Five people, including two figures of French organized crime, were indicted and imprisoned in the investigation into the robbery of an armored van in Germany last Friday, we learned this Wednesday from a close source.
The five indicted, aged 45 to 56, were arrested on Friday at the end of the day in the Paris region and placed in police custody at the premises of the Central Office for the Fight against Organized Crime (OCLCO).
They are suspected of having participated in the attack on a cash transport van on Friday in the German town of Saarlouis, on the border with France.
The commando of several heavily armed people had fled with cash, according to the Saarlouis police, without giving the amount of the loot.
One of the occupants of the van and a police officer were injured in the attack, during which explosions and gunshots were heard, according to the German daily Bild.
Among the five indicted are Abdelkrim Lho, born in 1966, and Loïc Delière, known to belong to French organized crime and to be close to the robber Antonio Ferrara, according to a source familiar with the matter.
They had been sentenced respectively to twenty-two and twenty years of criminal imprisonment accompanied by a security sentence for the robbery of a cash transport van in 2000 in Nanterre, which had cost the life of a conveyor.
Albelkrim Lho's lawyer declined to comment.
A 6th person arrested on Tuesday
At the end of their police custody, the five suspects were presented Tuesday to an investigating judge of the specialized interregional jurisdiction (JIRS) of Paris, in charge of the investigations.
Two of them were indicted for criminal association, two others for criminal association, theft in an organized gang with a weapon, destruction by dangerous means and concealment in an organized gang.
The fifth was indicted for criminal association and theft in an organized gang with a weapon, detailed the judicial source.
Four of them were remanded in custody and the last requested time to prepare his defence.
He was imprisoned until this hearing, said the judicial source.
A sixth person was also arrested Tuesday evening in Haubourdin, in the metropolis of Lille, said a source familiar with the matter, confirming information from La Voix du Nord.
According to a source close to the investigation, his companion was also arrested on Tuesday evening in the Lille region.
The couple was taken into custody.
The Paris prosecutor's office confirmed these two arrests.
