They rob copper rail to power. The French Ministry of the Interior speaks war to thieves

The Interior Minister of France Bruno Retailleau declared war to thieves robbing the French railway from Copper – Le Figaro wrote on Thursday. The newspaper pointed out that the gangs engaged in this procedure come mainly from the Balkans and Eastern Europe.

“The French have enough repeated thefts that destroy railway infrastructure, lighting and telecommunications devices,” the newspaper alerted.

There are hundreds of cable theft in France in France. “Le Figaro” pointed out that the scale of this practice is the largest in the Hauts-de-France region, which borders on Belgium, serving gangs for the place of sale of stolen copper.

In the vicinity of the southern station in Lille, the capital of this department, in June there was a destruction and theft of 600 meters of cables. Hundreds of passengers got stuck at the station, and many travelers had to postpone the journey.

“You can't underestimate sensitive infrastructure points, but you can't fall into fatalism,” said the head of the Ministry of the Interior. He stated that since he took office, the fight against theft of cables has been one of the priorities of his ministry, which resulted in many detention. In his opinion, the problem can only be solved if he will impose very sharp penalties to thieves of “red gold”.

On May 23, the court sentenced two men and a woman to two and a half years in prison for theft of cables. Earlier, in April, two Romanians also fell during the attempt to pull out the cables from the SNCF railway carrier building in Nimes. “Le Figaro” noted that one of the criminals, when he heard the sentence, announced that “he never wanted to go back to France again.”

The newspaper said that a gang working in the west of France managed to earn 700,000 on this practice. euro. The gendarmes detained three people who stole two tonnes of cables a moment earlier. Incurrently, some gangs change as employees to get to facilities where telecommunications or rail installations are. Orange fell victim to this fortress. Last year, 1,400 km of cables was stolen from its installation.

“Le Figaro” assessed that France is a great place for these criminal organizations, because stolen goods can be easily taken to North Africa and Eastern Europe. (PAP)

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