Spanish National Police dismantles a traveling organization of Albanian-Kosovar origin specialized in the commission of robberies

A total of 21 people arrested for their alleged involvement in different robberies with force committed in the provinces of Cádiz, Córdoba, Madrid, Málaga, Seville and Valencia

Those arrested had a special skill in overriding security systems, creating mailboxes and forcing locks and safes, working mainly in industrial estates.

In the illicit crimes they have stolen more than 500,000 euros, among which stands out an act committed in Seville where they obtained a loot of 242,000 euros, or another carried out in Vélez-Málaga where they stole 52,000 euros

Agents of the National Police have dismantled a criminal organization of Kosovar-Albanian origin based in Madrid, which is accused of 57 crimes of robbery with force, including one committed in a house where its residents were in the interior. A total of 21 people have been arrested for their alleged involvement in different acts committed in the Malaga towns of Antequera, Estepona, Torremolinos and Vélez-Málaga, in the Valencian municipalities of Paterna and Xirivella, in the Cordovan town of Lucena, in the capital Madrid and in the city of Móstoles, in the Cadiz town of Jerez de la Frontera and, finally, in the capital Seville and Écija.

Itinerant organization

The police investigations began as a result of a series of robberies, the first of them perpetrated in March 2019, committed in companies located in industrial estates of Vélez-Málaga, which presented a series of elements and similarities that allowed to intuit that they were the work of the same people. The main objective of the organization was the cash from the safes of the companies, although they are also charged with a robbery inside the home that occurred in a farmhouse in Vélez-Málaga, where they stole jewels valued at 10,000 euros.

Throughout the investigation, taking into account the high number of alleged incidents, the organization’s meticulousness and specialty in the execution of thefts became clear, with a perfectly defined modus operandi, demonstrating its ability to override security systems , the realization of letter boxes and the forcing of locks and safes. One of their most outstanding characteristics was roaming, since, despite the fact that they resided in Madrid, they were charged with events that occurred in the provinces of Cádiz, Córdoba, Málaga, Seville and Valencia, as well as Madrid.

Another of the main characteristics of the organization is the repetition of criminal acts committed in polygons of the same demarcation. This intense criminal activity generated social alarm in the business world due to the significant economic damage generated and the apparent impunity of its members, especially in those geographical areas where many of the alleged acts were concentrated. For example, in the towns of Vélez-Málaga and Lucena they committed 20 and 12 robberies respectively, even acting in the same company on several occasions.

Of all the robberies carried out with force, one of those committed in Vélez-Málaga, where they seized 52,000 euros, as well as another practiced in Seville, from where they took 242,000 euros, stand out for the amount stolen. The amount of money stolen in the total of theft imputed exceeds 500,000 euros in the absence of an assessment of any of the injured.

Some of the detainees had been residing in Spain for 20 years

The organization formed a perfectly structured criminal network designed for the commission of robberies with force. Some of its members had lived in Spain for 20 years, a circumstance that made the investigation difficult given the knowledge that these individuals possessed in police techniques. In addition, the organization had the support of people of Spanish nationality, whom they used to put vehicles and homes in their name, all with the purpose of hindering police work.

After the police efforts to analyze and report the facts, and to identify members of the organization, a first phase of exploitation of the operation was carried out, 18 people were arrested and eight searches were carried out, all of them in Madrid, in which a large number of tools and clothes used for the commission of robberies intervened, in addition to five vehicles.

In a second phase of the operation, the agents have arrested three more members of the organization who were missing. With these arrests, the records of the detainees of Albanian-Kosovar origin exceed 200. The investigation remains open as some of the organization’s members are currently unaccounted for.