Teams of South American criminals, particularly well-trained and organised, were active during the Paris Olympic Games (July 26-August 11), targeting tourists as a priority, the authorities noted in a confidential note.
A note devoted to the actions of these gangs highlights, according to a source close to the case, a significant proportion of arrests of South American nationals, notably from Chile, Ecuador, Peru and Colombia, among all those implicated in thefts during the Olympic Games.
Organised into gangs of three to five individuals, men or women aged 30 to 50, specialists in pickpocketing, they particularly targeted foreign tourists, mainly on public transport or in hotels.
These “associations” are described in the note as “highly mobile and linked to international criminal organizations” and specialized in “appropriation delinquency” (pickpocketing, breaking and entering, trickery, etc.). The criminals’ methods of operation are detailed there.
Some of the suspects are suspected of being linked to gangs in Chile associated with the criminal organization. International launches.
The range of action of these teams extends over several states in Europe, the Middle East and Canada, adds this source, who describes them as “crime tourists”.
The members of these structures, who see theft as a “real profession”, transmit among themselves a “culture of practicing theft committed abroad”, and often hold Spanish residence permits, a country which they use as a gateway and a rear base.
Given their roaming nature, these teams are subject to special monitoring by police organisations such as Europol and Interpol.
Among other things, they stole a camera worth 15,000 euros used to broadcast images of the diving events at the Olympic Aquatic Centre in Saint-Denis, in the north of Paris.
The investigation into this team led to the arrest of three men and a woman, all of Colombian nationality, at the beginning of August.
Investigators discovered laptops, jewelry, luxury watches, cash, as well as clothing stamped “Paris 2024” used by the criminals and accreditation stolen from an American athlete.
They were sentenced in mid-August to two years in prison, as well as a ban on appearing in France for ten years after their sentence.
Other South American teams, according to the note, were even equipped with false accreditations and false bracelets to access the Olympic sites and the Olympic village as well as false papers (identity, press card, etc.).
This is not the first time that networks of thieves from Latin America have distinguished themselves at sporting events in France.
Some of the Colombians sentenced last August had come to Paris for the Champions League final in May 2022, which is infamous for its security breaches and the increase in tourist thefts.