The Spanish National Police arrested four members of a Neapolitan gang who were involved in stealing expensive watches from tourists. Six more individuals were also identified for whom an appropriate European Arrest and Extradition Warrant was requested.
The established members of the bandit group are Italian citizens, mostly Neapolitans, who came in companies of 3-4 people to various Spanish tourist cities in the summer months and hunted for the watches of rich tourists. They chose their victims, mostly elderly foreigners, whom they had previously watched and followed, then chose the perfect moment to carry out the robbery, which often involved violence, and took the luxury watch from their owners, several Spanish authorities said. The suspects operated separately but in a single scheme in tourist areas with a high percentage of luxury properties – Marbella, Madrid, Barcelona, Ibiza, or Palma de Mallorca.
The same individuals committed robberies using the specialization and organization of their members. According to her, the girls initially acted as “bait”, they were looking for a victim. Then the robber himself acted. He did not hesitate to strike tourists and throw his victims to the ground to collect the loot in the form of an expensive watch.
As one of the agencies explained, at that time an accomplice was waiting on a motorcycle to make the robber’s escape faster and safer. Sometimes pedestrians suffered from their dangerous actions to quickly escape. Another gang accomplice, who was in another vehicle, promptly retrieved the stolen watch to prevent the main perpetrators of the robbery from interfering with their arrest.
The gang, which terrorized the whole of Italy, was difficult for the police to catch, as the criminals took numerous security measures to avoid identification and arrest. For example, they used forged documents in hotels, rented vehicles, and wore hats, masks, or helmets – in short, they covered their faces as much as possible.
So, last month, the authorities eliminated a criminal group that provided Indian citizens with false documents in exchange for large sums of money, up to 100,000 euros per person. In this regard, the Ministry of Home Affairs has discovered that this now-defunct criminal organization operates with two branches, one in India and the other in Madrid, Spain.
In October, Spanish police also busted an Albanian criminal organization that was facilitating illegal migration to the UK. According to the ministry, this organization transported emigrants from the organization’s members by boat.
Considering earlier, in September, the Spanish authorities announced the liquidation of another organization that recruited minors, mainly of North African origin, and also provided them with false documents to leave the Canary Islands.