They were targeting young people their age in the RER C. Once their victim was spotted, they surrounded her, threatened her with a knife and stripped her of her cell phone and money.
Six young people were arrested at the beginning of November by the urban security of Cergy for thefts with violence, under the threat of a weapon, in the trains between the stations of Val-d'Oise.
The only adult in the group was sentenced in immediate appearance by the Pontoise Criminal Court to 18 months in prison, including six months suspended and a ban on appearing in the municipalities of Val-d'Oise where the acts were committed.
His five acolytes, aged 16 and 17, were brought before the juvenile judge.
Six victims identified
For ten days, during September, this small group from Seine-Saint-Denis attacked teenagers, girls and boys, always with the same modus operandi.
They spotted young people alone in the trains, surrounded them and relieved them of their cellphones and purses, showing off a bladed weapon.
Once their crime had been committed, they fled to the next station.
According to the elements of the investigation, they would have thus made six victims.
Shocked but not injured, they are between 15 and 18 years old, and have filed a complaint.
The Cergy urban security police officers, in charge of the investigations, succeeded, thanks to the use of video surveillance images and to cross-checking with the telephone, to identify the six presumed perpetrators and to apprehend them.