French career criminal Antonio Ferrara gets thirteen years for a planned raid in Bochum

The Brussels court on Thursday sentenced 53-year-old Antonio Ferrara to thirteen years in prison, VRT NWS reports. Prosecutors had sought eighteen. In a ruling of about 200 pages, the court found him guilty on all counts. Nine co-defendants received sentences of between seven and thirteen years; Abderahim Bekhti, who has been linked to a major robbery of Brink's in Luxembourg in 2000, was also given thirteen years.

According to VRT NWS, the gang set off in five cars around 27 February 2025 for Bochum in Germany to rob a cash centre where banks store their money. Belgian, French and German investigators knew of the plan and had stepped up security. The gang turned back but was intercepted by dozens of police units on its way to an Airbnb in Eupen. Several suspects were arrested after a heavy exchange of fire with the federal police's special units. Searches turned up military weapons, hand grenades, explosives and police and customs uniforms.

Ferrara was once declared a public enemy by Nicolas Sarkozy, then France's interior minister. In France he has already been convicted of robberies, attempted murder and prison escapes, which earned him his nickname in the French press, according to the news agency AFP as quoted by 20 minutes.