A network made up of members of the same family and specialized in concealing theft of jewelry that it resold in Belgium and the Netherlands was dismantled last week, the damage being estimated at nearly 4 million euros, announced Wednesday, June 29 the national gendarmerie.
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In total, seven people from the same family residing in Seine-Saint-Denis were arrested for concealment in an organized gang, participation in a criminal association and aggravated money laundering, by the gendarmes of the Central Office for the Fight against Itinerant Delinquency and the research section of Paris, under the aegis of the specialized interregional jurisdiction (JIRS) of Paris.
Five people were remanded in custody and two released, the gendarmerie said in its statement.
Ten months of investigations
On June 21, after ten months of investigation, the gendarmes arrested the occupants of a vehicle which was traveling to the Netherlands.
On board, they discovered “
4.5 kg of gold, for a value of around 250,000 euros
”.
The investigation made it possible to determine that the concealment network was made up of members of the same Ile-de-France family leading a high lifestyle and possessing a very significant real estate heritage, "
unrelated to an identified lawful activity
".
The investigations, carried out "
in conjunction with the Belgian and Dutch authorities
", established that many teams of jewel thieves brought their loot directly to the clan's homes in the Ile-de-France region.
The gold was then resold to wholesalers in Belgium and the Netherlands, “
at the rate of 3 to 5 kilos of gold per trip every 15 days
”.
The gendarmes estimated the damage over ten months of investigation at 3.85 million euros.
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The searches at the homes of the defendants led to the seizure of “
several hundred luxury goods (leather goods, clothing, etc.), 48,000 euros and two vehicles including a Porsche Panamera
”.
On Tuesday, as part of the money laundering part of the case, a search carried out in an accounting firm led to the placement in police custody of three people, the manager and two employees.