December 2019: an attack on a cash-in-transit van in Daillens left three vehicles totally wrecked.
Hard times for armed robber
2017, 2018, 2019. Over the years some spectacular and violent attacks on armoured vans have been staged. In 2020, the radio fell silent. The AJR + project to combat organised crime was proving its worth.
Several vehicles registered in France head towards Switzerland and force their way through customs. Inside the car, heavily armed men are preparing to attack a cash-in-transit (CIT) vehicle on Swiss soil. Their 'French-style' modus operandi is always the same: corner the vehicle, threaten the driver with a ballistic weapon, blow up the vehicle doors to grab the money, set fire to the vehicles and escape back to France. They are still unaware that the French police are on their tail.
These professional CIT robbers are criminal gangs from the suburbs of Lyon. They scout Switzerland for several weeks before the attack. Everything is now in place to carry out their plan: vehicle theft, confirmed logistics points, information on the CIT van's route etc. They are looking forward to booty of several million francs.
A failed plan
With only a few minutes to go before the attack, the pressure mounts. They approach the meeting place. A few cars go by but there is no sign of the van. Minutes pass; still nothing. Have they missed their target? Eventually, they give up and leave. Back in France, the national police are awaiting them. The work involved in foiling the criminals is not as spectacular as an attack would have been. Behind this operation are months of investigations and intense collaboration between fedpol, the French national police and cantonal police forces. All this was possible thanks to AJR +; some of the tactics still remain confidential.
The AJR + strategy?
Set up in 2014, AJR stands for Armed Jewellery Robberies. There are three phases to the strategy. First of all, fedpol exchanges information with its partners abroad (the authorities in the foreign country, INTERPOL or Europol) and with cantonal partners in order to establish coordination. It then carries out a detailed analysis of the situation and identifies the networks to which the criminals belong. The various partners involved can then develop an operational strategy on the basis of this analysis. Primarily, they determine who will respond first on the ground in order to catch the criminals in action. With the agreement of the Office of the Attorney General (OAG), fedpol can take rapid initial investigative steps (in accordance with Art. 27 para. 2 of the Criminal Procedure Code) and launch operations. As this approach to foiling jewellery robberies proved so successful, it was extended to armoured vehicle robberies to become AJR +. Close cooperation with potential target companies has been established to prevent such robberies.
Swiss weapons found in Marseille
Violent crime is on the rise, so fedpol still needs to remain vigilant. These organised gangs from France mainly commit armed robberies and are involved in drug and arms trafficking. Switzerland is an Eldorado where they come and help themselves to keep their business running smoothly, stealing money, cars, and even robbing gun shops. In 2020, attacks on gun shops in two German-speaking cantons hit the headlines: shots were fired, one person was injured and more than 200 weapons stolen. Some of these Swiss weapons turned up in France in other police investigations. The small-time criminals of the 2000s have now become big-time robbers, and links to extremist and even terrorist circles are never far away. This development is a reminder that the lull experienced in 2020 will be short-lived. Cooperative efforts remain the key to dealing with this transnational crime.