Orihuela arrests lead to international gang
Task force set up with French police to catch the criminals
A ROVING international gang specialised in burglaries and a scam known as a ‘rip deal’ has been disbanded by the National Police, who made five arrests in Orihuela which led to another 26 members being detained in six European countries.
An investigation launched in October last year detected activity in France as well as Spain so a joint task force was set up with the French Gendarmerie, a National Police spokesman explained.
During the first phase, officers arrested five members of a known Italian-Croat clan in Orihuela, and seized various pieces of jewellery and luxury goods, as well as a plastic card used to open doors, two apparently forged documents and €4,300 in cash.
Most of the remaining 26 suspects were arrested in France, but others were caught in Croatia, Italy, the Netherlands,
Switzerland and Spain.
Almost 200 police officers in five countries participated in the operation.
They searched 17 homes and seized jewellery, stolen goods, a large quantity of fake money, a machine for counting cash, and a variety of forged documents.
The investigation revealed how the gang members were able to rapidly change addresses in Spain and made many trips around Europe, using fake identification to rent housing.
The burglaries were principally committed by young women assisted by a male driver.
They gained access to homes by inserting a plastic card between the frame and the latch in order to ‘slip’ the lock.
The gang also specialised in the so-called ‘rip deal’ con, for which principally male members of the gang posed as businessmen of high standing in another country.
They would lure the victim by pretending to be interested in purchasing some luxury property, gold or jewellery, then offer to pay over the market value if the seller agreed to exchange a large sum of money in cash for a smaller amount.
When the handover took place, the criminals gave the victims notes that were merely pieces of paper, apart from a few that were used to deceive them during the transaction.