The trial of a cash courier and five alleged accomplices opens on Monday at the court in Bobigny (Seine-Saint-Denis).
They are judged the theft, in 2019, in Seine-Saint-Denis, of an armored van with 3.1 million euros on board, a large part of which has never been found, according to AFP.
On February 11, 2019, Aubervilliers was still sleeping when, around 6 a.m., a cash transport vehicle from the Loomis company, which was making its rounds, came to a stop along the sidewalk of a major artery in the city.
The cash guard and courier get out with bags of cash and enter a Western Union branch.
The 27-year-old driver, Adrien Derbez, remains behind the wheel of the van.
When the two men come out of the agency, the truck and its driver vanish.
Short-term ride
Immediately, the alert is given.
The armored vehicle is quickly discovered on the other side of the block, doors wide open.
But no trace of the driver, a Loomis employee since 2015, or of the 3.1 million euros contained in bags.
Questioned by investigators from the Banditry Repression Brigade, one of his colleagues said he noticed a certain nervousness in the driver that day.
Contrary to his habits, he had helped them scan the bags before departure to go faster, as if he was in a hurry.
The cash courier's run, however, turns out to be short-lived.
The next day, police hiding in a small street in Amiens, Adrien Derbez's hometown, observed movement in a house where they suspected him of hiding.
The operation is triggered, the fugitive arrested while trying to escape by the balcony.
Nearly one million euros in cash was discovered in bags, alongside used construction clothing, pairs of gloves and a large roll of industrial cellophane.
The conveyor claims to have acted alone
At the same time, the police get their hands on 242,000 euros in the trunk of the car of a childhood friend of Adrien Derbez, Mickaël CM.
He went to the judicial police the following week, claiming that the courier showed up unexpectedly at his home after the theft, asking for his help.
Before the investigating judge, Adrien Derbez recognizes the theft of the van, but claims to have acted alone.
"I had to go somewhere and it didn't happen," eludes anyone who dreams of writing his autobiography or making a film about his life.
The investigations reveal that, a few days before the facts, the conveyor met in a Roissy hotel the shareholder of a sports hall in the Lille suburbs, Simon D., and his mistress, Amélie R. , the lovers were arrested in February 2020. Luxury products were seized from their homes.
Coveted loot
But where exactly did the part of the stolen loot that is missing, nearly 1.9 million euros, go?
In the underworld of Amiens, all this money on the run seems to have aroused much covetousness.
On listening to the family of the imprisoned childhood friend, particularly his brother Francisco CM, the police discover that a climate of concern reigns in the siblings because of "the thing".
The discussions evoke in veiled words “shootings” or thefts in the neighborhood about the “thing”.
The investigators, based on telephone tapping, come to the conclusion that the funds were mainly recovered by Francisco CM and disseminated with the help of his relatives and some criminals from the Amiens community.
In November 2020, the person concerned and his companion, Stéphanie L., were arrested in turn.
Currently imprisoned in the prison of Health in Paris, the conveyor of funds incurs twenty years of prison because of the state of recidivism.
“Adrien Derbez will explain himself to the audience.
He is a young man who has made a mistake in his life, but on the other hand he refuses to put on the costume of the thug that we want him to wear, ”said his lawyers Pascal-Pierre Garbarini and Pauline Baudu-Armand. .
The trial is scheduled until Friday.
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Bobigny
Paris
Ile-de-France
Court case
Fund conveyor
Flight
Justice