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CRIME

Russian billionaire robbed of fur coats in French Alps

At least two burglars made off with fur coats worth around €100,000 ($108,000) from Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov's chalet in the French Alps last weekend, prosecutors said Friday.

Published: 25 March 2017 10:06 CET
Russian billionaire robbed of fur coats in French Alps
The Courchevel 1850 ski resort in the French Alps. Photo: AFP
The break-in at the exclusive Courchevel 1850 ski resort took place overnight on March 18, the prosecutors from nearby Albertville said.
   
One employee was at the chalet at the time, they said, adding that security cameras filmed two intruders but revealed no significant features to aid in tracing them.
   
The burglars stole €8,000 in cash in addition to the fur coats, for which investigators have requested the receipts.
   
Prokhorov, whose fortune is estimated at $8.8 billion by Forbes magazine, is chief executive of Norilsk Nickel, the world's largest producer of nickel and palladium.
   
One of Russia's richest men and the owner of the Brooklyn Nets basketball team, he ran for president in 2012, garnering eight percent of the vote.
   
In 2007, he was arrested in Courchevel over suspicions of arranging prostitutes for his guests at a Christmas party, but he was released without charge.
 
The robbery marks just the latest high profile robbery of a foreign visitor to France, the most notable of which saw Kim Kardashian robbed of jewellery worth €9 million in October in Paris. 

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CRIME

French police search for gunmen after shootings in Paris suburb

French police were searching for gunmen after three people were killed in drug-related shootings in the Paris suburb of Sevran over the weekend.

Published: 6 May 2024 16:13 CEST
French police search for gunmen after shootings in Paris suburb

Two men were shot dead near a cultural centre in the Seine-Saint-Denis suburb, to the northeast of the French capital on Sunday evening, less than 48 hours after another fatal shooting nearby, according to authorities.

The victims of Sunday’s shooting were aged 35 and 31 and known for violence and drug trafficking, according to police sources.

One was shot in the head, with two suspects fleeing on foot, leaving the magazine of an automatic weapon and 18 spent bullet casings behind them.

The second man was hit six times.

The town of 52,000 people was on edge, mayor Stephane Blanchet told AFP, saying people were living in fear of another shooting.

“There is a huge feeling of fear, that it could start again and [that someone could be hit by] a stray bullet,” Blanchet said.

“If it had been a beautiful sunny day, there would have been more people outside,” when the latest shooting happened, he said.

In the first shooting, a 28-year-old man was killed on a nearby housing estate early on Saturday, with three others wounded.

In March, French President Emmanuel Macron announced an ‘XXL’ cleanup of drug trafficking in the southern port city of Marseille and other towns across France, including Sevran, where the drugs trade has been blamed for a spate of death and violence.

One drug dealing hotspot in Sevran was ‘eradicated’ in that operation, police said.

“We are aware that when we do that, we destabilise traffic, we create greed and sometimes there are clashes,” Paris police chief Laurent Nunez said on Sunday.

“But we will still continue,” he added.

Local La France insoumise MP Clementine Autain accused the government of abandoning some areas, and said the suburb, “did not have the police presence of other areas”.

Drug-related violence has often flared in Sevran – considered a hub of drug trafficking in France – with the then-mayor calling for UN peacekeepers to be deployed there in 2011.

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