They had specialized in the theft of valuable products.
Seven people suspected of being part of a traveling group of freight thieves were arrested last Monday, announced the gendarmerie in a press release on Thursday.
Five of its members were subsequently imprisoned, the other two placed under judicial supervision.
The alleged criminals had been rampant for at least a year and a half in several French departments.
They are in particular suspected of being responsible for "three freight thefts" committed in the departments of Eure-et-Loir, Loiret and Indre, organized between September 2019 and October 2020, specify the forces of the order.
This roving team mainly targeted vehicles carrying expensive goods, and operated at night.
The first theft reported in August 2019, in Jargeau, in the Loiret, concerned a trailer housing Diesel brand perfumes.
A few months later, at the beginning of 2020, it is a trailer located in Janville-en-Beauce, in Eure-et-Loir, which is stripped.
It contained, in particular, perfumes from the brand Dolce & Gabbana, Narciso Rodriguez and Issey Miyake.
Total price of the loot: 150,000 euros.
In October, rebelote.
The group then attacks "a road set containing champagne and clothes", say the investigators.
A seasoned repeat offender among those arrested
It was on March 1 that a device of 45 gendarmes, "supported by dog teams", managed to observe a fourth cargo theft.
This time, the criminals attacked "a trailer containing a large load of hi-fi equipment".
They were then able to arrest the seven members of the group of thieves - previously identified during a coordinated investigation across several departments -, caught in the act.
Among them is a “repeat offender, a seasoned specialist in this type of incident, shining from the Paris region”.
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Thanks to the searches, the gendarmes were able to see that the group had an elaborate arsenal specifically dedicated to thefts.
In their possessions, they were able to find "a set of plates, wave jammers, satellite telephones, as well as scanner walkie-talkies".
Other valuable goods were also recovered, such as 420 bottles of champagne, clothes, as well as 4000 euros in cash.
An amount of 12,000 euros was seized from their bank accounts “for criminal assets”.
The vehicles used for the burglaries (a scooter, a car and two trucks) were also seized, inform the police.
In total, the national gendarmerie estimates their damages at 350,000 euros.
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The investigation, baptized "OCLDI FRET 28-45", registered within the framework of a judicial investigation of the Judicial Court of Chartres, brought together forces of the Central Office for the fight against itinerant delinquency (OCLDI), of the Gendarmerie Group department of Eure-et-Loir and the research section of Orléans.
