If the military is familiar with the helicopter or the Caracal sniper rifle, however, they are less familiar with the cat whose name these materials bear. And it is nevertheless with a specimen of this kind that the gendarmes of Hallennes-lez-Haubourdin in the North were confronted at the end of October during an intervention.
It was not a routine operation that the gendarmes in Lille, supported by PSIG from Hallennes-lez-Haubourdin, had to carry out early on Tuesday 25 October. Especially since the Specialized Gendarmerie Protection Platoon (PSPG) from Gravelines, an elite counter-terrorism unit, had also been invited to the party. The target was a person “implicated in connection with an offense committed in an organized gang”, announces the gendarmerie in the Nordics, without elaborating on the subject.
A very large cat
After securing their target, the gendarmes had to search the home. And it was during a search of the premises that they came across a very special type of feline. It was a caracal, a type of wild cat that can weigh up to 19 kg and is more used to African, Middle Eastern or Indian latitudes. In France, his detention is strictly monitored, and in particular requires a certificate of capacity, which the defendant did not possess.
Officials from the French Office of Biodiversity (OFB) took charge of the animal, captured with the help of firefighters from the north. The caracal was then handed over to a zoo to find other offspring of its species.
