Six criminals, including three on the run, were sentenced to prison terms of between 7 and 20 years in Lyon, eastern France, on Friday for robbing an armored van with record loot of more than 40 million euros in Switzerland in 2017.
• Also read: Six men in France attempted a juicy robbery in Switzerland
The jury imposed the highest penalty on the three absentees, repeat offenders with extensive criminal records – 20 years in prison. The three who appeared in court were sentenced to 16, 12 and 7 years in prison respectively after five days of debate.
The verdict is broadly in line with the demands of Attorney General Eric Mazaud, who placed the six men “in the high spectrum of criminality” for this attack, which he said was carried out with “a high level of preparation” and “virtually Professionalization” was carried out.
However, in the case of one of the six defendants for “organized gang robbery with a weapon”, “kidnapping and kidnapping”, the jury was more lenient and imposed a sentence of seven years instead of the nine years demanded by the public prosecutor.
The six defendants, aged between 32 and 47 at the time of the crime, were arrested red-handed on May 24, 2017 in a villa in Haute-Savoie (French Alps). In addition to the weapons, the police on site had seized enormous loot: bags full of banknotes from all over the world, gold bars, jewelry and precious stones with an estimated value of 40 million Swiss francs (42.3 million euros). daily rate).
A few hours earlier, five of them on board three stolen cars had intercepted a Loomis company van on the motorway in the canton of Vaud between Geneva and Lauzanne and posed as police officers equipped with armbands and flashing lights.
In a few minutes
Within minutes, they seized the vehicle and locked two tethered conveyor belts in the trunks of two cars. As they crossed the French border, they left the two agents tied up near the burned carcass of the van after spraying them with a product to erase DNA traces.
During the trial, lawyers for the three defendants who were present increased their efforts to minimize their clients' responsibility and to accuse the three absentees.
“Those who knew the project are absent, those who defined the project are absent,” emphasized Mr. Laurent Bizien, lawyer for the man sentenced to 16 years in prison, the oldest of the group.
Arrested at the exit of the villa behind the wheel of a van with half of the loot, investigators presented him in court as a potential ringleader. He had assured that he had not been involved in the robbery and Mr Bizien had requested that he be acquitted of the charge of “organized gang theft” and only be tried for accepting stolen goods. After the verdict was announced, the lawyer immediately announced his intention to appeal.
Another man, a 42-year-old from Lyon who specialized in car theft, was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
One of his lawyers, Me Philippe Scrève, stressed that he did not belong “to this world of banditry in which some may have already set foot.”
The gang's least experienced and only non-recidivist was sentenced to seven years in prison. In contrast to his two accomplices who were present, he left the courtroom free because no arrest warrant had been issued against him.