Overview
- A joint National Police, Romanian authorities, Europol and Eurojust action on 4 September carried out 25 searches in Madrid and Romania, arrested 12 suspects, secured their extradition to Spain and placed them in provisional detention for organized crime and 45 property offenses.
- Officers seized 26 luxury watches, gold jewelry, more than €22,900, £1,850 and 7,150 lei, while blocking 12 properties and seven vehicles linked to the group.
- The scheme used women to approach mostly elderly victims with affectionate contact as male accomplices waited in cars, with stolen goods later shipped to Romania hidden in parcels and household appliances.
- On 15 October, Guardia Civil in Valmojado (Toledo) detained a couple tied to 10 thefts by the ‘hug’ method and four robberies with violence across Toledo, Madrid and Seville, with the jewelry believed sold in Eastern Europe.
- Further local actions this week included the arrest of a woman in Malpartida de Plasencia after an attempted theft from an 80-year-old and an active court warrant, and the detention of a couple in Vilagarcía suspected in about a dozen violent robberies, in some cases involving a knife.