During a hostage-taking last January in the Rhône, a commando of robbers got their hands on several 20 to 30 kilos of gold.
The Lyon prosecutor's office announced Monday that 9 people had been arrested, a crackdown which also made it possible to find 50 kg other kilos.
They had employed great means: on January 28, in the early hours of the morning, five armed and hooded individuals burst into Bessenay, in the Rhône, at the home of the head of a company specializing in the reconditioning of gold.
After his son and his girlfriend were taken hostage, the boss was forced to go to his company located in Limonest, at the gates of Lyon, and give his captors between 20 and 30 kilos of gold.
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50 kilos of gold seized
At the end of a journey worthy of a film script, the criminals got their hands on a booty estimated at more than one million euros.
But it only took investigators a month and a half to identify and stop this commando.
Nine people were arrested.
During the crackdown, with the support of the BRI and the GIGN, the gendarmes and police found 50 kilos of gold stored with an accomplice as well as weapons.
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The delinquents are said to come from the city of Lyon and already known to the police, involved in robbery cases in the past.
At the end of their police custody, five of them were presented to an examining magistrate with a view to being indicted for "organized gang robbery, with kidnapping and forcible confinement", which should earn them a trial before an assize court.