On watches costing more than 2 million euros, every second that ticks away brings you closer to paradise or to prison.
On June 15, 2017, "Zuzin" - his nickname in the city of Tilleuls, in Blanc-Mesnil (Seine-Saint-Denis) - can no longer keep watch in this alley reserved for professionals of the Salon international de la haute watchmaking from Geneva (Switzerland).
Phone to ear and smile, he pretends to have a conversation in English.
The security guards are there, a few meters from him.
But they don't suspect a thing.
This tall guy in a suit looks so laid back.
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In reality, Zuzin does not understand why “Fadron”, his childhood friend, stays so long in the Audemars-Piguet reserve.
But over the years, his companion has become an expert in luxury watchmaking.
He examines them one by one, it takes him a minute to choose nine.
Sixty endless seconds for Zuzin who finally sees his accomplice reappear with a booty of 2.3 million euros in high-end watches.
That day, the “Arsène Lupine du Blanc-Mesnil” have just achieved their biggest blow.
They sound the devil in Hong Kong
Four years later, the two thieves are reunited again but at the Paris court.
It is 8:30 pm this Tuesday and they come out free from this hearing.
Fadron, 39, will however return to detention in a few days.
Direction the prison of Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine), where he has already spent eighteen months before being released on a procedural flaw.
But there, he has just been sentenced to five years in prison, two of which were suspended for this theft in Geneva and also for the concealment of one of the 11 Richard Mille watches stolen in the Swiss capital on January 17, 2016. The damage amounted to 1.2 million euros.
Investigators have never been able to establish that the “Arsène Lupine du Blanc-Mesnil” were behind this other theft.
“They weren't even prosecuted for that,” recalled Louise Tort, Fadron's lawyer.
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Zuzin gets away with three years, one of which is suspended.
If he too has been convicted of criminal association, the 40-year-old father will not return to prison where he has just spent more than three years.
Because he had been caught ten days after their masterpiece in Geneva, when the two friends had resounded the devil at the international jewelry fair in Hong Kong.
True globetrotters of flight.
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This February 28, 2017, as usual for years, they walk the aisles, the day before the opening of the event.
They take advantage of the setting up of the stands to blend in with the crowd, because with the effervescence, we do not notice them.
"If the opportunity arises, I take action," Fadron summed up to the judge during his trial.
"They go there on instinct," breaths one of his relatives.
Their only plan is that of the living room.
The rest is nonsense.
"
With his patter, Zuzin distracts a salesperson.
Meanwhile, neither seen nor known, Fadron steals a briefcase containing 400,000 euros of diamonds.
A nice booty?
Not for them, who have lived above ground for years, leading a dream life between great restaurants and VIP parties where they always manage to enter.
Too greedy, the duo is spotted
But this case of diamonds is not the Grail.
So, they stay put on the lookout for an even juicier shot.
This is the fatal error.
The seller became aware of the theft.
He viewed the CCTV images and immediately gave Zuzin's report.
The “Francesco Totti” of Les Tilleuls, as this football fan is also nicknamed, was arrested a few seconds later.
Not Fadron who is yet a few meters from him.
"It's like you have an invisibility cloak," Zuzin will text him from his Hong Kong prison.
Rather than immediately taking the plane to France with the diamond case, Fadron tries a game of poker to save the skin of his accomplice.
He returns to the stand surrounded by security forces, casually crosses the cordon and pretends to pick up something.
"Look, these are the diamonds," he shows an agent before passing out in the wild.
In prison in Morocco, Zuzin "lived through hell"
"A good proof of friendship," Zuzin judges a posteriori.
This will not prevent him from being imprisoned for sixteen months in China.
Fadron was also arrested a month after this episode, on his return from a watchmaking show in Basel (Switzerland).
The investigators were already on his heels since the Geneva coup, armed with his photo and especially his fingerprints.
He was stuck.
In Basel, Fadron was accompanied by Kamel, another friend of always called in replacement.
He, too, shows extraordinary nerve.
In the footballers' VIP parties, he pretended to be Zuzin's agent, a “promising player from Le Havre”.
This Tuesday, Kamel was sentenced to six months under an electronic bracelet for the abortive Basel coup.
"He has already been imprisoned for three months", specifies his lawyer, Maxence Baldo.
Targeted by an international arrest warrant for the Geneva case, Zuzin was extradited to Algiers because he had entered China with his Algerian passport.
To return to France, he tries to go through Morocco where he is finally imprisoned "in crazy conditions", insisted his lawyer, Chris Vogelgesang.
"We were crowded with thirty like sardines," Zuzin swallowed in court.
There were suicides, a guy got his throat cut.
I really went through hell.
"
Time for redemption for high rollers?
He returned to France a month ago.
Like his buddy Fadron, he had never known prison before.
“They ran in by stealing sneakers or other trifles at Porte de Versailles or Villepinte trade shows, contextualizes one of their relatives.
But they've always been drawn to glitter.
They were thinking big, probably too much.
They lived an extraordinary life for years before diving.
It was written… "
How many flights did the duo manage before getting caught?
In the neighborhood, we are talking about fifteen blows, without it being possible to really know it.
Today, the childhood friends of the Tilleuls swear that their incarceration brought them back to earth and that they want to spend time with their loved ones.
Without having to count the seconds.
Even less on luxury watches.
