Armed robbers forced the driver from his cab during a meticulously planned three-minute ambush near the El Espartal industrial estate
A gang posing as police officers hijacked a lorry carrying almost €1 million worth of Zara and other Inditex clothing during an armed roadside ambush on the outskirts of Alicante.
The robbers reportedly surrounded the articulated lorry with two high-powered cars before forcing it to stop near the entrance to the El Espartal industrial estate. The driver was held at gunpoint, dragged from his cab and thrown onto the road before the gang escaped with the vehicle and its valuable cargo.
Neither the lorry nor the clothing has yet been recovered.
The robbery took place shortly before 3.30am last Thursday as the lorry, which had travelled from Almería, approached the industrial estate from the Madrid road.
According to the driver’s account, two cars—one black and the other red—manoeuvred around the lorry as it approached a roundabout. The red vehicle was reportedly fitted with a flashing light similar to those used by unmarked National Police and Guardia Civil cars.
The vehicles forced the driver to stop abruptly, believing he was being intercepted by law enforcement officers.
Two tall, heavily built men carrying handguns then emerged from the red car and approached the cab. Shouting “Stop, police!” and imitating the manner of officers conducting a roadside operation, they climbed into the vehicle and forcibly removed the driver.
As the victim was held at gunpoint and thrown onto the road, one of the occupants of the black car reportedly transferred to the red vehicle. The gang then fled towards Alicante, with one of the robbers driving the stolen lorry.
The victim watched as the red car and the lorry headed in the same direction before the articulated vehicle took the slip road leading to the A-31 motorway.
His mobile phone was apparently still inside the cab, leaving him unable to raise the alarm immediately. A passing lorry driver eventually stopped to help and allowed the victim to use a phone to contact the 112 emergency service.
The entire operation is believed to have taken approximately three minutes. Investigators suspect that four people participated in the carefully coordinated robbery.
Detectives from Alicante’s Specialist and Violent Crime Unit, known as UDEV, are investigating the hijacking. Officers have obtained CCTV recordings from streets and businesses within the El Espartal industrial estate, together with traffic-camera footage from the A-31 and A-79.
Investigators hope the recordings will reveal when the lorry first came under surveillance, establish the routes used by the robbers and help identify the vehicles and four suspected assailants. However, police reportedly do not yet have enough information to identify the criminal group involved.
Robberies involving criminals posing as police officers remain relatively unusual, although similar tactics have previously been used against valuable commercial loads.
In December, a lorry carrying luxury handbags was targeted on the A-3 near Belinchón, in Cuenca province. Criminals posing as Guardia Civil officers abducted the driver while the cargo was transferred into other vehicles.
The victim was later released in a field near Perales de Tajuña, Madrid, blindfolded and with his hands bound using cable ties. Four suspects were arrested in Torremocha del Jarama in March.
Alicante has also previously been the focus of a major investigation into the theft of Inditex clothing. National Police arrested 11 people accused of stealing almost 84,000 Zara and Lefties garments, valued at more than €1 million, from a transport company over less than a year.
The stolen clothing was allegedly sold cheaply at street markets across Alicante province. Arrests were made in Alicante and Elche, while officers also located a warehouse in Sueca where merchandise was allegedly being offered to wholesale buyers.
Main Image: Last year 84,000 items of clothing worth over one million euros were stolen from Zara and Lefties in a similar raid.
