COPY LINK

CRIME

Paris celeb cat-burglary suspects go on trial over €4.2 million thefts

A gang of cat burglars accused of scaling buildings to steal millions in jewellery, fashion items and other valuables from the rich and famous, including Paris Saint-Germain football star Thiago Silva, goes on trial in the French capital on Wednesday.

Published: 23 June 2021 08:33 CEST

Paris celeb cat-burglary suspects go on trial over €4.2 million thefts

The gang targeted several PSG players among other celebrities. Photo: Franck Fife/AFP

The group of seven men and one woman is believed to have burgled not just top players from the PSG team, but also music and TV personalities.

Silva – the PSG’s captain at the time but who now plays for Chelsea – returned home after a first division match on December 23, 2018 to find his safe, jewellery and watches worth a combined €1.2 million were gone.

Surveillance camera footage showed two men climbing up a drainpipe and entering Silva’s mansion through a French window. Minutes later, they reappeared carrying their loot in a backpack and a suitcase they took from the house.

Less than a month earlier another PSG player, Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, was burgled of €600,000 worth of leather goods and jewellery while he was on the pitch playing a Champions League match.

The investigation first led police to two potential suspects, and then a third. Thanks to phone taps and tails on the three, police identified a group of seven men in their twenties based in the northern Paris neighbourhood of Goutte d’Or, and the two vehicles they used.

After arresting them in August 2019, police came to believe that the gang had also carried out a burglary a year earlier at the home of French rapper Elie Yaffa, better known as Booba.

Operating in units of two, three or four, they are also suspected of stealing from the homes of TV host Patrick Sebastien, celebrity chef Jean-Pierre Vigato and an unnamed wealthy Saudi national, taking a combined €4.2 million worth of goods.

Meanwhile, police seized bracelets, rings, watches and bags in the flat of a young woman in Aubervilliers, a northeastern suburb of the capital, with some items identified by their rightful owners.

The detectives also found weapons, bullet-proof vests a hydraulic jack and a crowbar in the apartment.

At first the suspects denied everything. But over the past year, investigators made inroads on the gang, with members admitting to some of the accusations, or claiming that they were only on lookout while others carried out the thefts.

Some have also claimed that the estimates of their haul were exaggerated given that some of the stolen pieces turned out to be fakes.

Prosecutors say they have identified the two masterminds of the heists, which all involved breaking in through windows while the occupants were away.

One is Mohamed S, who thanks to his climbing prowess is known as either “Jet Li” after the martial arts film actor, or as “The Cat” – a nickname he rejects.

The other is Abdelazim G., who goes by the nickname “Bidou” – or “Kid”.

The seven men, now aged between 27 and 31 and with long rap sheets, are charged with theft and membership of a criminal organisation.

The tenant of the Aubervilliers apartment is charged with receiving stolen goods and illegal possession of arms as well as membership of a criminal organisation. She has denied all accusations.

Police found lists of names and addresses of celebrities at her home, but have been unable to identify any inside accomplices or to find out how the stolen objects were sold.

The suspects’ lawyers did not return AFP’s calls, or said they would not comment ahead of the trial.

Meanwhile, Paris Saint-Germain stars have continued to be targeted in burglaries.

This year, Spanish PSG player Sergio Rico and Argentinians Mauro Icardi and Angel Di Maria were burgled, as was the family of their Brazilian teammate Marquinhos.

Member comments

Become a Member to leave a comment.

The French Jewish community, the third largest in the world, has for months been on edge in the face of a growing number of attacks and desecrations of memorials.

“National police in Rouen neutralised early this morning an armed individual who clearly wanted to set fire to the city’s synagogue,” Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Police responded at 6.45 am to reports of “fire near the synagogue”, a police source said.

A source close to the case told AFP the man “was armed with a knife and an iron bar, he approached police, who fired. The individual died”.

“It is not only the Jewish community that is affected. It is the entire city of Rouen that is bruised and in shock,” Rouen Mayor Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol wrote on X.

He made clear there were no other victims other than the attacker.

Two separate investigations have been opened, one into the fire at the synagogue and another into the circumstances of the death of the individual killed by the police, Rouen prosecutors said.

Such an investigation by France’s police inspectorate general is automatic whenever an individual is killed by the police.

The man threatened a police officer with a knife and the latter used his service weapon, said the Rouen prosecutor.

The dead man was not immediately identified, a police source said.

Asked by AFP, the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office said that it is currently assessing whether it will take up the case.

France has the largest Jewish community of any country after Israel and the United States, as well as Europe’s largest Muslim community.

There have been tensions in France in the wake of the October 7th attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel, followed by the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

Red hand graffiti was painted onto France’s Holocaust Memorial earlier this week, prompted anger including from President Emmanuel Macron who condemned “odious anti-Semitism”.

“Attempting to burn a synagogue is an attempt to intimidate all Jews. Once again, there is an attempt to impose a climate of terror on the Jews of our country. Combating anti-Semitism means defending the Republic,” Yonathan Arfi, the president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF). wrote on X.

France was hit from 2015 by a spate of Islamist attacks that also hit Jewish targets. There have been isolated attacks in recent months and France’s security alert remains at its highest level.