The Mossos d’Esquadra have dismantled a group of suspected violent thieves and specialized in luxury watches, which have been very active this summer in the city of Barcelona. This was announced by the Catalan police in a statement this Saturday, in which they attributed the theft of objects worth 145,000 euros. As specified by the Mossos, the detainees acted with violence to steal the subsequent booty and operated mainly in the restaurants and nightclubs of the Maritime Front and Port Olímpic in the Catalan capital. The accused were caught red-handed by the officers when they had just committed a robbery.
Two groups of the Mossos specialized in multirecidivism and urban crime effected the August 24 the arrest of three men aged between 35 and 42 as alleged perpetrators of four crimes of robbery with violence, two crimes of minor injuries and another of belonging to a criminal group. Once the alleged perpetrators were arrested, the agents inspected several apartments related to them and found a few watches, more than 10,000 euros in cash and clothes used during the robberies. Also “narcotic substances”, without the Mossos specifying the type or quantity of drug, but for which one of the detainees is charged with crimes against public health.
The procedure for suspected thieves detected by Catalan police officers was always similar. One of the alleged perpetrators was located in the area with a vehicle, to first monitor and detect possible victims, and then quickly flee in the same vehicle after the robbery. With the help of other members of the band, they did tasks of vigilance and detection of a possible victim. And once they detected it, two more members went into action. One would ask a question or ask for a cigarette from the victim to distract her and attract her attention, while the other violently assaulted her to steal her watch. At all times the detainees were connected by mobile phone or headphones to communicate and try to evade the police presence, as detailed by the Mossos in their statement.
In addition to the robbery with violence after which the Catalan police arrested the defendants, three other thefts in the Port area are attributed to them. The first watch they stole was valued at 70,000 euros and was found in a parking lot while the tourist who was wearing it was looking for his vehicle. The second was worth 15,000 euros and was taken from another victim of a break-in while they were distracting her by dancing with her. And the third was valued at 60,000 euros and was also obtained from a break-in while the bearer was walking around the Port Olímpic area; according to the version offered by the Mossos d’Esquadra in their statement.
With the aim of arresting the perpetrators of violent thefts of watches that operate in Barcelona, the Metropolitan Police Region of Barcelona launched at the end of May a group specialized in investigations of this type of crime, named a ‘Group Titan’.