The Parisian metropolis, its warehouses and its trucks filled with manufactured products, still excite the lust of freight robbers.
It is guided by this desire that a high-flying team led by Gaël Nivelais, 41, nicknamed the “baby robber”, once again fell, in March 2018, into the hands of justice.
The man was appearing with ten accomplices, aged 26 to 58, this Monday, February 15, before the Assize Court of Paris, for theft in an organized gang and criminal association.
Some of his accomplices, seasoned bandits, are accused of having robbed with him, in Aulnay-sous-Bois (Seine-Saint-Denis), a truck that was transporting a cargo of Apple computers worth 288,300 euros.
"It scared me so much that I threw myself on my bunk"
This morning of March 8, 2018, it is 7.45 a.m. when a semi-trailer leaves the Garonor TNT depot.
“When I left the depot, I saw a dark gray van that got in the middle of the road,” says Rabah, the truck driver still traumatized by this experience.
I saw three hooded men come out suddenly.
One of them stood in front of my door and shouted:
You are held up, not a gesture
. "
The driver sees a gun pointed at him.
“There was one who hit the glass with a hammer,” he continues.
It exploded and the sound echoed like a gunshot.
It scared me so much that I threw myself on my bunk. "
Two men get into the truck, force the driver to drive on the highway, in a convoy, followed by a Mercedes van and a powerful Renault Clio RS.
The truck reaches a field near the industrial area of Mitry Compans (Seine-et-Marne) where another white van is located.
The criminals blindfold the driver and tie him up with plastic ties.
The whole operation is carried out under the protection of a wave jammer.
The thugs communicate with each other using walkie-talkies.
The thieves unload the computer equipment in the vans and prepare to leave the premises.
The trap tightens on the robbers
It was at this time that investigators from the research and intervention brigade (BRI) of the Paris judicial police, who had been monitoring the entire operation from the start, intervened.
The driver of the Clio tries to escape, but he collides with a police car.
Pascal V., the oldest robber, puts his hand in his pocket where there is a Mauser pistol and hesitates to take it out, before finally surrendering.
The three men on board, Karim P. Pascal V. and Saïd SAM are arrested.
In the car, the police get their hands on a shotgun, a 38 caliber pistol, Smith and Wesson and ammunition.
During this time, the drivers of the two vans both jump on a TMax scooter driven by Nabil M. On this team, the trio tries to escape before being hit by a police car.
The pilot is immediately overpowered.
The other two run away.
A policeman, alone behind their heels, fired in the air.
The two men, Gaël Nivelais and Hassen Belferroum, freeze and lie down on the ground as a sign of surrender.
The "robber baby" challenges the role of leader
At the center of this affair, although he denies being the leader of the gang, is the “baby robber”, born in Saint-Denis, convicted nine times in particular for theft with a weapon.
“Gaël Nivelais contests the role of leader which is lent to him.
This is a shortcut on which he will explain, ”says his counsel, Me Marie Violleau.
Alongside this repeat offender are local acquaintances in Bondy and two former robbers who linked up with him at the Villepinte remand center, Pascal V. and Hassen Belferroum, known to have been sentenced to six years in prison for the robbery of the Harry Winston jewelry store in Paris in 2008.
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"I tinkered with the right and the left, I had no more money and I had the project to make a truck, it is what is simpler and less risky", a Gaël Nivelais explained during the hearings.
The criminals were all under the surveillance of investigators from the Central Office for the Fight against Organized Crime (OCLCO) since October 2017. Nivelais and his accomplices were listened to and tracked in their slightest movement, while they were carrying out tracking in freight transport companies.
According to the prosecution, the operation was well prepared.
But, in their statements, the robbers rather evoke a somewhat improvised operation.
Two years after this arrest in the act, "freight trucks are still easy targets," said a police commissioner.
Teams of specialists are targeting more than ever shipments that sell well: Apple phones and computers or cigarettes. ”
90% of freight is done by truck
No later than Monday February 1 in Herblay (Val-d'Oise), around 5 a.m., the boss of a warehouse was held up by three hooded criminals who kidnapped the boss and three employees before giving up on twelve iPhone palettes.
"Telephone manufacturers do not equip their boxes with a tracking system", regrets this police commissioner.
The concealment channels are very classic.
Cigarettes are sold at tobacconists with little attention and in the cities.
The phones can be resold in phone shops or exported, especially to Africa or Eastern Europe, which neutralizes any chance of finding them.
The Paris region hosts 17 million square meters of warehouses.
They are mainly located in the outer suburbs along the Ile-de-France but also near airports.
Trucks today transport 90% of the 217 million tonnes of merchandise that arrive or leave Ile-de-France a year.
54.4% of the goods transported are manufactured products.
Safety is a more than sensitive subject, the National Federation of Road Transporters did not wish to speak.
Neither does the transport company Gefco.
“Freight flights have always existed,” explains CFDT FGTE (transport and environment) delegate Patrick Blaise.
But the large logistics platforms are now more and more protected. ”
The incredible steering technique ... while driving!
This is why freight robbers prefer to attack trucks as they come out of warehouses after loading their cargo.
Sometimes with spectacular techniques.
Like the one used by real acrobats in flight who operate on the freeway while the truck is moving at full speed.
This is the case of a team of ten criminals, aged 32 to 45, living in the Paris region, which was arrested in November 2019 by investigators from the central office for the fight against itinerant delinquency (OCLDI ).
This incredible technique, “invented” in Romania, has been observed by all European police forces since 2012.
The technique consists of taking a spinning truck.
A car is placed in front of the truck to slow the driver.
A second, equipped with a sunroof, sticks to the trailer.
An acrobat climbs on the hood, cuts the lock and enters the trailer before transhipping the goods.
It is only when arriving at their destination that the truck driver realizes that his merchandise has disappeared.
The gendarmes noted six first operations relating to perfumes in Saint-Jean-de-Braye (Loiret) in 2018. They found their traces in Sorgues (Vaucluse) in 2019. In total, these robbers-surfers are suspected of having carried out, during nearly two years, about twenty raids in the hexagon for a damage of more than three million euros.
This team led by Nicolae D. is made up of members of the same family and close friends, originating from the same sector of Romania.
They lived in a house in Antony (Hauts-de-Seine) and sometimes took refuge in a camp in Vitry-sur-Seine (Val-de-Marne).
