Robbery of a Loomis van in Lagny-sur-Marne: three accused before the Assize Court

The Seine-et-Marne Assize Court judges three men, suspected of having participated in the robbery of an unmarked van from the Loomis company, on September 24, 2018, in Lagny-sur-Marne.

Farid A., 35 years old, Mheidi B., 38 years old, and Tarek T., 34 years old, are tried for theft in an organized gang with a weapon, damage to the property of others by means dangerous for people and involuntary injuries.

The three defendants will appear free at the hearing which begins in Melun on Monday and will last five days.

That morning, shortly before 11 a.m., the police at the Lagny-sur-Marne police station were alerted to an attack on an unmarked van carrying funds, rue Jean-Mermoz.

Near the van and a burning Volkswagen Touran, the cash couriers who were attacked recount a violent and rapid scene.

The two men – unarmed – were about to collect the recipe from the nearby Marne-et-Gondoire aquatic center when they were robbed by a particularly determined gang.

After an accident, the criminals had fled running

Criminals, who arrived on board the Touran, blocked their van from the front, while a Mercedes C-Class coupe took them in a pincer movement from the rear.

The escorts then saw four men appear, their faces concealed by a scarf and a cap, who banged against the windows of their vehicle.

Before extracting them by force, pressing them against the ground and punching and kicking them.

The two victims, who received tear gas, evoke a telescopic truncheon, a club, a hammer, an electronic pulse gun… Under the threat of their weapons, the criminals seized three suitcases containing 30,000 euros and two bags of change.

Then they set fire to the two vehicles and fled in the Mercedes, at full speed and taking all the risks.

The coupé will be abandoned in Villevaudé, following a collision with a Peugeot 208. The criminals – who left running across the fields without looking at the seriously injured motorist – also left the loot there.

Money that was useless anyway, since it had been smeared with indelible ink when the cassettes had been extracted from the van.

It was on Monday, November 19, 2018, in the early morning, that the run of three of the alleged robbers stopped when the Meaux judicial police arrested them at their home, in Chelles, Les Pavillons-sous-Bois (Seine- Saint-Denis) and Sannois (Val-d'Oise).

The three defendants face sentences of up to 20 and 30 years in prison.