They were recovering gold from stolen jewelry for the transform into small ingots and resell them in Germany. Uonly twenty suspects were arrested in this haul, against a vast parallel network of gold trade. These arrests were carried out in Côte-d’Or, in the Jura, Marne and Bouches-du-Rhône, during the months of May and June.
A pyramid scheme
This vast illicit gold market was organized pyramid way : thieves of gold jewelry transmitted their booty to gold collectors, who melted the jewelry to form ingots. Collectors were then responsible for selling these ingots to a gold buyout company located in Germany, according to the Prosecutor’s Office of the specialized inter-regional jurisdiction (JIRS) of Nancy, which is piloting the investigation.
Several tens of millions of euros
Searches made it possible to saisir 29 kg d’or (equivalent to 1.5 million euros), 101 kilos of silver powder, 12 vehicles, around thirty luxury watches and 121,169 euros in cash. These searches were carried out in Côte-d’Or, Marne and Bouches du Rhône. In total, this illicit gold trade is estimated at several tens of millions of euros.
After these shots, 14 people have been charged for concealment in organized gangs of thefts, aggravated money laundering and participation in a criminal association. Among them, eleven people were placed in pre-trial detention and three under judicial supervision. A French national, a gold collector residing in Belgium, was also handed over to the French authorities on June 15.
Investigations are continuing, in particular into the use of accounting documents seized during searches carried out in Germany and Belgium.
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