A court in Colmar has sentenced four Albanian nationals to three years in prison each after finding them guilty of a series of home burglaries in the Haut-Rhin region and surrounding areas. Once they have served their sentences, they will be permanently barred from entering France.
The four, all around 30 years old, are suspected of operating as an organized group. The repeated burglaries had alarmed residents, who found their homes ransacked and valuables missing.
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According to the French newspaper Remiremont Vallées, the investigation began after burglaries in several municipalities in the region. The perpetrators broke into homes through windows and shutters, searched the premises, and took jewelry, watches, cash and electronic devices. Some homeowners found their homes completely turned upside down. Alongside their material losses, the victims experienced a lasting sense of insecurity; some no longer felt safe even in their own homes.
French gendarmes in Colmar worked for several weeks to identify the suspects. Investigators monitored their movements, examined phone records, gathered testimony and tracked an Audi believed to have been used by the group. Although the suspects changed cars, phone numbers and places where they stayed, authorities reconstructed their movements and linked them to 18 suspected criminal incidents.
The arrests took place on November 6, 2026, at an accommodation facility in Mortagne, in the Vosges region. During a search, gendarmes seized around 20,000 euros in cash, a substantial quantity of jewelry and several mobile phones as evidence.
At their trial in Colmar, the four Albanians disputed most of the charges and evidence. The court, however, considered phone intercepts, police surveillance and the testimony gathered. Several victims spoke during the proceedings about the effect the burglaries had on their daily lives, explaining that, beyond the items they had lost, their sense of security at home had also been damaged.
The ruling imposes a three-year prison sentence on each of the four, with immediate incarceration. The permanent ban on entering France will take effect after they have served their sentences.
