Overview
- Guardia Civil returned the Virgen del Buen Suceso to the Ermita de Nuestra Señora del Buen Suceso in Fuente del Maestre.
- Three residents of Villafranca de los Barros—a father, mother and son—were detained and presented to the local court on theft and fraud allegations.
- Investigators say the statue, a Baroque marble work, was removed from a six-meter-high exterior niche of a BIC-listed chapel using ladders, a hammer and a chisel.
- The lead emerged when a San Lorenzo de El Escorial resident reported buying stone virgins via a WhatsApp contact, and the parish priest confirmed the recovered image as the stolen work.
- Operation "Virgo25" remains open as the Guardia Civil probes possible links to other religious-art thefts later offered for sale online.