They could have been arrested, injured or even killed during the operation. Why did these criminals take so many risks on May 14, to allow Mohamed Amra, a 30-year-old repeat offender, to escape? The question concerns the investigators of the BNRF (national brigade for the search for fugitives) and the BNRDT (national brigade for the repression of banditry and trafficking), responsible, for a week, for finding the members of the commando who opened fire on the prison convoy at the Incarville motorway tollbooth (Eure), killing two officers in the process.
“It’s a question that arises, that’s for sure, we don’t know it very well,” confided this Tuesday to 20 minutes a source close to the case, adding that they do not believe in the hypothesis of a kidnapping, put forward in particular by Amra’s lawyer, Me Hugues Vigier.
“It must be of notable importance”
It must be said that the police still have difficulty understanding the importance that the fugitive, nicknamed “The Fly”, may represent in the world of drug traffickers. “They deployed a lot of resources. Which either means he’s someone worthy of interest or he doesn’t need to be in prison to master a certain number of things. Even if he is not defined as a top boss, he is still a guy who must have notable importance,” our source continues.
Investigators from Oclco (Central Office for the Fight against Organized Crime), helped by their colleagues from Rouen and Marseille, worked all weekend to trace his accomplices. To do this, they are trying to get the phones that were blocked in the area to speak on the day of the attack. They are also very interested in the relatives and family of Mohamed Amra, originally from Rouen.
Several motivations
It must be said that in this type of escape business, the accomplices are often motivated by three things, notes journalist Brendan Kemmet, author of a book on Redoine Faïd * and co-author of a work on Antonio Ferrara**. “The first is friendship. They could be comrades willing to risk their lives or years in prison to do that,” explains 20 minutes this specialist in banditry and criminal affairs. Close friends or family members. When Redoine Faïd escaped from Lille-Sequedin prison in 2018, he was helped by his two brothers and three nephews, who were arrested and convicted for these acts.
The second motivation “is that of remuneration”. “It could be people being paid to do this. We know that drug trafficking generates a lot of money. However, we find killers in the streets of large cities in France who can be employed for very little money, as we saw in particular in the Pastor affair,” he continues.
A “return of service”?
The third motivation of the attackers? “We can imagine that it is a return of service. This is a track that should not be forgotten. We do not know what services Mohamed Amra was able to provide in his career,” underlines Brendan Kemmet.
The journalist takes the example of Nino Ferrara, who escaped in 2003 from Fresnes prison, in Val-de-Marne. The former robber, he said, “had put himself in the service of Corsican criminals, people who belonged to the Sea Breeze gang”. “It is said that he had been approached to help Jacques Mariani [une figure du banditisme corse] to escape from prison. Ferrara had gone to Corsica to take part in this operation, which did not take place because others had given up. It was probably to thank him that several Corsicans helped him to escape from Fresnes prison. »
“In close contact with Marseille thugs”
Mohamed Amra has been indicted in Marseille since September 26, 2023 for “organized gang murder, kidnapping and sequestration”. “We know that he was in close contact with Marseille thugs. They still have a very strong power of nuisance. Wouldn’t these Marseillais absolutely need him? » asks a well-informed source.
“He is originally from Normandy, but he has connections with criminals everywhere, even abroad. He may have skills, know-how” that the police did not imagine. And which make him indispensable in the eyes of the accomplices who helped him escape. “It’s not necessarily easy to trace them,” acknowledges our source, although confident about the outcome of the investigations. “It’s going to succeed. But I don’t know when, it might be a bit long. »
* “The escape of the century: The truth about Rédoine Faïd”, by Brendan Kemmet, 2019, éditions Plon, 336 pages, 19.90 euros.
*“Antonio Ferrara, the king of beauty”, by Brendan Kemmet and Matthieu Suc, 2008, editions of Cherche Midi, 420 pages, 19.90 euros.