharmed Friday in a hotel room in Villepinte, AFP learned from concordant sources.
Read also: Algeria, Drancy ... Éric Zemmour reveals his past
" A police operation was launched at 6:25 pm and allowed the discovery of the two children unharmed and their abductor, " said the Bobigny prosecution in a press release. According to images of video surveillance, they were in this hotel from the night of Thursday to Friday, adds the parquet floor.
The father, 31, was taken into police custody for " kidnapping in an organized gang, violence and damage to private property ". The two children will be " cared for in a hospital environment " and then entrusted to child welfare " as part of a temporary placement order ," said the prosecution.
"Equipped with smoke bombs"
Abdelwahad, five, and his sister Salwa, 7, were abducted Tuesday shortly before 6 a.m. from their maternal grandmother's apartment in Drancy, by their father and an accomplice. " Organized and determined " the two men " gloved, helmeted and provided with smoke bombs " have " forcibly " entered the accommodation after breaking the front door, says the prosecutor of Bobigny. " They took the children, still in nightwear, and fled on foot, " he adds.
Read also: Delinquency: "Medium-sized cities facing the security divide"
A call for witnesses had been launched after their disappearance and the investigation had been entrusted to the territorial security of Seine-Saint-Denis. Fifteen investigators were mobilized. Thanks to " various specialized investigation techniques ", they were able to follow the father's movements " between Seine-Saint-Denis, Seine-et-Marne and the 11th arrondissement of Paris ", before finally locating him in the Villepinte hotel, indicates the parquet floor.
Two accomplices were arrested on Thursday. One had " confirmed the presence of the two children and their abductor in a hotel in the eleventh arrondissement, as well as the latter's plan to reach Italy, " added the prosecution. "The hunt was complicated, " a source familiar with the matter told AFP. " He managed to make himself almost invisible, which is almost impossible in 2020, " she added.
