Dad-of-two Fabrice Moelle, 52, and soon-to-be father Arnaud Garcia, 35, were executed on Tuesday as they escorted suspected drugs lord Mohammed Amra back to prison from court in Normandy
Two prison officers who were “slaughtered like dogs” in an attack on a police convoy in France have been named as their killers remain on the run.
Dad-of-two Fabrice Moelle, 52, and soon-to-be father Arnaud Garcia, 35, were executed with a machine gun on Tuesday. The two officers were in a convoy at the time bringing suspected drugs lord Mohammed Amra – nicknamed ‘The Fly’ – to his cell following a court appearance in Rouen, Normandy.
The 30-year-old suspect escaped in the assault and remained on the run alongside the four other men responsible for the bloodbath at a motorway toll booth in Val-de-Reuil, Normandy. Horrifying details have meanwhile emerged of the killings.
French justice minister Éric Dupond-Moretti said victims Mr Moello and Mr Garcia – who both came from Caen – were ‘slaughtered like dogs by men for whom life means nothing.’ Surveillance cameras captured the chilling executions, which included automatic weapons firing more than 30 rounds.
At one point a member of the gang – who were all wearing black sports apparel with their hoods up – made sure a victim was dead with a ‘double tap’ shot to the head. Some officers managed to grab their service pistols, but they were no match for the gang’s immense firepower.
Three wounded officers remain in intensive care, one with a bullet in the forehead, said Mr Dupond-Moretti. He confirmed that Amra, who has a total of 13 convictions to his name, was under ‘special surveillance’, but not considered radicalised or a terrorist suspect.
A gendarme reservist who lives close to the Incarville toll booth said: “I was in my garden when it happened. I heard a first series of around thirty shots from automatic weapons. A very intense series of gunshots. Then, nothing more.
“The calm lasted a minute, maybe two. Then I heard a very loud bang that sounded like a grenade, followed by two final shots and then that was it.” Police said one of the unidentified attackers was lightly injured, before the gang sped off in an an Audi A5 and a BMW 5 series. Both cars have since been found burned out.
Amara is well known to the police as the boss of a narcotics network, and has already been indicted in connection with an execution. A polices source said: “He is suspected of having ordered an assassination in Marseille on June 17, 2022.
“The charred corpse of a man was found in a burned vehicle, in the town of Le Rove, bordering Marseille. The victim had obviously been executed beforehand with a bullet to the head.” Amra was indicted for kidnapping and sequestration leading to death by Marseille police, said a spokesman for the Paris prosecutor’s office.
The manhunt for the killers is being led by the GIPN, the elite Gendarme National Intervention Group. Prosecutors working for the National Jurisdiction for the Fight against Organised Crime (JUNALCO) have opened an enquiry into “murder and attempted murder by an organised gang” – offences punishable with a life sentence.
They are also investigating “escape in an organised gang”, “acquisition and possession of weapons of war” and “criminal association with a view to the commission of a crime”. Prison officers unions staged protests on Wednesday morning, saying thir work was becoming increasingly dangerous.
It follows a Paris Senate report highlighting the ‘Mexicanisation’ of the French drugs trade, with gangs becoming increasingly powerful. Amra has been linked with one based in Marseilles called The Blacks.