A vast network of burglars has been dismantled, announced this Friday Philippe Astruc, the public prosecutor of Rennes in a press release. 11 suspects were arrested between November 2021 and June 2022, most of them of Romanian nationality. They are suspected of having targeted smartphone packaging companies. The arrests occurred in France, but also in Romania, England and Italy, in collaboration with Eurojust and the judicial police authorities of Europol.
The investigation by the Caen research section, supported by the Central Office for the Fight Against Itinerant Delinquency, began on the night of Sunday September 20, 2020 to Monday September 21, 2020, when the premises of a company reconditioning Iphone is robbed in Poilley, in the Manche department. “The video surveillance on the site made it possible to establish that five people had cut the fence of the enclosure of the site, then the cladding of a workshop. Inside, they stole 2600 mobile phones, reconditioned or in the process of being reconditioning, for a total loss of 320,000 euros“, indicates Philippe Astruc. The Coutances public prosecutor’s office quickly relinquishes control in favor of the JIRS, the Specialized Interregional Jurisdiction of Rennes, suspecting “a structured criminal group”.
Sixteen burglaries or attempts in the West
In total, the investigations make it possible to link sixteen burglaries or attempts, in Poilley in the SleeveMontgermain and Cesson-Sevigné in Ille-et-Vilainebut also in Tours, Fondettes and Saint Roch, in the‘Indre-et-LoireSainte-Luce-sur-Loire and Le Loroux-Bottereau in Loire AtlantiqueChemillé-en-Anjou in the Maine et LoireSaint-Loubès in GirondeDreux in the YvelinesThe Pine in the Two Sevres and Dreux in Eure-et-Loir. Facts committed between September 2020 and October 2021 and which concern around 7,000 smartphones, i.e. a “damage of two million euros”for targeted companies.
At the manoeuvres, the investigators identified three men, settled in Romania, who regularly traveled to France, to “journeys“. They are suspected of recruiting people from within the Romanian community to commit misdeeds. Ten Romanians aged 28 to 47 are indicted for theft or attempted theft in an organized gang and participation in a criminal association.
Flights in France, resale abroad
The survey also sheds light on the channel through which the phones are sold, as most phones are reactivated in Great Britain, Italy and Romania. “Five receivers from the same Afghan family sold the proceeds of the thefts. One of them, located in Aubervilliers, bought the telephone sets to then have them transported to Birmingham and Brindisi where they were resold by relatives in mobile phone shops.“, continues the public prosecutor of Rennes. The latter is also indicted for receiving organized gangs, money laundering and participation in a criminal association. The 11 suspects are in pre-trial detention and face 15 years of criminal imprisonment.