While the crisis that has rocked Guadeloupe in recent weeks seems to have passed, the time has come for sanctions and investigations. “Six people were taken into custody” including “four (who) were presented on Monday with a view to an indictment for aggravated theft”, explained Patrick Desjardins, public prosecutor of Pointe-à- Clown. All are suspected of being involved in the
looting of the customs office in Pointe-à-Pitre on November 19.
During this assault, several weapons had been stolen. “Requests for detention were taken” against four men arrested Thursday, “including a minor”, continued Patrick Desjardins.
Some looters are seasoned delinquents
According to him, the two youngest were not known to the police, but the other two – aged 47 and 27 – are “seasoned delinquents whose profile makes us think almost certainly that their intention was very precise and very clear: it was a question of attacking this customs office ”. They are charged with theft aggravated by three circumstances – action in assembly, break and enter and degradation – as well as possession and acquisition of weapons in assembly.
Two men, 20 and 23, were arrested on Sunday and were still in police custody Monday evening. They “also have the profile of experienced delinquents”, noted the prosecutor. He said DNA fingerprints identified the suspects.
Several stolen weapons
“Half a dozen automatic weapons, a submachine gun and a pump rifle” were stolen, according to the commander of the research section of the gendarmerie, Lieutenant-Colonel Joël Kerleau. “They took advantage of the chaos that was generated by the urban violence to enter by force” in the room with “a forklift that had been stolen just nearby to smash the gate”, he said, specifying that ‘ a customs vehicle was set on fire and two safes robbed.
At this stage, a single weapon was found in a man who explained that he bought it for 2,700 euros via WhatsApp messaging. He was sentenced to eighteen months in prison by the Pointe-à-Pitre correctional court.