The Île-de-France gendarmerie services, supported by their colleagues from Loiret, have just succeeded in a vast catch-up.
This Thursday, eight people were presented to a judge, explains the gendarmerie in a press release.
They are targeted by a long-term investigation, in particular for concealment and money laundering in an organized gang.
To get their hands on these “seasoned criminals”, investigators looked into the theft on the night of January 17 to 18, 2019 of more than 14,000 bottles of “Creed” perfumes worth 4.7 million euros. euros in Ury (Seine-et-Marne).
Each bottle sells for between 200 and 300 €.
That night, several individuals with hidden faces entered the site of the company specializing in the manufacture and packaging of perfumes and cosmetics.
They neutralize the person who remains on the site.
They will threaten her physically.
The thugs, who seem to know the place, have planned everything, including a heavy truck to load the precious goods.
A profit of several thousand euros per day
Thanks to a long investigation work, which mobilized the Research Section (SR) of Paris and the Interministerial Research Group (GIR) of Loiret under the authority of the specialized interregional jurisdiction (Jirs) of Paris, the gendarmes found one of the receivers.
They then discover a vast network, "a criminal structure specializing in habitual concealment and money laundering in organized gangs".
At the top of this organization are siblings located in Île-de-France and Center Val-de-Loire with privileged contacts with teams of freight thieves.
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Ile-de-France: the gendarmes dismantle the gang of looters of heavy goods vehicles
The gendarmes discover that they are using front companies, real or fictitious, French or European, to launder more than a million euros in a few months.
An activity suspected of allowing them to recover "up to several thousand euros in profit per day".
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They decide to intervene on March 14, Sunday, when the head of the network tries to flee abroad.
He was stopped at Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport.
The next day, the soldiers will take out the heavy artillery to arrest 11 individuals.
Luxury cars, 2 million euros in accounts and 470,000 euros in cash
More than 160 gendarmes from the Paris research section, from the departmental gendarmerie groups of Seine-et-Marne, Val-d'Oise and Essonne supported by soldiers from the air transport gendarmerie, 3 dog teams and 5 gendarmerie surveillance and intervention platoons are mobilized.
They get their hands on bottles of Creed perfumes from the initial flight, as well as equipment and accessories used for the theft commission (beacon detector, handguns, “Police” armbands).
Many seizures are made, including the house of the head of the network, seven vehicles including three high-end, 2 million euros in bank accounts and 470,000 euros in cash.
A halt in the theft of freight which comes less than three weeks after the arrest of 7 itinerant thieves who were rampant in Eure-et-Loir, Loiret and Indre.
Here too, they were targeting luxury products: countryside, hi-fi, champagne, etc.