“Gangster, Lyon’s recipe”, the story of organized crime in Lyon or the eternal restart.

Robbery, settling scores, pimping, drug trafficking, the gangsters of Lyon have been robbing the region for almost a century. Nearby Switzerland is their supermarket. Eric Merlen and Thierry Gerberon’s film, ‘Gangsters, the recipe for Lyon’ follows in the footsteps of Lyon’s organized crime figures. Those of yesterday and those of today.

Lyon, capital of Gaul, gastronomy and organized crime. From the Lyon gang to today’s bosses, even if families and methods have changed, Lyon is still on the podium of international crime.

How and why? This is what the film by Eric Merlen and Thierry Gerberon is about. A dive into the news and other bloody accounts. A breathtaking story in which we move forward like a thriller. Except that “Gangsters, Lyon’s recipe” is not a fiction. All that was said there was:

• the dangerous links between organized crime and politics, when the SAC (civic action service, association in the service of General de Gaulle and his successors) appealed to the gun doors in the center.
• the Lyon gang from its ‘hours of glory’ to its downfall
• the assassination of Judge Renaud: ” Either way, it pissed everyone off. when in prison St. Paul we learned for him, it was effervescence! “ recalls Dédé Boiron, a veteran of the community. Everyone: the mafia, the SAC he investigated and some police and magistrates for their unorthodox methods. And even if the police have their doubts, no one will ever pay for this murder.
• trips to Switzerland to steal toy cars and assault security guards.

Throughout the story, punctuated by interviews with magistrates, French and Swiss policemen, old and new hooligans, the documentary follows in the footsteps of the Lyon bandits. Takes the road of their crimes punctuated by breakages, thefts and big cars. The strength lies in the testimonies.

We learn how over the decades, with the arrival of drug trafficking and its precise organization, police and justice must also reinvent themselves in their practices.

“For several years, drug dealers have been selling almost under the windows of the public prosecutor and the investigating judges of the Lyon court…”

Jacques Dallest, former prosecutor

Under the impetus of Yves Coubronne (former head of the anti-drug group of Lyon) the services are organized, the GIR (intervention and research group) is born. Police and gendarmerie start working together. From decades to decades, each other’s methods change. Today’s bosses are no longer “notables”. Young people are taking over. They come from La Duchère, Vaulx-en-Velin and other suburban districts where crime has grown in parallel with the explosion of residential complexes. Self “ The Lyon gang were the scientists of the robberies” as journalist Richard Schittly says, adrenaline seems to have replaced science. Since the early 2000s, “small shots” have multiplied. French and Swiss investigators find out yes ” less professional, leaving room for the unexpected and adrenaline “. This does not prevent “big shots” such as in 2017 when 35 million Swiss francs were stolen during a van bombing in the Helvetians. In this case, the cooperation of the French and Swiss police will be fruitful.

The judicial police of Lyon today estimates the number of violent robbers in the Lyon region at 250. A hundred of them are currently in prison. The others continue their activities…

In “Gangsters, the Lyonnaise recipe” another map of Lyon emerges. That of a city where crime is not necessarily visible but which places the capital of Gaul on the podium of international organized crime.

“Gangsters, the recipe from Lyon” a film by Eric Merlen and Thierry Gerberon. a France3 Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes/Nomade Production co-production. To be discovered, Thursday 2 February at 10.50 pm on france3 Aura, in the documentary box set La France en vrai and already previewed on france.tv.