Casablanca- The French police arrested 15 Moroccans last week at Sète Port, Montpellier in France, for allegedly stealing more than 2,000 solar panels in Italy.
Fifteen Moroccan drivers holding Italian visas were arrested last week at Sète Port as they were allegedly preparing to ship more than 2,500 stolen solar panels to Tangier.
“They were apprehended for organized gang robbery,” the Montpellier prosecutor Christophe Barret told French newspaper Oust France.
According to the same source, French police in Sète were informed that a number of vans, loaded with stolen solar panels from Genoa, Italy, were about to board a ship bound for Morocco.
The police immediately headed to Sète Port and awaited the arrival of the suspected vans.
The 15 Moroccan drivers reportedly loaded their vans with around 2,641 solar panels and headed toward Sète port. The French police seized the 2,641 panels, according to the same source.
Each panel is valued at around 300 to 600 Euros, meaning that the total number of stolen panels could profit the suspects roughly 1 million to 1.5 million Euros.
The investigation into the alleged crimes of the 15 Moroccans remains underway. Initially, the suspects indicated that the solar panels were purchased in Italy and not stolen, but Italian judicial sources disagreed with this claim. Still, no concrete evidence has been obtained, according to the same source.
Police investigators began questioning the story after noticing that the 15 arrested Moroccans did not use the easiest and fastest route to get to Tangier. This small detail left police doubting the claim that the Moroccans were attempting to smuggle the stolen solar panels.
Edited by Liz Yaslik
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