The case “is part of the most significant episodes of banditry in Lyon”. But it is clear that she “did not reveal all her secrets”, in the words of the investigating judge. Even if “grey areas remain” and that “all the criminals involved have not all been identified”, five men will be tried from this Wednesday before the Rhône Assize Court for the robbery of a van in Chavornay, Switzerland, on February 8, 2018.
The operation was orchestrated together by a seasoned team, originally from the Lyon suburbs, and another based in Switzerland, just as experienced. Prepared nearly a year in advance, it required “careful scouting”. A “millimetric organization and thought out in detail”, underlines the examining magistrate in the voluminous order of indictment.
The cash courier’s daughter taken hostage
On the benches of the civil parties, 20 companies will take place as well as the driver of the van and his daughter. This evening of February 8, the young woman experienced a real nightmare. Abducted then sequestered by three criminals, eager to put pressure on her father so that he hands over to their accomplices the loot, estimated at 25 million Swiss francs.
At 6.30 p.m., a man comes to her home, in the 6th arrondissement of Lyon. Briefcase in hand, he pretends to be the plumber she contacted for a leak in her apartment. A second, hooded face, joins him. Together, they tie up the 30-something, gag her and force her into a garbage can that they carry to their accomplice’s truck. They then force her to call her father to convince him to obey their orders, before releasing her on a departmental road in Ain, around 9 p.m.
The crooked employee
In the dock, five men, aged 29 to 48, will appear for having participated to varying degrees in this spectacular robbery. Starting with Yusuf K. He is described as the “cornerstone” of the robbery, the instigator. He is the man “without whom the criminals would have had difficulty implementing their criminal plan”. His job: cash courier since 2017 for the company SOS Surveillance.
On the evening of the incident, he was present in the van, alongside the driver. According to the prosecution, it was he who had the idea of the armed robbery. Investigators suspect him of having contacted a team in Switzerland, with which he had already planned a robbery in 2017. But also of having informed the gang of Lyonnais “of the flaws in the security system” of his company, of having ” actively participated” in the conspiratorial meetings. And to have informed the criminals about the habits of the daughter of his colleague in order to locate her.
A “brain” on the run
The second thief, Mehdi A. is on the run. When the meshes of the net began to tighten, he hastily left Vaulx-en-Velin, where he resided, to pack his trunk in Thailand, abandoning his wife and children. Aged 42, he is presented as the “main organizer”, “the thinking head” of the robbery. No less than 18 trips to Switzerland, observed between May 18, 2017 and February 8, 2018. According to the prosecution, he would have in particular “organized and validated the scenario” allowing the kidnapping and kidnapping of the daughter of the conveyor. His DNA was also found on boxes containing the stolen funds. Finally, the police did not fail to wonder about his “very high” lifestyle. Without a profession and without income, apart from the RSA, the couple A, however, led the good life, between rentals of luxury sedans and trips abroad.
Mektoub M., 47, formally disputes the charges against him. However, he too would have played an essential role. Considered the right arm of the “brain”, he would have assisted Mehdi A. in his scouting, also accompanying him during meetings. He is accused of having stolen the car that came to meet the van, then of having hidden it before making it disappear definitively. “He was rather the leader and not the follower who seemed more experienced”, will indicate about him, one of the suspects, during his hearings. His DNA was also found on the stolen crates.
A few months after the robbery, he and his relatives suddenly moved to Le Cannet, then to Cannes. Enough to intrigue the investigators who did not fail to identify “obvious inconsistencies” between his declared income and his expenses. Officially destitute and “having debts”, the family nevertheless stayed “in four-star hotels or residences” in Evian-les-Bains, Mandelieu-la-Napoule and went on vacation abroad. Two months after the robbery, she was also in Dubai, before spinning to settle in the south of France.
The “guardian” of the robbed hoard
Benjamin of the group, Mehdi B., aged 29, was suspected of being the fake plumber. But the police were unable to formally prove his involvement in the kidnapping of the driver’s daughter, even though his cell phone frequently “bounded” near the young woman’s home, especially on the day of the incident. Nevertheless, they remain convinced that he regularly spoke with the main protagonists of the affair, in particular with the “thinking head” of the group, described as one of his relatives and with whom he had planned to flee to Thailand. Already convicted 23 times, he is also suspected of having taken hostage, in January 2021 in Lyon, the son of the boss of a precious metals refining company by demanding from the latter more than twenty kilos of gold ingots. gold.
The fifth defendant, Pascal G., 48, was the guardian of the loot. Mehdi A’s “trusted man”, whom he met thirty years earlier in the Grappinière district of Vaulx-en-Velin. He says his role was limited to burying part of the loot in his garage, in Haute-Savoie, at the request of his childhood friend. Which would have aroused a lot of envy. Denounced by an anonymous call, the forties was himself the victim of an attempted robbery at his home on June 20, 2018. A robbery which, according to the judicial police, would be the work of criminals, unhappy not to have received their share.
Chavornay’s robbery and its “unusual loot” were not without consequences. Far from there. The brother of Mektoub B., confused with the person concerned, was shot and killed on June 7, 2020 in Vaulx-en-Velin. Finally, Karim N. nicknamed “Balak”, suspected of having “directly participated in the facts” and who should have been tried on Wednesday, was assassinated on April 23, 2021, on the eve of his 43rd birthday.
The trial is to be held until April 7.