They stole vehicles that they later smashed into businesses to take the proceeds from the slot machines, Iberian products and luxury bicycles. And their activity was so frenetic that they looted up to four businesses in the same night. A joint operation by the National Police and the Civil Guard has put a pause on the criminal drift of a gang based in Seville to which 25 robberies in three months are attributed in different provinces in the south of Spain, such as Seville itself, Cádiz, Córdoba, Huelva and Badajoz. Investigators have arrested seven people, all with a record of crimes against property, of whom five have been remanded in preventive detention. They are investigated for crimes such as belonging to a criminal group, robbery with force, robbery with violence and intimidation, possession of weapons or crimes against public health.
The investigation began last August, when investigators began following the trace of a stolen vehicle in the Sevillian town of Lebrija. That car was used to rob four businesses. The main targets of the gang were bars and restaurants, because they had the possibility of stealing recreational machines, especially slot machines, due to their high economic value.
The arrests in this investigation, called Tragaleones-Marinara, were carried out at the beginning of November. In the last phase of the investigation, a change in the band’s tendency when choosing their objectives was observed. Gourmet food stores predominated, where they looked for high-value Iberian products, such as strips of loin or ham, as well as stores selling high-end bicycles. They also stole from sports stores. The researchers do not link this change to the fact that these products could have a better market on the black market, but rather to the fact that the gang did not shy away from any possible target. This hyperactivity has led researchers to consider them “one of the most active bands of aluniceros in southern Spain.”
During the operation, Civil Guard and National Police agents carried out searches in several homes in the capital of Seville and in towns in the metropolitan area of Dos Hermanas and Alcalá de Guadaíra, where a considerable number of pieces of Iberian products, bicycles of high economic value and recreational machines were seized. They also found a wide variety of tools and clothing used to commit the robberies, alarm and vehicle starter inhibitor devices, long firearms and a plantation. indoor with more than 290 marijuana plants.
Those arrested were brought to justice in the Civil and Investigation Section of the Court of Instance number 2 of Lebrija, which ordered their entry into provisional prison.
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