The Government delegate in the Valencian Community, Juan Carlos Moragues, said on Wednesday that thanks to the effectiveness of the Guardia Civil’s ROCA teams thefts I rural areas were reduced by 18.7 in 2017 with respect to the previous year.
He made the claim during his opening address at the IV Training Seminar ‘Safety in the field’ held by the Government together with the Ministry of Agriculture and Health of the Generalitat, the Comandancia of the Civil Guard of Valencia and Cooperatives Agro-alimentary of the Valencian Community
The day, attended by a number of different police organisations, consisted of lectures given by a health inspector, a food scientist, the Commander of the Civil Guard in Calpe, the chief inspector of the National Police and also of the Local Police of Castellón.
There was also a practical activity during the afternoon on the handling of fruits and vegetables in the field and features likely to cause suspicion.
Moragues said, “There has been great interest in the course with 80 registrations from the national police, local, regional and Civil Guards. This conference will be beneficial in better tackling and preventing crimes in the countryside.”
The Delegate highlighted a number of the successful operations that took place in 2017. In Operation Traza, 23 people were arrested (Spanish and Moroccan) in the town of El Verger for the crime of document forgery involving the sale of 424,060 kilos of oranges.
Four people were arrested, for theft of 2,500 kilos of grapes in several farms Aspe and Novelda with the recovery of 800 kilos of grapes.
Operation Iwasaki saw the arrest of one person, in the town of San Miguel de Salinas, for three scams in cheating farmers by agreeing to purchase 400,000 euros worth of mandarins without paying for them.
Operation Isaacnar resulted in a man of Spanish nationality being arrested in for falsifying documents in order to purchase 201,260 kilos of oranges.
Moragues reiterated the importance of promoting the culture of denunciation by farmers as they are the people who “are on the ground, who know their farms, the roads, the owners of the adjoining farms,”he said.
