The attack on the Saudi diligence was almost perfect – The World

Le Monde | 05/22/2015 at 18h29 • Updated 23/05/2015 at 12:47 | By Simon Piel

The Quai d’Orsay dreaded a diplomatic incident. Saudi prince on a spree in the capital that is robbed of hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, luxury watches and high value jewelry, while he went peacefully at Le Bourget airport, that makes disorder. Especially since Saudi Arabia appears increasingly as a privileged partner of France.

Nine months after the robbery, August 17, 2014, Porte de la Chapelle near the entrance the A1 motorway, a luxury sedans convoy chartered by the company Alizé limousine for the Prince Abdul Aziz Bin Fahd, the police arrested twelve people. A thirteenth is a fugitive. Six of them have been indicted for robbery with weapon band organized and criminal conspiracy and were detained.

In daylight, the robbers team, hooded, armed and … knowledgeable, had stopped one convoy of Mercedes as a vulgar diligence before grabbing their loot and take flight aboard big BMW. All denied involvement but one – 35, 14 convictions registered in criminal records

The robbers team consisted of friends in Pontoise and Saint-Ouen-l’Aumône and accomplices. met in prison, the prison of Nanterre, among others. All were “known to police” for scams, robberies and drug trafficking. Information, which investigators believe they may have been provided by a former employee of the limousine rental company came realize their desire for easy money.

The crime would have been almost perfect if the judicial police of Versailles had not implemented a monitoring team members for a while. She had observed and operate trails at Four Seasons Hotel George V in Paris, where the prince resided, as well as the place where the vehicles used in the robbery were burned. Without understanding what was going on.

Nine months later, the booty was gone. During the searches, 40 thousand euros in cash were found in one of the respondents. The prince, he has not lost sleep. After the robbery, he went to Ibiza to party and did not bother to complain, unlike three members of the convoy, including a protocol attached to the Embassy of Saudi Arabia. The diplomatic incident flew with the royal jet.