Never or almost never has black gold borne its name so well nor its appeal aroused covetousness.
As the price at the pump soars, the big raid on fuel intensifies.
From February 25, when the Russians had launched the offensive in Ukraine, a 53-year-old Lithuanian was arrested in flagrante delicto in Courdimanche (Val-d'Oise) when he was preparing to pump 20,000 liters of gasoline directly into a pipeline.
In Pontault-Combault (Seine-et-Marne), a young man was surprised in early March in an industrial area while siphoning a truck with an accomplice.
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“The value of the goods, sucked up with small electric pumps, can quickly add up, insofar as the heavy goods vehicles carry two 500-litre tanks”,
indicates an officer.
The thirst for diesel is such that thieves do not hesitate to pierce the tanks with a pickaxe or a drill to suck up the contents.
Machinery on site, tractors in the fields or under agricultural sheds...
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