Police crackdown on pickpockets

TEN people have been arrested and questioned by police in a crackdown on pickpockets at the Eiffel Tower and the Palace of Versailles.

Police said seven of the 10 would be brought before a court, describing the operation as a ‘dismantling of a pickpocket ring’, which they said investigations had shown to be at work daily and ‘extremely mobile’. They mainly operated at the two French landmarks, but sometimes went as far afield as London, they said.

The suspects, reported in the French press to be part of the same Romanian family and aged 17-47, were arrested in hotels in Meudon and Issy-les-Moulineaux.

Investigators seized around €3,000 in cash as well as many items of clothing and luxury accessories, and entry tickets to the Eiffel Tower and Versailles.

Police said investigations showed they had “led a luxurious life” and that the hotel bills for last year alone were €130,000.

According to Le Figaro “in the high season each pickpocket could pocket up to €4,000 a day”.

1 gang de pickpocket #Roms démantelé? 1 gang par jour j'espère?! Ces mafias roms gangrènent @Paris pic.twitter.com/G70cdPtVMg— ✡ Stal ن (@staluego) May 29, 2015

Police said the gang always use the same method – three members would join tourist groups, pretending to be tourists themselves, one would distract a tourist’s attention, another would steal and then pass the goods to a third accomplice.

LCI cites police sources as saying the methods involved jostling the tourists or pretending to take selfies next to them.

Last Friday morning the Eiffel Tower was closed for seven hours when staff held a protest against increasing pickpocketing at the site.