After a month of investigation, two Cubans and a Colombian, aged 24 to 26, were brought on Thursday to the Evry courthouse (Essonne) where they were to be tried for having committed since the beginning of the month of January five burglaries or attempted break-in in Essonne, Yvelines and Hauts-de-Seine, for damage, in cash and jewelry, amounting to more than 100,000 euros.
The trio had been arrested, by officials of the brigade for the repression of banditry (BRB) in Paris, last Tuesday at their home in Bobigny (Seine-Saint-Denis), when he had just returned from a heist committed in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois (Essonne).
The investigators of the group for the repression of itinerant delinquency opened an investigation at the beginning of the year on this team which had specialized in burglaries of Asian traders.
They followed their victim to their home
Their method was to identify people who work in the ready-to-wear wholesale trade area of Aubervilliers (Seine-Saint-Denis).
The criminals followed them, spotted their house and took advantage of their absence during the day to rob them.
The thugs were placed under surveillance and the police understood that from January 14 and the curfew, the thieves had changed their habits to engage in thefts in the light.
"The idea is to circulate in residential areas at nightfall and to attack houses which remain extinct in the absence of the owners", specifies a source close to the case.
Specialists who come to Europe from time to time by plane to commit thefts there
The police discovered that the trio had attacked houses in Morsang-sur-Orge (Essonne), Marly-le-Roi, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, La Celle-Saint-Cloud (Yvelines ) or Rueil-Malmaison (Hauts-de-Seine) by smashing doors and windows with a screwdriver.
During searches, the police got their hands on clothes worn by criminals during the thefts and on a piece of jewelry with a characteristic inscription.
During the hearings carried out in the Parisian premises of the judicial police, the thieves confessed.
The South American burglar teams (Chileans, Cubans and Colombians) are specialists who occasionally come to Europe by plane to commit thefts.
They are often hosted by diasporas established in the Paris region.
They then return to their country to take advantage of their booty.