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“Sensitive matters”. When the robber Rédoine Faïd decides to switch to armored vans, the holy grail in the world of banditry
“Sensitive matters”. When the robber Rédoine Faïd decides to switch to armored vans, the holy grail in the world of banditry
(SENSITIVE AFFAIRS / FRANCE 2)
From armed robberies to incredible escapes, the somewhat megalomaniac robber had already climbed a certain number of levels in organized crime… To enter the “big leagues”, he lacked the attack of an armored van. This was done in 1997, in Villepinte. Excerpt from “Rédoine Faïd: the robber with many faces”, to be seen in “Sensitive Affairs”.
“He watches himself being robbed, he is in perpetual search of light…” “He wants to stand out, he wants to tell a story, he wants to write his own legend…” On the personality of Rédoine Faïd, of whom “Sensitive Affairs” paints a portrait, testimonies agree to attribute to her a certain megalomania. In 1997, after a series of robberies, he wanted to move up a gear. In the world of organized crime, the Holy Grail is the attack on armored vans. “It’s much more recognized than ‘making’ banks, confirms Yazid Kherfi, former robber turned social worker who visited Rédoine Faïd in prison. Because there’s a lot of adrenaline, there’s action, it’s dangerous…“
Adrenaline and action, Rédoine Faïd seems not to be able to do without them. On the beach in Tel Aviv where he had “gone green” under a false identity, he sank into boredom, as he complacently confided in an interview with France Inter. So it was time for the “braquodependent” bandit to plan his first armored van attack. A movie buff, he imagines reproducing the scenario of one of his favorite action films: Heat, a face-to-face between a gangster (played by Robert De Niro) and a police officer (played by Al Pacino). Exactly like the team of robbers in the film, Faïd and his accomplices hide their faces under hockey helmets.
The commando took action on July 3, 1997. That day, Yvon B. was at the wheel of a van carrying 12 million francs when he was ambushed. Fifteen years later, the cash conveyor feels “still guilty of not having convinced [s]colleagues not to come down. (…) I wanted to force it, the other two said: ‘No, we’re going down’. We went down…”he says, adding that he feared receiving a bullet in the back of the head at that moment.
Yvon B. immediately finds himself tied up on the ground with one of his colleagues, and the bags of cash pass nimbly into one of the thugs’ cars. Everything seems to be going as the “director” wanted… It was then that a vehicle from the Anti-Crime Brigade (BAC) appeared, immediately greeted by three bursts of gunfire. One of the agents responded and hit Rédoine Faïd in the shoulder, an injury which did not prevent him from fleeing with his accomplices and part of the jackpot: 2,700,000 francs, or more than 400,000 euros. Yvon B. will have nightmares about it for a long time. The old cash conveyor will put “about four, five years to come out of it”according to his testimony.
Excerpt from “Rédoine Faïd: the robber with many faces”, an investigation carried out by Alexis de La Fontaine, to be seen again in “Affaires Sensitives”, a co-production France Télévisions, France TV presse, France Inter and the INA, adapted from a France Inter broadcast.
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