A team of burglars has just been dismantled in the Loire. This Tuesday, February 8, the gendarmes of the department arrested five people in Saint-Étienne. The 32-year-old man suspected of being the organizer of the burglaries and three of his accomplices are all Albanian nationals. The fence is a 55-year-old resident of Villars, also a merchant in Saint-Étienne.
Raids from Saint-Étienne
In all, the gendarmes suspect them of having committed more than 300 burglaries in the Loire and Haute-Loire between January 2021 and January 2022. The technique was always the same: the team left Saint-Étienne for one or more raids, day and night, in order to randomly rob homes without necessarily doing any identification. They also entered houses even when the occupants were inside.
It was the gendarmes of the Montbrison research brigade who were the first to work on these series of burglaries, which had multiplied in the summer of 2021, before the creation in early January of a dedicated working group. composed of gendarmes from the Loire and gendarmes from the Lyon research sectionunder the aegis of the investigating judge in charge of the investigation.
Total damage estimated at 450,000 euros
During the searches carried out in Villars and Saint-Étienne, the soldiers discovered stolen jewelery and multimedia equipment, a tiny part of the loot whose total damage is estimated at around 450,000 euros. In the vehicles of the alleged burglars, the investigators also found the crowbars and the screwdrivers which would have been used for the break-ins.
After their appearance before the investigating judge on Thursday and Friday, three of the five people arrested were indicted for 142 burglaries and sent to jail. The other two were released.