The suspects admitted in police custody to having sequestered under the threat of a weapon a restaurateur in the basement of his residence to go and rob his apartment, in the 15th arrondissement of the Phocaean city. Four of them were remanded in custody.
The working day behind him on September 4, 2021, it was around 11:30 p.m. when a Marseille restaurateur drove his vehicle into the basement of his residence. He won’t have time to get to his apartment. Criminals grab him, threatening him with a handgun and a knife, then tie him up and gag him.
In the process, they go to his home to rob him, taking with them the receipts of his business, luxury watches and various means of payment according to a source familiar with the matter. The victim finally managed to reach the ground floor of the residence and was freed by a resident.
Hooded and gloved, taking action after scouting, the suspects were not careful enough. Thanks to the work of telephony but also to video surveillance, in particular on the use of the means of payment which the criminals used after the attack, six people were arrested on January 25 in Marseilles and in the Alpes-Maritimes by the BRB (Brigade for the repression of banditry) of Marseilles, with the support of the BRI and the BRB of Nice.
The police seized from some of the suspects two handguns and a long weapon, but also balaclavas, ammunition and cocaine.
In police custody, the suspects admitted this sequestration under the threat of a weapon followed by theft and were indicted last Friday. Four of them were remanded in custody. For the most part, they were known to the police for acts of average delinquency and for one of them for similar acts.