France has announced the arrest of six suspected members of a network that stole large quantities of used cooking oil that passed through illegal warehouses in France and Germany before making its way to the Netherlands.
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According to a Gendarmerie press release, this criminal structure is suspected of diverting these oils from the traditional recycling cycle in order to sell them abroad in the form of biofuels.
The thefts were committed in central France, affecting fast-food restaurants and communities, where “a total of more than 52 acts” were committed in three months.
According to the gendarmerie, this structure managed three depots in France and two in Germany.
Investigators had proven “that in just over two months 14 oil deliveries” had been made from a depot near Chartres to the Netherlands.
The alleged traffic concerns a total of “385 tons of oil with damage of more than 460,000 euros,” specifies the gendarmerie.
On June 8, a judicial action was taken “during the loading of a truck in one of the warehouses managed by the criminals”, which led to the arrest of six people.
According to the same source, more than a dozen utilities came to the hangar every day to put down 200-liter drums.
Numerous criminal assets, the nature of which was not specified, were seized and more than 550 barrels and more than 26,000 liters of used cooking oil were discovered.
Four of the defendants were charged following an investigation opened by prosecutors into theft and concealment in an organized gang and irregular waste disposal in an organized gang.
Waste frying oil, once just waste from the hospitality industry, is now sought after in the biofuel industry.
Vehicles with old diesel engines can run on this fuel, which is poured pure or diluted in winter, as it freezes at low temperatures.