France: Special Forces Unit Arrests Armed Poachers

French police mobilised a hundred officers and the special forces unit GIGN (an elite unit of the French Gendarmerie specialising in counter-terrorism) to take several hobby hunters off the streets.

After the discovery of injured and partly dying deer in the forest of Dreux (west of Paris), agents of the National Hunting and Wildlife Agency (ONCFS) had been tracking a group of poachers for several months.

On 20 June 2017, the competent public prosecutor’s office finally authorised a large-scale operation. One hundred gendarmes and a GIGN unit arrested hobby hunters in Dreux, Abondant, Saint-Georges-Motel, Marcilly-sur-Eure and Millemont (Yvelines). The poachers were all armed, and the gendarmes had to take every precautionary measure beforehand.

At six of the suspects’ premises, the perfect toolkit for poaching was found: remote-controlled spotlights for night hunting, forty hunting weapons including a Remington 220 rifle fitted with a silencer, freezers full of venison and roe deer meat, and more.

On the phone of one of the suspects, police also found a photograph showing several of the hobby hunters proudly posing with rifles over their shoulders in front of the carcass of a deer.

The men were prohibited from possessing or transporting firearms until their court date. But two of them played with fire: a few weeks later they were caught again out hunting with rifles over their shoulders. This time the men were immediately taken into custody.

The court found the men guilty on 12.12.2017. Two men were sentenced to six months in prison, including two months of actual detention, as well as the revocation of their hunting licenses. The remaining poachers were sentenced to 2 to 8 months in prison.