Paris justice system continues investigation after robbery in Saarland

Some are being investigated for gang-related armed robbery and others for logistical aspects or aiding and abetting the escape. Eleven suspects are still in custody. It is not yet possible to predict when charges will be brought and a trial held.

The perpetrators had intercepted the armored car in Saarlouis on 13.1.2023 and brought it to a halt at a crossroads in the Lisdorf district. This was followed by an exchange of gunfire and an explosion. The perpetrators blew up the van, stole cash and fled in the direction of the French border.

Professional criminals from the Parisian underworld are suspected of being behind the crime, having already spent many years behind bars for other cash-in-transit robberies. Shortly afterwards, five suspects were arrested in the greater Paris area and two more near Lille. French investigators confiscated 860,000 euros of the loot amounting to 2.1 million euros.

Suspects remain silent in front of investigators

As the TF1 channel recently reported, most of the suspects have so far remained silent before the investigators or protested their innocence. They face up to 20 years in prison. It was a gang consisting of family men in their fifties, some of whom had already been involved in cash-in-transit robberies in the 1990s and 2000s, in which there were also fatalities.

French investigators had been hot on the perpetrators' heels for several months before the robbery. The members of organized crime in France were being investigated for forming a criminal organization without the investigators knowing where the perpetrators would strike. The day before the robbery, the investigators had learned that a coup was imminent and initially pursued the perpetrators on the highway, but then lost sight of them.