a team of Chilean burglars, who notably scoured western Paris, in court

A house on the edge of the forest, in Seine-et-Marne, in January 2023. The broken rear shutters, jewelry and a little money gone. A case of a few minutes for burglars. The next day, at dawn, it was in a very modest room to the west of Paris that the five Chilean suspects were arrested. Among them, two women, one of whom is pregnant. The loot is there, as well as a jammer, to play with house alarms and beacons placed by the police.

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These arrests are an illustration of the burglary figures in France which have increased significantly in 2022 (+11%). A “catch-up” effect after the fall during the Covid-19 period. The five suspects, Chileans, are judged Tuesday, February 21 at the court of Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine). At the Banditry Repression Brigade (BRB), it has been four or five years since we observed and dismantled small, very mobile teams that roam Western Europe. And for France, it’s not just about Paris, as the commissioner who heads the BRB observes: “We have already arrested some who had worked near Rouen, then the same in Auvergne. It is a real itinerant delinquency which is particularly mobile. The day after, they left for the Netherlands or Belgium.

“They often have the habit of making a very short stay in the Paris region. For example, we have a last team which stayed less than five days in Paris. We can arrive at three or four flights a day without any problem.”

The head of the BRB

at franceinfo

Jewelery and leather goods are quickly resold and the money generally reshipped by money orders to Chile. To get around, often outdated cars, bought for a pittance by these teams of burglars, aged 20 to 30, who remain as discreet as possible “They work a little in the west of Paris, but they tend to go a little further, where there is less video and where the habitat is less dense, which allows them to work more easily. Afterwards, they live very frugally when they are with us, often with sleepers in the suburbs of Paris.”

“They are under the radar and you don’t hear about them. They are not people you are going to find, for example, in the big Parisian bars.”

The head of the BRB

at franceinfo

Rare tourist memories of their European “road-trip”, a few selfies at the foot of the Eiffel Tower and other monuments. Burglars whose trip to Europe is often synonymous with ascent in their criminal organization, in Chile.