The real case that inspired the theft of ‘Hasta el cielo: la serie’ in France

‘Hasta el cielo: la serie’, the latest Spanish production released by Netflix, immerses us in the plans of a group of thieves. A band that operates internationally -the series travels to locations such as France, Portugal or Nigeria- to give the most spectacular hits. Although, unlike the plans of ‘La casa de papel’ or its spin-off ‘Berlin’, those of this new fiction try to be more credible; so much, that almost all of them are inspired by robberies that have really happened. “When we proposed the series, the first thing I had to do was take the newspapers and see what the real characters had done in that time. If you review criminal and robbery stories, you will discover many things that are in the series,” its co-creator tells us. , Jorge Guerricaechevarria.

“Virtually all the hits we’ve done are based on real hits, some that went well and others that were just an attempt and we’ve given them a new life by recreating what they would have been,” explains the series writer, “The aluniceros start by crashing against the glass of a store, but they are learning the trade and making increasingly sophisticated and large blows, varying a lot the methods that, sometimes, are very ingenious. We wanted to not lose that point of authenticity and of the street”. Thus, their inspiration was maintained, although sometimes they changed the resolution: a plan that went wrong in real life could be a success on the screen. And so it was the case that it occupies us

Inspired by the Fontainebleau castle robbery

At the end of the third episode of ‘Hasta el cielo: la serie’, the robbers travel to Paris and in the fourth they plan a robbery in a palace at the request of the Chinese mafia, which will take place throughout the season. This plot is based on a real news story, which happened at the end of 2019. As posed in fiction, the objective of the mafia was to steal a series of oriental artistic pieces that, after the colonial wars, had ended up on display in a historic French building. Specifically, in the Chinese Museum of the Empress Eugenia, located in the castle of Fontainebleau. And for this they hired a Spanish thief.

For the Chinese mafia it was about “recovering” what belonged to their country to take it back. “We saw it and we said: we have to do this ourselves. It was such a crazy idea, so risky and so audiovisual that you see it and think it’s like something out of a movie.. Well, we turned it around and thought: it’s like making it into a series,” says Guerricaechevarría. And they did that; they adapted the idea of ​​the robbery to the needs of the series, directed by Daniel Calparsoro.

What happened to the actual Fontainebleau robbery?

The Spaniard hired by the Chinese mafia was the famous alunicero Juan María GP, known by the nickname of El Niño Juan, who planned the robbery along with four other Spaniards, who were originally from the Madrid neighborhood of Villaverde, and a Chinese citizen. The group moved to Nemours, a few kilometers from the castle, and set up its headquarters in a hotel. According to the police, they did this work not only for a large sum of money, but also for the reputation that carrying out a robbery of this caliber entailed.

The Spanish police force learned that a coup of this type was being prepared in French territory and contacted the French police to collaborate. They identified possible thieves and followed up on them: for example, they saw how they bought material in a hardware store for theft or dark clothing in a sports store. It was also verified that both the material and the hotel were paid for by the Chinese detainee with a credit card from his country. In addition, they had in their possession two stolen cars with French license plates to use on the night of the robbery.

And, as happens in the series, before carrying out the robbery, the thieves visited the Palace of Fontanebleau as tourists to get to know it well, to find out where the pieces they wanted to steal were and to learn what the security of the palace was like to keep everything well tied up. Unfortunately for them, the police arrested them the same night they planned to carry out their robbery.