Three men were arrested last week for the theft in the Paris region of a bag from the head of the Mongolian Olympic delegation, in Paris for the preparation of the 2024 Olympics, with contents estimated at 600,000 euros, AFP learned on Wednesday from police source and the Bobigny public prosecutor’s office (Seine-Saint-Denis).
On the morning of October 11, the member of the International Olympic Committee and his wife, who had come to France to attend a security committee preparing for the Olympic Games, were heading to their hotel by VTC from Roissy airport when they were robbed in the Landy tunnel in Saint-Denis, at the foot of the Stade de France, detailed the floor.
A scooter with two individuals on board, according to a police source, approached the car. One of the thieves broke a window and grabbed a bag containing valuable jewelry from the back seat.
The damage declared by the Mongolian couple amounts to 570,000 euros, including two gold and diamond earrings with a unit value of 165,000 euros, according to the prosecution. According to the IOC website, the victim runs several large companies in Mongolia.
In charge of the investigation, police officers from the Banditry Repression Brigade (BRB) arrested three men, aged 22 to 25, at their home in Saint-Denis on October 25.
“It’s a team that spots (fortunate victims) in Roissy and passes the message to a scooter that follows the car. It intervenes at the most opportune moment, when the car is slowed down on a traffic lane,” the Bobigny prosecutor’s office told AFP.
Investigators linked to the same team a theft of jewelry and leather goods from two Saudi travelers using the same procedure that occurred on October 2, for an estimated loss of 50,000 euros.
The jewelry was not found during the searches but numerous photos of jewelry were discovered on the suspects’ phones, the police source said.
The defendants only admitted to having earned 6,000 euros from the resale of watches but remained silent on the fate of the Mongolian couple’s jewelry, according to the same source.
The alleged thieves were placed in pre-trial detention for their immediate trial on November 30 at the Bobigny court.