They were stealing cars before putting them back on the market with fake registrations. A major vehicle trafficking network was dismantled last week in France, announced Thursday, Philippe Astruc, public prosecutor of Rennes. The investigation had started in April 2021, after the discovery by the research section and the interministerial research group of Rennes of a “criminal organization particularly active in the theft and concealment of vehicles”. Seizure of the file, the specialized interregional jurisdiction of Rennes had opened, in March, a judicial investigation for “thefts, concealment and fraud in organized gangs and association of criminals”.
The investigations revealed that the stolen cars were falsely re-registered, reprogrammed and provided with real or false papers before being put back into circulation by various intermediaries in the Brest region, in Reims or Epernay (Marne), Sens ( Yonne), Pithiviers (Loiret), Segré-en-Anjou (Maine-et-Loire), as well as in Paris. In total, around fifty stolen cars would have been resold, between January 1 and October 5, 2020, “for damage estimated at nearly one million euros”, specifies the public prosecutor of Rennes.
190 gendarmes mobilized on the net
On October 18, a judicial operation involving 190 gendarmes was launched and led to the arrest of twelve individuals in Paris and Reims, as well as in Brest and Plougonvelin (Finistère). During the searches, 18 stolen vehicles were seized as well as €15,000 in cash, €32,000 in bank accounts, €75,000 in a life insurance contract as well as computer equipment used for mining cryptocurrencies with an estimated value of €140,000. Four weapons, a kilo of cannabis resin and 900g of weed were also discovered.
Of the twelve arrested, seven men, aged 25 to 57, were indicted on October 20 and 21 for “theft and concealment in an organized gang, fraud in an organized gang, participation in a criminal association with a view to the commission crime or misdemeanors and aggravated money laundering”. Six of them were placed in pre-trial detention and the last under judicial control. They face the penalty of fifteen years of criminal imprisonment.