Gold heist in Besançon: eight people charged, 54 kg seized
Eight suspects have been charged following the theft of 54 kg of gold, valued at over six million euros, from a company in Besançon on 3 November. Among them are two men already convicted to 18 years' imprisonment.
Dismantling of an armed robbery gang in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté
According to Actu17, the national organised crime prosecution office has dismantled a gang involved in the armed robbery of a precious metals company in Besançon that occurred on 3 November. Eight of the sixteen suspects arrested in France have been charged. Investigators recovered all the stolen goods: nearly 54 kilograms of gold, valued at over six million euros.
The theft took place at around 7 am on Tuesday at the premises of Usigep, located in the Temis zone. Four masked and gloved individuals entered the building while a fifth remained outside to keep watch. Several were heavily armed. The robbers held employees hostage and threatened them to force them to access storage areas, using violence against some of them.
The perpetrators stole several tens of kilograms of gold as well as jewellery before fleeing. Before leaving, they fired several shots in the car park. They then escaped in a saloon car equipped with a blue beacon light, posing as police officers. Two national police motorcyclists pursued them, but the suspects threw nails onto the road, puncturing the motorcyclists' tyres. The two officers were not injured. The car was later found burnt out on Rue de Chalezeule.
The investigation, entrusted to the national directorate of judicial police and the central office for combating organised crime, allowed the gang to be quickly located. Agents from the National BRI, who had been monitoring a safehouse in the Ain for several months, made arrests from 5 pm on the day of the robbery. Between Tuesday and Wednesday, sixteen people were placed in police custody in France under letters rogatory from investigating judges.
Three arrest warrants were issued in parallel with the support of Eurojust, the European judicial cooperation agency. Three people were arrested in Switzerland and Spain. A substantial arsenal was seized during the arrests, including heavy weapons, notably a rocket launcher and explosives.
Following their police custody, eight people were referred to investigating judges: seven men and one woman, aged 26 to 57. They have been charged with armed gang robbery, attempted gang murder, aggravated failure to comply, destruction of another's property by dangerous means and gang abduction. They are also being prosecuted for acquisition, possession and transport of war weapons, criminal conspiracy and aggravated assault resulting in total incapacity to work exceeding eight days.
Four of them were placed in provisional detention. Three others were remanded pending a decision on custodial measures. The last was placed under judicial supervision, contrary to the prosecution's requests. Two men and one woman in police custody are subject to arrest warrants and are to be presented to investigating judges in the coming days. Five police custody periods were ended without prosecution.
The prosecution noted that two of those charged were wanted for convictions to eighteen years' imprisonment each, pronounced in their absence by the Meurthe-et-Moselle assize court on 12 April 2024 for armed robbery offences. These convictions related to a series of armed robberies committed in 2019 in the Besançon region, in particular the attack on the Losange manufacture in Châtillon-le-Duc on 3 May 2019.
The investigation also established connections between the November robbery and another armed robbery committed in December 2025 at the Losange manufacture, located in the same area. On 19 December 2025, perpetrators attacked this company before firing bursts at police officers. Investigating judges from the Paris judicial court specialising in organised crime were already seized of this matter.
Source: Actu17