Fourteen people suspected of having taken part in a vast gold traffic between France andGermany were indicted and nearly 30 kg of the precious metal worth 1.5 million euros were seized, we learned this Friday, June 26, from the Jirs de Nancy.
This illicit gold trade could reach tens of millions of euros
, estimated the parquet of the specialized Interregional Jurisdiction of Nancy in a press release.
The suspects, arrested between mid-May and the end of June, have been indicted for concealment in an organized gang of thefts, aggravated money laundering and participation in a criminal association with a view to preparing an offense
, said the same source.
Jewels recovered from thieves
Eleven of them were placed in pre-trial detention and three under judicial supervision.
The investigation by the Research Section of the Dijon Gendarmerie and the Central Office for the fight against itinerant delinquency (OCLDI) has made it possible to to dismantle a vast parallel network of gold trade in the departments of Côte d’Or, Marne, Jura, Bouches-du-Rhône
, according to the Jirs.
Gold collectors collected jewelry from thieves. They founded them to form ingots, then collectors were then responsible for recovering these ingots for sale to a gold buyout company located in Germany
, she detailed.
The searches carried out in the Marne, the Côte d’Or and the Bouches-du-Rhône have enabled the seizure of 29 kg of gold with a market value of € 1,487,032 and 101 kg of silver powder with a market value of € 60,120
, she added.
12 stolen vehicles
Twelve vehicles with a total value of € 340,000, around thirty luxury watches and € 121,169 in cash were also found by gendarmerie investigators.
Investigations continue, particularly on the use of accounting documents seized during searches carried out in Germany and Belgium
, where a gold collector of French nationality resided, handed over to France by the Belgian authorities in execution of a European arrest warrant, said the court.
– .
