MORE ON RUNAWAY CRIMINALITY IN SWITZERLAND………

French immigrant gangs armed with bazookas raiding banks in Switzerland:

The swiss border guard is arming against heavily armed gangs from the french banlieues. These gangs stem mostly from the Lyon banlieue; their members are mostly french nationals of north-african origin. Until now, they have committed their raids mostly in western Switzerland [that is
the german swiss term for the country’s francophone zone] and in the Ticino [Switzerland’s italophone zone].

Jürg Noth, chief of the Schweizerisches Grenzwachtkorps (GWK) [Swiss Border Guard Corps], warns against french tourists in crime raiding banks, clock manufacturers and clock museums in Switzerland. ‘The perpetrators procede each time more violently and inconsiderately’, says he in an interview with ‘NZZ am Sonntag’ [sunday edition of this newspaper – NZZ, or Neue Zürcher
Zeitung]. ‘They are armed with assault rifles, submachine guns and even bazookas, and they even use them.’

These gangs stem usually from the banlieues of Lyon; their members are mostly french nationals of
north-african origin. Until now, they have carried out their raids mostly in western Switzerland and the Ticino. But now they expand their activities towards north-western Switzerland [meaning: the
german-language area towards Basel], continues to say Jürg Noth. ‘Severeraids have augmented in recent months.’ [*)]

Because of growing cross-border crime, the border guard corps now takes new measures: Its
staff is being trained especially against the violent gangs, plus assigns additional border guards in western Switzerland and the Ticino. Also, new protective vests, new road blocks and additional video cameras will be purchased. Finally, helicopters and drones will be used more extensively against these tourists in crime [**)]. This way, the GWK could arrest three perpetrators early in may, after having prosecuted them by helicopter into France.

Crime tourism to Switzerland has grown in recent years. In 2009, around 11 300 foreigners not having a permit of sojourn or residence for Switzerland were accused of crimes. In 2101, this figure climbed to 11 900, last year to 12 800. Most perpetrators come from France and Romania. From Romania we usually get so-called skimming gangs; skimming is fraud committed with falsified ATM or credit cards. Also these have grown in recent times; the border guard corps catch at least one such skimming gang per week.’