Town hall appeals again for footbridge
Members accused of being behind cash machine thefts
Mayoress reminds Madrid of the ‘historic need’ for a footbridge for busy N332
AN ATTEMPT to steal a cash machine from a street in Orihuela Costa has led, over two years later, to the arrest of six members of a gang.
A Guardia Civil spokesman explained that the attempted robbery took place on March 1, 2019, using a tow truck and two stolen vehicles.
The investigation led to a clan from Central Europe who were well known to police forces around the continent.
The suspects had been illegally squatting in homes in Orihuela Costa until they were evicted in March this year.
The three men arrested are believed to have been involved with six robberies or attempted robberies of cash machines, as well as the thefts of seven vehicles and seven tow trucks that were used and then abandoned, all in Alicante, Valencia and Murcia provinces, with one of the incidents in Gran Alacant, Santa Pola.
According to the spokesman, they travelled continually around the country together, sometimes with other clan members including children, in motorhomes, some of which were stolen and fitted with false number plates.
They would make camps near the coast for no more than a fortnight at a time in busy tourist areas where they would go unnoticed, he said.
From their base they allegedly went out every day in pairs to different areas in order to steal cash or goods they could sell on the black market.
Most of the break-ins were vehicles and motorhomes left either in free parking areas while the occupants went walking or to the beach, or in commercial centres and areas.
Potential victims were watched, sometimes using binoculars, to see if they left bags in their car boot.
The gang often stole camera equipment and a great deal of technical equipment was taken from two television workers in separate incidents in Cádiz.
After these campaigns of thefts, the members specialised in stealing cash machines would plan and execute their robberies from the homes where they were squatting.
During the investigation the suspects settled temporarily in the regions of Andalucía, Murcia, Valencia, the Basque country, Cantabria, Asturias and Galicia.
So far they have been accused of 37 burglaries and two attempted burglaries, but police suspect they were responsible for many more.
While in the Basque country
they made incursions into France, where they also have criminal records, as they do in Italy and Germany.
Their mobility and the security precautions they took meant it took the authorities months to track them down to Vejer de la Frontera in Cádiz.
Officers arrested three men
aged between 36 and 51, and three women between 20 and 49, all of them of Bosnian nationality.
The Guardia Civil have accused them of ‘a multitude’ of offences and a court ordered them to be charged and released on bail.