Survivalist arrested in Gard: “He knew he was being watched” and “he had improved” since his first arrest in 2022

Guest of BFM TV, Captain Stéphane Martel, second in command of the Vigan gendarmerie company, returned to the arrest by the GIGN of a forty-year-old close to the survivalist movement Monday March 11 in Carnas in the Gard revealed by Midi Libre . A very delicate intervention since the suspect’s house was riddled with traps and explosives. This same individual, who had already been arrested in October 2022 for the same facts, was automatically hospitalized while awaiting possible placement in police custody.

At the microphone of BFM, Commander Martel returned to the circumstances of this first arrest which followed “to a report from an online platform following an abnormal order for products that could be used in the manufacture of homemade explosives. The investigations carried out by the Vigan research brigade made it possible to demonstrate that he had, for more than two years, ordered kilos and kilos of various products. We knew, in October 2022, that we were going to someone who was living a recluse with very likely explosives at home. Already at the time the GIGN had intervened, especially moreover, that there was also already the mine-clearing and trap-clearing aspect. Civil security had also come to support.”

“The GIGN had rarely seen someone who manufactured explosives in such quantities”

The individual was finally declared criminally irresponsible according to BFM and the case was closed without further action. Returning to live in the small hamlet of Bancel in Carnas, among around twenty dogs and not far from his parents, he built up a new arsenal by escaping the surveillance of investigators.

During the intervention on Monday March 11, an exceptional quantity of explosive products and weapons were seized: 56 explosive objects, 25 traps, 11 of which turned out to be functional. According to initial estimates, between 20 and 30 kg of explosives were recovered. “Personally, I had never seen that”continues Captain Martel.“And in talking with colleagues and GIGN staff, they had rarely seen someone who manufactured explosives by hand in such large quantities.”

“He knew he was being followed”

The suspect had taken precautions since October 2022. “He knew he was being followed. He did otherwise with everyday items, wooden planks, pieces of plastic, watering tools, bicycle pumps, tin cans and electrical wires, batteries… No online orders had been detected by the Vigan investigators. What was found by the GIGN were totally different machines from the first time.”

And the investigator describes the devices discovered in October 2022: “PVC tubes filled with powder, balls, various components.” This time, they are “reproductions of weapons, small pistols, rifles, even a PVC bazooka, another technology. The GIGN experts told us that he had improved. He had learned.” And the gendarme confirmed that the “documentation dating from the 50s or 60s explaining how to make homemade weapons using guerrilla techniques” was also discovered at the suspect’s home.