The facts occurred on November 17 at a medical facility where endoscopy equipment, “including 18 machines at 30,000 euros each”, was stolen, according to a press release from Nancy’s prosecutor’s office. According to the public prosecutor’s office, the total damage was estimated at “almost 1 million euros”. “After information exchange with the Belgian and Luxembourg judicial police services”, all the material could be found a few days later in a post office in Arlon, Belgium.

The loot was in four packages destined for Colombian Bogota.

Exchange

The exchanges “between the three French, Belgian and Luxembourg judicial police forces” made it possible “quickly” to identify the alleged perpetrators, “a criminal group of five Colombian criminals”, four men and a woman, arrested on November 24 by the Luxembourg police “in a youth hostel” in Livange in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

The searches of their rooms made it possible to seize “bags, suitcases and clothing that had been used during the commission of the offenses and could be seen on the video surveillance footage,” prosecutors said.

Any facts?

They were handed over by the Luxembourg authorities to the French judiciary on December 5 and were charged and taken into custody as part of the judicial investigation opened by the Nancy prosecutor’s office for “theft by an organized gang and criminal organization for the purpose of committing a crime”.

The judicial investigation must show whether the five in particular can be attributed to similar facts, according to Nancy’s public prosecutor’s office.