The Alicante Provincial Court has sentenced four of the five accused of being part of a violent gang of burglars that used machetes and shotguns while carrying out their raids in which they beat up and threatened their victims with cutting off their fingers in order to steal their rings or other valuable jewels.
The four have been sentenced to 83 years and six months in prison, although the Prosecutor’s Office actually requested 139 years. They were found guilty of committing 28 robberies, all of them in the province of Alicante, apart from two that were committed in the Murcian municipality of Sangonera la Seca.
One of the defendants was acquitted by the court which was unable to prove his participation in a any of the robberies, while the other four defendants were acquitted of nine of the 28 robberies but found guilty of the remainder.
Three of those involved were awarded 26, 24 and 24 years in prison. However, the ruling establishes a maximum of 18 years for one of them and 14 years and three months for the other two.
A fourth defendant was sentenced to nine years and six months in prison as the court acquitted him of the crime of belonging to a criminal organization despite participating in two of the assaults.
The sentence states that the accused must also compensate their victims for an amount slightly higher than 46,000 euros.
The defense attorney for one of the defendants, José Soler Martín, has announced that he will appeal this judgment of the Court.
When outlining the sentence, the judges highlighted the “extreme violence used” in the assaults and the fact that several aggressors took part in the robberies, “which increased the fear and defenselessness of the victims”.
In addition to the crimes of robbery with violence in an occupied house, several of them were found guilty of the use of weapons, and the crime of integration into a criminal group. Three of the accused were also been sentenced to fines for committing minor injuries, as some victims were hurt during the robberies.
Robberies and assaults attributed to the gang took place in the Alicante suberbs of Cañada del Fenollar, Verdegás, El Rebolledo and La Alcoraya, as well as in Novelda, Elche, Sax, Busot, Xixona, La Vila Joiosa, Dénia and San Vicente del Raspeig.
