"
Mafia methods
", frightened traders and arson against the recalcitrant: ten people have been indicted, in particular for extortion in an organized gang in the city of 4,000 in La Courneuve, announced Friday the Bobigny prosecutor's office.
Arrested Monday and Tuesday, the alleged criminals were all indicted after their custody, "
counts of extortion in an organized gang, destruction by fire or dangerous means of the property of others committed in an organized gang," and participation in a criminal association with a view to preparing for a crime,
”the prosecution said.
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The investigators gradually succeeded in identifying them by linking together a dozen fires of criminal origin that have occurred since 2019 in a shopping center in the HLM city known as the “
4,000
”, emblematic of this popular city of Seine-Saint-Denis.
Thus, five of the respondents had been spotted after a fire that ravaged three shops in the shopping center on April 11, 2020, the prosecution said.
Investigators from the local police station "
quickly understood that these fires were part of a context of extortion against traders, the fires coming in retaliation from traders not complying
", he stressed.
At the heart of this system, “
mafia methods
” targeting supermarkets and fast food stores in particular: the gang demanded “
free goods, monthly payments of + peace rents + and even went for some businesses to impose + + security guards that traders had to pay to be + protected + from risks created by the criminals themselves,
”detailed the prosecution, deploring the impossibility of listing the total number of victims, some fearing reprisals.
The ten individuals, all residing in La Courneuve, have for the most part already been convicted, "
some more than 15 times for similar facts
", noted the prosecution, which requested their placement in pre-trial detention.