This is a case that had aroused strong emotion in the city of La Croze in Annonay at the end of last summer. Early on August 22, four hooded individuals opened fire on a vehicle. Miraculously, the driver and two passengers escaped unscathed. A bullet goes through the window of a local resident and lands in her couch, again – miraculously – without hurting anyone. A few days later, one of the shooters was arrested. But it took a long investigation by the gendarmerie to arrest the three other attackers.
Guns, money and drugs
A group of eight investigators is formed with gendarmes from the research section of Grenoble and the departmental grouping of Ardèche. Tuesday, January 25, 120 gendarmes are mobilized for a vast dragnet in Ardèche and in the Loire. Twelve people are arrested. At the end of police custody, three are indicted for organized gang attempted murder and locked up. Another man wanted for assault with a weapon was also imprisoned.
This is probably a matter of settling accounts against a backdrop of traffic. During the searches, the gendarmes found a large sum of money, automatic weapons and revolvers, drugs and stolen vehicles. These discoveries will be the subject of a separate investigation under the aegis of the Saint-Etienne prosecutor’s office.