They are international traffickers of stolen cars. Seven men, aged between 22 and 74, were indicted Friday in Paris for robbery in an organized gang. These criminals are suspected of having, since the beginning of 2021 and until April 2022 in Île-de-France, Switzerland, Belgium and Germany, stolen and exported to Africa no less than 170 cars for an estimated damage of several million euros.
Investigations began in 2021 in Gambia with the discovery of a container containing stolen cars. The information is forwarded via Interpol to the Central Office for the Fight against Organized Crime (OCLCO), which has been responsible for tracing this channel.
The 4 x 4 was stolen from the street
The method of the criminals was always the same. The cars were ordered upstream by African customers. There are SUVs and more precisely 3008 Peugeot very popular on this continent. The vehicles were stolen from the street or from car parks, especially in the Paris region.
According to our information, acts have also been committed in Switzerland, Spain and Germany. The cars were then stored for several days, the time to check if the tracker that tracks them was neutralized. Conveyors were then responsible for taking them to the port of Antwerp (Belgium) or Le Havre (Seine-Maritime) before being loaded into containers that sailed to Gambia or Senegal.
After weeks of surveillance, the team was arrested on September 12 in the Paris region. Two days later, the police blocked a container at the port of Le Havre as it was about to leave for Africa. The alleged sponsor was apprehended in Gif-sur-Yvette (Essonne). The 38-year-old Senegalese, undocumented, says he works clandestinely as a mason. Last year, he was arrested at the Swiss border along with an accomplice who confessed that he had been paid 500 euros to transport a stolen car.
A sponsor who does not wish to express himself
Investigations revealed that he made numerous trips abroad. The thirty-year-old assures that he moved to make asylum applications. On the merits, before the investigating judge, this man did not wish to speak. His lawyer, Me Seydi Ba, stresses that "in this case, other members of the network remain to be questioned" and that his client will take the time to explain himself during the investigation.
