Officers from the Guardia Civil have arrested a man wanted in connection with an armed robbery 3 years ago.
An automated fingerprint scan identified the man as being wanted in connection with the offence committed in July, 2013, when a man entered a supermarket and pulled a gun on the cashier, demanding money.
The cashier, who noted that the gunman was very nervous, reacted by saying that she was not the cashier and could not open the safe because it needed a code which she didn´t have. The assailant dropped the gun to the ground, which gave the impression that it was fake by the noise it made, reassuring the cashier of her actions.
The man immediately recovered the gun, grabbed a packet of tissues, and attempted to open the safe by randomly pressing numbers on the keypad. The store manager heard the noise and went to check what was happening, at which point the robber gave up and ran out of the store.
The Guardia Civil and Judicial Police both attended the scene ant took forensic evidence, including fingerprints and CCTV footage in which they could see a man of between 1.70 and 1.75 metres tall and of slim build, possibly of Spanish nationality, partly hiding his face with a white cap.
Three years later, thanks to analysis of the data, the Guardia Civil were able to identify and arrest a 40-year old Spanish suspect on suspicion of attempted robbery with intimidation.
The Automated Fingerprint Identification System is a database of fingerprints that contains more than 216,000 records and is accessible by authorised representatives of 190 member countries of INTERPOL, which allows law enforcers to monitor entries and identify suspects through their movements and records.
