The Civil Guard and the Alicante National Police have arrested a 26-year-old man who is charged with 10 crimes of robbery with violence and intimidation, committed between the months of December and January in the towns of San Vicente del Raspeig and Alicante.
In a statement the Guardia said that, around 9:20 p.m. on January 18, a man entered the facilities of a service station located on Calle Alicante in the town of San Vicente del Raspeig and, after threatening the employee with a large knife, gave her a bag and told her to put into it all the money she had in the till.
She opened the drawer and took out all the bills there were, a total of 300 euros, and gave it back to the thief, who ran off.
Police officers took a statement from the victim, carried out an inspection of the robbery scene and took the images captured by the security cameras, showing the thief.
In comparing notes with other local forces agents learned that the Civil Guard of the San Vicente del Raspeig Post was trying to locate the alleged perpetrator of robberies whose modus operandi was very similar to that used in eight robberies that the National Police were investigating.
The members of both police forces confirmed that in all the robberies, the author had used a knife with identical characteristics.
Once the investigators learned of the routine and the time slot in which the robber operated, the Civil Guard and the National Police, with the support of the Local Police of San Vicente del Raspeig, established permanent surveillance in the vicinity of similar establishments and then, at 10:30 p.m. on January 22, they were notified of a robbery in a supermarket located on Calle La Huerta in San Vicente del Raspeig.
The alleged perpetrator was a man who, brandishing a large knife and intimidating the sales staff, had made off with the money that was in the cash register along with several bottles of alcoholic beverages, fleeing the scene on a bicycle.
Several patrols from the Civil Guard Post and the San Vicente del Raspeig Local Police managed to locate and identify the alleged perpetrator near to the scene, trying to hide among some bushes. They verified that it was the same person who was being sought for nine other crimes committed in the towns of San Vicente del Raspeig and Alicante.
With his arrest, the Civil Guard and the National Police have cleared up ten robberies with violence and intimidation committed during the months of December and January which took place in four supermarkets, two 24 hours, a pizzeria, a pharmacy, a tobacconist and a petrol station, eight of the crimes in Alicante, and two in San Vicente del Raspeig.
The detainee, of Colombian nationality, who has numerous previous offences, is currently languishing in police cells awaiting his day in court.
