The National Police have arrested four members of a travelling criminal cell of Bosnian descent after two safes were stolen in Alicante and Elche. The group, who travelled in a motorhome, stole from and robbed people in wealthy tourist locations all around Spain. The National Police say that the people they arrested stole more than €200,000 from 25 different towns in Alicante, Andalusia, the Balearic Islands, and Madrid.
The National Police detained the four individuals and placed them in jail pending their trial. Three of them are being defended by lawyer Francisco Miguel Galiana Botella. They were caught in Benalmádena when the police saw the group moving from France to the Costa del Sol in a motorhome.
The police took 24,000 euros in cash from the people who were arrested, along with electronics and jewellery that were stowed in several “stashes” within the camper.
Band on the road
The Investigation Group of the North Alicante Police Station, the Judicial Police of Elche, and the Central UDEV (Specialised Violent Crime Unit) were among the National Police units that carried out the operation. It started after a safe was stolen from a shopping centre in Elche in September, where about €8,800 in cash was taken. A month before, someone stole €27,000 from a store’s safe at the San Vicente outlet mall. The North Police Station found two suspects who had rented a car in Benidorm.
The police said that it was a criminal cell that travelled from place to place to conduct property crimes. This let them check that they were involved in 10 other crimes, such as stealing €60,000 in cash from an armoured truck in Ibiza.
The researchers found out that they always travelled by motorhome across the country, didn’t have a known address in Spain, and were experts in two types of crime: robbery with force and thefts from safes, as well as robberies with force inside cars.
Places for tourists
To perpetrate the crimes, which invariably happened in high-income and tourist regions, they worked together and did surveillance and tracking ahead of time. Their goal was to steal money, jewellery, or electronics and then sell them on the black market. They all had a lot of fake identities and papers. One of them had as many as 24 distinct identities.
Finally, the investigators found out that the group was travelling by campervan from Nice, where they lived, to the Costa del Sol, where they probably planned to commit more crimes. The four suspects were found and arrested in Benalmádena, where the police searched the car. Inside, detectives found a number of secret compartments that held money made from illegal activities. The police took €24,000 in cash, €1,000 in different foreign currencies, a 100-franc gold coin, a lot of expensive electronics, and a lot of jewellery.
So far, the police have solved 25 property crimes that happened in municipalities in Alicante, Malaga, the Balearic Islands, and the Community of Madrid. These crimes generated more than 200,000 euros in damage.
Author: Derek Appleton
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