Christophe G, 46, was indicted Monday in Bordeaux (Gironde) for theft in an organized gang and criminal association before being imprisoned.
This figure of the community of travelers from Vernouillet (Yvelines) was arrested on January 26 with four other accomplices in Yvelines and Eure-et-Loir by investigators from the research section of Limoges (Haute-Vienne ).
His team is suspected of having, between October 2019 and November 2020, committed seven burglaries and two attempted robberies with violence, carried out in companies located in the large north-western quarter of France.
“These are workshops that produce high added value goods,” says a source close to the survey.
There are leather goods, Louis Vuitton and Hermès but also perfumes such as Dior.
The amount of damage for these companies amounts to 800,000 euros.
"
Night raids in stolen vehicles
The gendarmes had been working on this investigation for over a year.
Christophe G.'s team led night raids in sedans or vans, stolen twenty-four hours before taking action.
And these "war vehicles", as the military say in their jargon, were only used during these expeditions.
"These car theft specialists used an electronic starter box and the vehicles were immediately made up," said a source close to the case.
Their targets, which are in Sarthe, Loire-Atlantique, Haute-Vienne, Mayenne, Eure-et-Loir, in Côte d'Or and in Loiret, were monitored for several days and nights before lead the expeditions.
READ ALSO>
Real Kelly, fake customers, luxury showrooms: an occult sales network of Hermès bags dismantled
Gloved and hooded thieves would neutralize alarm systems and cut up chests with a grinder or thermal cutter before snatching their loot.
"They smashed down the gates and the entrance doors of companies with the ram car and in the event of human presence, they did not hesitate to hit the cars and neutralize the employees before attaching them", tells a source close to the folder.
Once their misdeeds had been committed, the criminals systematically erased their traces with fire extinguisher powder.
Newsletter The essential of 78
A tour of Yvelines and IDF news
Subscribe to the newsletterAll newsletters
The investigators will identify a first suspect, a man known in their file for the same misdeeds, who disguised the stolen cars by noting, on the Leboncoin.fr website, the registrations of identical models put up for sale.
Following telephone and technical investigations allowed the police to identify the members of this gang, all from the same community with family and friendly ties.
They all lived on the plateau of Vernouillet or in Eure-et-Loir.
Electronic starting devices found during searches
For several months, the gendarmes set up a surveillance system around Christophe G. and his accomplices.
The man, whose criminal record contains seven convictions, was seen stealing a car.
They caught him carrying out locations around several Sarthois companies and his genetic fingerprints were found on the box of a fire extinguisher in burglarized premises.
READ ALSO>
Paris: luxury watch robbers target repair shops
Shortly after their arrests, these men were taken into custody in the premises of the gendarmerie where they remained silent.
During the searches, carried out at the homes of the suspects, the police got hold of night vision binoculars, a pair of walkie-talkies and a blue headlamp identical to those observed during several nocturnal journeys.
But above all the military got their hands on two electronic starting devices for cars at Christophe G. Sollicité, his counsel, Me Alexandre Simonin, does not wish to comment on this case which is still under investigation.