Paris child pickpocketing gang leader jailed for eight years

Published: 24 September 2026. The English Chronicle Desk. The English Chronicle Online.

A Paris court has sentenced Roberto Hamidovic, described by investigators as the leader of a long-running family network that exploited children to carry out pickpocketing operations, to eight years in prison for human trafficking and related offences. The case has exposed a complex criminal structure in which children were allegedly sent into some of Paris’s busiest tourist locations to steal from visitors while the adults directing the operation enjoyed the proceeds.

Hamidovic, 48, was also ordered to pay a €500,000 fine. His wife, Lejla Hamidovic, received a six-year prison sentence and a €300,000 fine. Five other members of the family were sentenced to between five and seven years in prison, with financial penalties also imposed. The court ordered all seven defendants to be extradited and prohibited from returning to France after they complete their sentences.

The prosecution described the case as part of a wider organised network operating across several European countries. Investigators said children, predominantly girls, were deliberately used because their age could make it more difficult for authorities to prosecute them. Some of those involved were reportedly as young as 10.

According to evidence presented during the proceedings, groups of children were deployed to locations heavily visited by tourists, including the Paris Métro, Disneyland Paris and Charles de Gaulle airport. The youngsters were allegedly transported between locations and instructed to concentrate on foreign visitors who could be vulnerable to distraction or crowd-based theft.

Police estimated that the network could generate around €25,000 a day from its activities. Investigators also estimated that Hamidovic and his wife accumulated approximately €2m, although authorities believe some of the money may have been transferred or concealed outside France.

The contrast between the lives of the adults and the children was a central element of the prosecution’s case. Prosecutors said senior members of the network spent money on designer clothing, luxury hotels, expensive restaurants, cars and gambling, while the children who carried out the thefts were frequently housed in inexpensive hotels or poor-quality accommodation.

The court heard particularly disturbing allegations concerning the treatment of children who failed to produce enough money. Prosecutors said some youngsters were beaten, burned or sexually abused as punishment. The allegations formed part of the wider human-trafficking case against the defendants.

Public prosecutor Alice Guillet told the court that the children were being used to provide a degree of protection for the adults controlling them. She argued that the network deliberately relied on minors because children below France’s age of criminal responsibility could not be treated in the same way as adult offenders.

According to the prosecution, some of the children were instructed to tell police that they were 12 years old. The strategy allegedly made it possible for them to be released because of their age, allowing the network to continue operating and potentially putting the same children back on the streets.

Guillet described the lives of the exploited children as extremely difficult. She said many were children without stable roots or opportunities and that, in some cases, their own parents did not know their exact dates of birth. The prosecution argued that such circumstances made the children particularly vulnerable to exploitation and control.

Investigators said the network operated in an organised manner. Groups reportedly consisted of between six and nine youngsters, who could be moved from one location to another during the day. At Disneyland Paris, investigators said the children could blend into large crowds, particularly during evening parades, when tourists were concentrated in relatively confined areas and attention was focused on the entertainment.

Other locations included the Paris Métro and the airport. Investigators also alleged that members of the network targeted people using cash machines. The children were reportedly positioned around customers as they entered personal identification numbers before allegedly taking cash or wallets.

The prosecution presented the organisation as a family structure that had continued across generations. Investigators said Hamidovic assumed control after his uncle, Fehmi Hamidovic, was arrested by French police in 2010. Fehmi had previously been convicted of human trafficking in Austria and was later sentenced in France to seven years in prison.

The earlier investigation had already drawn attention to the scale of the family network. French authorities arrested several members of the clan in operations involving France and Italy. Investigators at the time described the organisation as having a highly traditional and hierarchical structure.

After his uncle’s conviction, Roberto Hamidovic was alleged to have taken over the organisation. Detectives subsequently linked the network to a significant proportion of pickpocketing incidents in the Paris Métro, although the precise scale of its involvement remained a matter for investigators and the court.

During his trial, however, Hamidovic rejected the prosecution’s portrayal of him. He said he worked as a secondhand car dealer and earned between €2,000 and €5,000 a month. The defence disputed the allegations of human trafficking and argued that the evidence did not establish the most serious accusations brought against him.

His lawyer, Emperatriz Aguirre, criticised the sentences after the verdict, saying they were excessively severe. She argued that there was no tangible evidence sufficient to establish the human-trafficking offence on which the prosecution had relied.

The court nevertheless accepted the prosecution’s broader account of an organised system in which children were exploited for criminal purposes. The verdict followed an investigation that had involved years of police work and examination of the activities of several members of the family.

One of the people investigators identified as having played a role in the organisation was Roberto Hamidovic Jr, the leader’s 22-year-old son, known by the nickname Gony. Investigators said he helped supervise the groups of young pickpockets and arranged transportation, including taxis, to move them around Paris.

His background was also cited during the investigation as an example of how the criminal system could reproduce itself across generations. Hamidovic Jr reportedly grew up in Rome under the care of his grandmother and moved to France when he was 14. Investigators said he and several siblings had experienced limited access to formal education and that many members of the wider family were unable to read or write.

The prosecution argued that this history illustrated a cycle in which children who were themselves introduced to theft at an early age could later become adults involved in exploiting younger children.

Guillet told the court that the seven defendants had themselves been forced to steal during childhood. She argued that the circumstances created a pattern in which victims could eventually become perpetrators. Her comments highlighted one of the most complicated issues raised by the case: how criminal exploitation can persist when vulnerable children grow up inside an environment where organised theft is treated as a family occupation.

The prosecutor nevertheless rejected the idea that such circumstances should be treated as an inevitable explanation for future criminal activity. She argued that authorities needed to intervene in a way that protected children while also holding those who deliberately exploited them accountable.

The case has also raised questions about what happens to children removed from such criminal networks. Dozens of minors were reportedly identified during the investigation, but many were not called to testify in court in an effort to protect their identities. Following the arrests, some children disappeared, while others were placed under the protection of social services and moved into foster care.

Authorities believe that almost half of the children subsequently ran away from their placements. Their disappearance has highlighted the difficulty of protecting young people who may have spent much of their lives within unstable environments and criminal networks. Removing them from an organised group does not necessarily end their vulnerability, particularly when they have limited education, weak family support or little experience of life outside the system that exploited them.

The financial dimension of the case was another important part of the investigation. Prosecutors alleged that the proceeds of the thefts helped support a lifestyle that stood in sharp contrast to the circumstances of the children. Investigators believed money had been accumulated through years of criminal activity and that some assets or funds could have been moved abroad.

The family was also reported to have spent time in Croatia, including in the Adriatic resort of Pula. Investigators examined the movement of money and the lifestyle of the defendants as part of allegations involving money laundering and organised criminal activity.

The sentencing marks another major legal action against a family network that French investigators have been examining for many years. But the fate of the children involved remains one of the most significant unresolved issues. For law enforcement agencies and child-protection authorities, dismantling the organisation is only one part of the challenge. Preventing exploited children from returning to similar circumstances is likely to require longer-term social and educational support.

The case has therefore gone beyond a conventional investigation into tourist theft. It has brought attention to the use of children in organised criminal activity and the difficulties authorities face when exploitation is embedded within family structures. The court’s decision sends the case into a new phase, with the convicted adults facing lengthy prison terms and eventual removal from France.

At the same time, the children at the centre of the investigation remain in need of protection and stability. Their experiences have demonstrated how vulnerable minors can become instruments of organised crime when poverty, family pressure, lack of education and criminal networks intersect.

For French authorities, the challenge now extends beyond the convictions. The case has shown that dismantling one generation of a criminal network may not automatically prevent another generation from emerging. The disappearance of several children from protective care also illustrates the continuing difficulties involved in breaking the cycle.

The eight-year sentence imposed on Roberto Hamidovic represents the maximum prison term handed down in the case. Whether the prosecution’s wider objective of disrupting the network can be achieved will depend not only on the imprisonment of its adult members but also on the ability of authorities to identify, protect and support the children who were allegedly exploited by the organisation.