Four and a half million euros of stolen cars, 18 months of investigation, 40 people arrested ... A large car traffic between France and Spain has just been dismantled by the French gendarmerie and the Spanish Guardia Civil. Europe 1 reveals the details of this extraordinary survey.

INFO EUROPE 1

An impressive traffic of cars stolen between France and Spain was dismantled jointly by the French gendarmerie and the Spanish Guardia Civil, with the help of Europol. In total, it took a year and a half of investigation to allow the arrest of 40 people, including eight in France, accused of being the "exporters". Back on a multi-million euro net strike.

Several modes of operation

It was a technical control center near Madrid that gave the alert, seeing a large number of vehicles with doubtful papers. Month after month, the investigators spotted several teams of thieves, who changed their mode of operation as and when.

" They spotted the car they wanted to fly in the street, then they approached with a recovery truck, lifted the car, and took it to a place to change the registration "

The first flights took place in the region of Madrid. "At first, they just flew by force, breaking the lock, and then they used another method of using cranes: they spotted the car they wanted to fly in the street, and then they approached with a truck. repairing, lifting the car, and taking him to a place to change the registration, falsifying the serial number of the chassis and making false documents ", says the captain of the Central Unit of Operations of the Guardia Civil, Carlos Leal. "In the end, they rented vehicles all over Spain, under a false identity, and did not return them at the end of the rental."

Mid-range cars

The traffickers were stealing cars of average range, between 20,000 and 40,000 euros that the eight French arrested, thirty years of the region of Rodez, resold just below the price of opportunity. They went back and forth to look for stolen and falsified cars and sold them to dealers around Rodez, mostly via resale Internet platforms, after registering them in the official database.

In France, it was the OCLDI (Central Office for the fight against itinerant delinquency) which took charge of the investigation, with the research brigade of Rodez. No fewer than 118 vehicles were monitored during the investigation, which began in January 2018, for a total of four and a half million euros.