Assault rifles, ammunition, grenades and Nazi propaganda. It is part of the arsenal that customs officials discovered, after arresting two 25-year-old men who refused to submit to a traffic check around Mesnil-en-Ouche (Eure), Saturday 20 November.
The two arrested, including a corporal of the 35th Infantry Regiment of Belfort, already under surveillance, were taken into custody as part of a flagrant investigation into offenses related to the legislation on the possession of weapons, according to the Evreux prosecutor’s office. If no attack was apparently planned, justice does not rule out the ultra-right track. Franceinfo looks back on what we know about this case.
Two men, including a soldier, arrested with “weapons”
Saturday 20 November, in the Normandy countryside, two men aged 25, one toolmaker and the other a corporal in the 35th Infantry Regiment of Belfort (Territoire-de-Belfort), trying to escape control, hit the vehicle of the customs officers. They are then quickly caught and controlled, confides a police source to AFP. The two twenties returned from a shooting session in the countryside, a prohibited activity, specifies Le Monde (subscribers article) who revealed the case.
Customs officers discover in their car “weapons” according to the prosecutor of Evreux Dominique Puechmaille. The legal detention of “three hunting rifles and an automatic pistol”, according to The world, is confirmed after verification. But customs officials decide to continue their investigations by surrendering at the home of one of the two men, a detached house located in Mesnil-en-Ouche (Eure), about thirty kilometers away.
An arsenal discovered during a search
It’s in “a cache in a shed belonging to the grandfather of one of the two individuals”, said the prosecutor, that “lots of ammunition and items with swastikas” were discovered. The magistrate did not specify the number of weapons seized. But according to a source close to the investigation, customs officials found “130 weapons, including AR-15 and AK-47 assault rifles, submachine guns, handguns, shotguns with sawn-off barrels and stock, 200 kg of various ammunition, grenades, five cartridges of 20 mm for aircraft machine guns “.
According to a police source, some of these weapons were held legally and others illegally. The world emphasizes that “Seventy-seven of these weapons would fall under category C”, therefore subject to declaration and must be kept in a safe or strong cabinet. The arsenal discovered also included elements of propaganda linked to the extreme right, including “typical neo-Nazi patches, posters and literature”, according to a source close to the investigation.
Monitored by intelligence services
This discovery in the grandfather’s shed is not accidental. The two men werehave been followed for several months by the intelligence services for their membership of the far-right movement, according to a police source, which specifies that no plan for an attack has been discovered.
Due to the military status of one of the two arrested, the Defense Intelligence and Security Directorate, in charge of internal security in the armed forces, supervised the activities of the active corporal within the 35th Infantry Regiment of Belfort. This surveillance was carried out in collaboration with the General Directorate of Internal Security, which specializes in the fight against terrorism.
The Belfort military unit was already in the sights of the armies since the publication in March of an investigation into “a neo-Nazi branch within the French army” led by Mediapart (article reserved for subscribers). She had revealed the presence of an openly Nazi soldier. According to information from France Bleu Belfort-Montbéliard, it is the same man. He had been the subject of “heavy disciplinary sanctions”, including days off and setting aside any managerial responsibility.
The file in the hands of justice
Customs, after completing their intelligence phase, forwarded the file to justice. In the continuity, the public prosecutor’s office of Evreux (Eure) seized the judicial police of Rouen and the sub-directorate of the fight against organized crime. “It is a question of determining the scale and the environment of the two men, explains a police source at World. And in particular to know their exact role in any supply chains of small groups linked to the ultra-right or their membership in one of these groups. As it stands, there is no evidence that these are the kind of individuals training for the big night. ”
The anti-terrorism sub-directorate was also mobilized for an assessment mission for the benefit of the national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office (Pnat). The world recalls that a note from this sub-directorate, dated May, underlined the significant presence of “members of the public service, especially in the army” in the ultra-right movement, as well as“a marked interest in the weapons that some legally hold, either for sport or for hunting”.