French graffiti artist busted

From the NY Daily News (here):  An French graffiti vandal has been busted for spray painting his tag on subway trains in Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan, sources said Thursday.  Maxime Bezat, 25, was arraigned Wednesday in Brooklyn Supreme Criminal Court on felony charges of scrawling his tag, RASK, on two trains. He is expected to be charged with many more transit “hits” in the city, sources said.  News of the bust was first reported by the website Animal New York.  The Gallic vandal may have defaced about a dozen MTA trains over the last two years while they were parked overnight on unused “lay-up” tracks in tunnels between stations or in subway yards, sources said.  “He’s not leaving the country any time soon,” one source said.  The special investigations unit of the NYPD’s transit bureau has been leading the ongoing probe, sources said.  The vandal’s attacks knocked each train out of commission until the Metropolitan Transportation Authority removed the multi-colored scrawls, part of its zero-tolerance stance to deny vandals any public viewing of their illegal work. It cost the MTA $1,400 just to clean the exteriors of the two  Brooklyn trains, authorities said during his arraignment.  Brooklyn prosecutors recommended Bezat pay the removal costs and do a 90-day jail sentence, but the case was adjourned until next month, said his defense attorney, Matthew Galluzzo.  Bezat was released from jail after posting bail Thursday morning.  The Frenchman apparently is part of a European subculture of graffiti vandals who come to New York City — the place where spray painting originated — to make their mark. Since the MTA’s NYC Transit division cleans vandalized trains before they’re put into service, vandals often take photographs of their tags and murals.  Police apparently received a tip from authorities in France that Bezat came to the U.S. and was staying with a girlfriend in New Jersey. He was arrested at Newark airport earlier this month before he boarded a flight home, sources said. A computer and his passport were seized.  Bezat was first brought to Boston where he was wanted for vandalizing a train. After doing a short jail stint in Beantown and paying a fine, he now faces the music in New York City.  Galluzzo declined to comment on the charges.  NYPD detectives and NYC Transit investigators are jointly working to determine the full extend of the damage Bezat caused, but sources said it is likely above $10,000.  Sources said Bezat has several other tags that he uses, including SEKEL.