Pickpocket gang who preyed on tourists are sentenced to a total of 113 years 

A pick-pocketing gang which has preyed upon tourists in Paris’s Metro has been locked up for 113 years.

The 20-strong Romanian gang exploited children between 11 and 18 years old and had them sneak on to Paris’s Metro – with one distracting the holiday-maker or commuter, and the other stealing from them.

Gang leaders have been put behind bars for trafficking in human beings, concealment, money laundering and conspiracy – as well as a ban on visiting France.

Their sentences vary between four to eight years, the Paris Court heard concluded during the three-week investigation, on October 18. 

The Paris prosecutor said: ‘Fifty active miners were identified at the time of the arrests. But they do not consider themselves victims and those who were then placed had all left France the following week.’ 

This outcome is a result of investigations into the surge in Metro pick-pocketing in 2016.

Meanwhile legal proceedings into other suspects, where their property has not been seized in Romania, are ongoing.  

Paris’s Metro became known as the ‘Roman Express’ as brazen thieves would head towards the Gare du Nord station and other popular metro’s.

Paris’s Gare du Nord railway station (pictured) is one of the most popular in Paris and has seen pick-pocketers flocking here. Franklin Roosevelt, Anvers, Saint-Michel-Notre Dame, Opera, Hotel de Ville and Charles de Gaulle-Etoile were also regular spots for the gang

The Romanian gang leaders would send their children to Paris and they mainly active during the UN Climate Change Conference-21 at the end of 2015 and the 2016 European Football Championship.  

Some were accused of setting off firecrackers to scare commuters and then allow them to sneak into their pockets.

Two women, who were known as the ‘Queen of Thieves’ coordinated crimes to then transfer money back to Romania. They posted pictures on Facebook with a baby playing with more than £300 cash. 

They would work in groups between five and ten and sometimes would hold out a map while stealing commuter’s possessions beneath. 

An investigation into the network which operated in this time frame led to the establishment of a Franco-Romanian judicial cooperation to investigate the network 2017.

Six months later there were arrests in France, Romania, Spain and Italy, of most of the suspects, parents of the exploited minors.    

Some of the most targeted stations were Franklin Roosevelt, Anvers, Saint-Michel-Notre Dame, Opera, Hotel de Ville and Charles de Gaulle-Etoile. 

There has been a 33 per cent increase in pick-pocketing in Paris since the start of the year, according to police. Some say this is because officer’s have been ‘distracted’ dealing with yellow-vest protesters.

And to help curb the growing problem, the RATP network introduced a complaint form, available at six stations, so people could directly report thefts. 

Public places such as the Louvre (pictured) were targeted by the gangs in a bid to fill their coffers

Pickpockets: Roma gypsies who dressed in Bermuda shorts and carried cameras as they preyed on crowds of foreigners (file photo)

And the gang would have fake identification documents and live in illegal camps on the edge of the city.  

In April 2013 staff at the Louvre Museum in Paris went on strike until police sent reinforcements as the robberies were rife.  

A group of Bosnian pick-pocketers made around three million euros between 2012 and 2015.