The National Cyber Unit (UNCyber) of the National Gendarmerie announced the dismantling of an international criminal network specializes in vehicle theft using electronic unlocking devices. Five people were arrested in France, as part of an investigation carried out under the authority of the Paris prosecutor’s office, with the support of Europol and the Italian Carabinieri, three of them were placed in pre-trial detention.
An investigation born from an increase in thefts of Japanese vehicles
The affair begins in September 2023when the Criminal Research Institute of the National Gendarmerie (IRCGN) notices a increase in thefts of Japanese brand vehicles. A preliminary investigation is then opened by the organized crime department of UNCyber, under the direction of the anti-cybercrime section of the Paris prosecutor’s office. The facts referred to are multiple, organized gang theft, breaches of an automated data processing system, criminal association And whitening.
Connected speakers reprogrammed to hack vehicles
At the heart of the device, investigators discover a unprecedented misuse of use with connected music speakers, reprogrammed to bypass on-board electronic systems of certain automobile models. These devices could opening and starting a vehicle without apparent break-in, by exploiting flaws in internal communications protocols.
Quickly, the investigation revealed a global production and distribution circuitthe devices were sold via encrypted messaging and shipped to 17 European countriesbut also towards the United States, the Middle East, Asia and Africa. The brigadier general Hervé Pétrycommander of the UNC, evokes a phenomenon “which today goes beyond traditional mechanical systems” and which “is taking on a global scale”.
A structured and lucrative international network
The investigations made it possible to identify the manufacturers and resellers of these hacking tools, at the origin of hundreds of vehicle thefts. The joint operation carried out on November 3, 2025 led to the arrest of five individuals in Île-de-France, Eure-et-Loir and Gardwhile the Palermo Carabinieri carried out simultaneous arrests in Italy. Cross-border coordination was ensured by Europolconfirming the international scale of the trafficking.
During the searches, the police seized:
- 6 vehicles ;
- €38,000 in cash ;
- €76,000 in bank accounts ;
- electronic devices of a estimated market value of €100,000.
When cybercrime enters the physical world
This operation testifies to the fusion between cybercrime and traditional crime. The UNCyber investigation, supported by IRCGN expertise, confirms the rise of a new form of hybrid delinquency.
