Europe 1 with AFP 4:53 p.m., February 12, 2022

The gendarmerie announced in a press release on Saturday that a network of fake health pass traffickers, having generated and sold more than 3,000 of these documents in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region but also in Ile-de-France in recent months, has been dismantled.

A total of four people were arrested.

A network of fake health pass traffickers, having generated and sold more than 3,000 of these documents in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region but also in Ile-de-France in recent months, has been dismantled, the gendarmerie announced on Saturday in a press release. .

A total of four people were arrested as part of an operation carried out by the Thonon-les-Bains prosecutor's office in Haute-Savoie, from Tuesday to Thursday, "involving around fifty soldiers from the Central Office for the Fight against Attacks to the Environment and Public Health (OCLAESP), the research section of Grenoble, the gendarmerie groups of Haute-Savoie, Drôme and Rhône", she specified.

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"In the continuity of a series of other arrests"

"This judicial operation is a continuation of a series of arrests carried out for several weeks by OCLAESP in connection with fraud in health passes," added the gendarmerie.

Two of the defendants were released following their police custody pending legal action, while the third "is soon to be summoned to court" and the fourth was sentenced "to 9 months of house arrest with electronic bracelet" by the court of Valencia which had judged the latter in immediate appearance on Friday.

This fake pass flow channel, "ranging from the reseller via social networks to individuals", diverted professional accounts of health personnel, the number of which has not been specified.

The searches of the respondents led to "the discovery of numerous telephones and digital media containing data and elements making it possible to materialize the generation of false passes".

Luxury items seized

In addition, seizures were made there mainly of luxury items (Rolex brand watch, Audemars Piguet, multimedia equipment, 4x4 vehicle) "acquired by members of this network during or after the period of the facts thanks to illicit profits of their traffic", it was further indicated.

Last January, a couple from the Lyon suburbs were indicted, suspected of having sold at least more than a thousand false health passes by hacking into the professional account of a Gironde nurse this summer.

The man had been imprisoned, his companion left free under judicial control.