Three held in France for providing weapons to Hyper Cacher killer

Two suspects are relatives of alleged arms smuggler who supplied firearms used by jihadist Ahmed Coulibaly in January 2015 terror attack

By AFP 5 July 2017, 8:59 pm

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A French soldier stands guard as a municipal employee poses a commemorative plaque on the front of the Hyper Cacher Jewish supermarket in Paris on January 4, 2016, in memory of four people killed during a hostage taking in the shop on January 9, 2015. (AFP / THOMAS SAMSON)

Three people are in custody on suspicion of supplying the firearms used by Islamist terrorist Amedy Coulibaly in his attack on the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket in Paris in January 2015, sources told AFP on Wednesday.

Two women, aged 23 and 31, were arrested in Roubaix in northern France and a 42-year-old man in the Paris region on the night between Monday and Tuesday by anti-terror police, a source close to the case has said.

According to another source, the two women are close relatives of an alleged smuggler, Samir L., who was indicted in April for suspected links to the weapons used by Coulibaly in the January 9, 2015 attack.

DNA traces of one of the women and the man were allegedly found on one of the weapons.

Investigators can hold the suspects for 96 hours before bringing them before a judge.

The attack on the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket came two days after a jihadist terror rampage at the officers of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine perpetrated by brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi.

The four victims of the Paris Hyper Cacher attack, from left to right: Yoav Hattab, Yohan Cohen, Francois-Michel Saada, Philippe Braham. (Courtesy)

During the Hyper Cacher attack, Coulibaly murdered four people, before being killed in a police raid assault. A day before the attack, Coulibaly killed a municipal police officer in the southern Paris suburb of Montrouge.

According to investigators, the weapons found in Coulibaly’s possession were part of a cache of 200-250 formerly military weapons imported from Slovakia by an ex-mercenary who allegedly sold them to criminal groups, including Samir L., Coulibaly’s supplier.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.