2023-05-31 00:04:00
Organized crime gangs operate in the most touristic cities: Madrid, Barcelona, Palma, Ibiza…
The Bulgarian tennis player Grigor Dimitrov he was in Barcelona for the tournament Conde God. He was driving a vehicle through the city center -April 14, 2023- when a motorist folded his rear-view mirror. I rolled down the window to reposition it using the closest hand, the left, the one with the watch on. He White out (70.000 euros) disappeared from his grin.
It was not necessary to do the rear-view mirror trick on Robert Lewandowski. When lowering the window to sign some autographs -August, 2022- to the player of the Only the tore off and Patek Phillippe (70,000 euros). Two months before -June, 2022- to another footballer, Dani Olmothey stole a Rolex of 30,000 euros in Valencia. He ambassador of Arabia Saud in Spain and his wife walked through the center of Madrid on April 30 when a motorist caught them and stole another Rolex (25,000 euros). Of the same brand (8,000 euros) was the watch that was taken from him in Palma to the chief prosecutor of the Balearic Islands, bartomeu barcelin December 2019. In the case of the Atlético de Madrid footballer Koke, it was an Audemars Piguet from 70.000 euros.
They are some of the most publicized victims of a type of crime, the theft of luxury watches, with enormous activity in the Spanish cities through which the most tourists with high purchasing power move: Barcelona, Madrid, Palma de Mallorca, Marbella e Ibiza fundamentally. In the latter, the record theft to date took place: a Richard Mille (RM) 50-03 MCLaren F1 valued at 1.150.000 euros owned by a tourist to Azerbaijan from 25 years.
The incidence of luxury watch theft in these locations is such that some, such as Marbella or Barcelona, have created police groups dedicated exclusively to fighting against it. In Barcelona began to operate in May 2022 the team titani and in the six months that it was in operation -the most touristy- there were 229 arrests of watchmakersas these thieves are called, 100 of them directly the result of the work of those from Titani.
This May they have become active again and are considering staying beyond the tourist season, explains Joseph Naharro, head of the Barcelona Criminal Investigation Division (DIC). The DIC are responsible for the last major police operation in the city. Started by the Titani group, they took over it when they detected that there could be a criminal organization behind it. And so it was.
The group disabled this May –seven detainees– is very representative of how these bands operate. They are above all, explains Naharro, itinerant groups that perform in different parts of Europe. This gang in question had been in Barcelona between 9 and 12 months and accumulated 72 background between the robberies committed in Catalonia and previous ones in Switzerland and Germany. “Until 2019 they were carried out exclusively by organized crime, gangs from other countries that came, took a loot of X watches and left. They saw that the most dangerous thing was to commit the robbery itself, because it has more criminal reproach and more possibilities of get caught, and they have given that part to local criminals,” says Naharro.
Thus, of the seven detainees, two were Spanish -the perpetrators of the robbery- and the other five members of the gang itself, of North African origin. “One of them looks at the dolls, spots a good watch, and mark the victim. One or two go to that person and, in the best of cases, distract him from her by giving him a hug and misleading him while the other pulls on the leash. If the person stirs, a third party tries to obstruct him to facilitate escape,” explains Naharro.
To escape they use electric scooters so the cops They are trying to ensure that, just as someone who commits a crime with a car is prohibited from driving, the same thing happens to someone who uses a scooter. They also have the focus on trying to attack the reception. “If we neutralize the reception, if nobody buys watches, nobody is going to steal them, but we have the handicap of the little pity provided for in the Penal Code, which makes it impossible to carry out serious investigations”, laments Naharro. The receiver, he adds, “turns on the green light so that crimes begin” by notifying that he is going to go to Barcelona on a certain date. ” He arrives one night with an empty suitcase and leaves the next day with a full one.
According to the criteria of
The Trust Project
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