Alicante Civil Guard has arrested 7 people (4 Albanians, 2 Serbs and 1 Spaniard), dedicated to the theft of ATMs removed with fork lift trucks, which had previously also been stolen.
Members of the gang have all been charged with being the perpetrators of 9 crimes of robbery with force in ATMs, 7 crimes of theft / robbery and illegal use of a motor vehicle, 1 crime of falsification of license plates and 1 crime of belonging to a criminal group.
The operation was put in place following the reporting of several robberies committed between January and March, in the provinces of Alicante, Albacete, Valencia and Murcia. The geographical proximity of the robbery sites made the agents suspect that the criminal group was located in the south of the province of Alicante.
The Civil Guard quickly learnt that the thefts were being committed by a group of people of Albanian nationality settled between Gran Alacant Santa Pola and Almoradí. The agents also determined that this gang usually moved at dawn on secondary roads to industrial estates or from which they would steal a fork lift truck.
Later, they would go to the selected cash point, place mooring or lifting slings arount the ATM and pull it from the wall with the FLT.
Whilst the crimes were being carried out they would employ a number of lookouts who they would position on approach roads to detect any police presence. Once they removed the ATM to a suitable location they would break it up and remove the cash.
Agents suspect that they carried out such robberies up to 9 times, in Altea, Pilar de la Horadada and Santa Pola, in Alicante; Bélgida and Llanera de Ranes, in Valencia; Socovos (Albacete); and Almendricos and Campos del Río, in Murcia.
Last Friday they committed their last robbery in Archivel (Murcia). That same morning the Civil Guard arrested the seven members of the gang and fully recovered the 48,000 euros from the ATM.
Following a search carried out in their homes, 1 in Santa Pola and 3 in Almoradí, the police seized 14,500 euros in cash, machinery, axes, clubs, balaclavas, ski masks, jackets, gloves, lanyards and 6 vehicles that had been used to carry out the crimes.
After the arrests, they were taken before the court, which ordered their detention without bail for all of the gang members apart from the Spaniard who had assisted in the concealment of the vehicles.
This operation was led by the Judicial Police Teams of the Civil Guard of Crevillente and Almoradí, with the support of the Unit of Citizen Security (USECIC) of Torrevieja and members of the Civil Guard in Torrevieja.
