It happened at 9:15 pm on Monday. A couple of Argentine tourists (he 77, she 73) who were staying in a hotel in the Serrano neighborhood, in the middle of the Golden Mile, were walking down Hermosilla Street when, at number 13, some individuals attacked them. .on a motorcycle.
The two occupants of the vehicle were wearing helmets that made it impossible to distinguish facial features, in addition to wearing gloves and black clothing from top to toe. At first, they attacked the woman to take her handbag. According to the victims’ accounts, there were three criminals in total.
When the driver got out, he saw that the man was wearing a Rolex on his wrist and ordered him to give it to him, pointing his gun at his wife to intimidate her. But the Argentinian turned around and hit the shooter with a jersey. Between this reaction and the fact that there were more and more witnesses to what was happening on the public highway, the thief fled, got on the motorcycle and fled with his friends, police sources told ABC.
The people involved, at the time of writing this news, had not reported it and had no intention of doing so; they are tourists and soon they will no longer be in Spain. These “motojets” also failed to get hold of the Rolex, valued at 8,000 euros (cheap, if we compare them to others of 50,000 and 100,000 euros stolen in this way in the center of Madrid). The couple returned to the hotel, where agents from the Salamanca district police station went to investigate what had happened; it is likely that the Cronos group, directly dependent on the Madrid police headquarters, will take over the investigation.
What is normal is that the members of one of these gangs take charge of tracking and surveillance, and mark the victims by warning their buddies, who are the two who are on the motorcycle; This is a “modus operandi” imported from Venezuela and Colombia, where you can be shot in the head just to take your cell phone.
If they have to follow someone on the street, it is not surprising that they dress as “riders”. “They use clothes, backpacks, bicycles… whatever, but with equipment from a food delivery company,” police sources warn. And the same goes for those who carry out the actions.
The target is always the watch, regardless of the age, gender or company of those who wear it; some pieces (Rolex and Patek Philippe are the most sought-after) can reach a value of up to 100,000 euros on the black market.
The Cronos Operational Group has been operating for a year, with 17 agents who are experts in investigating violent and specialized crimes. The Rolex bracelets are not one, but several. The “modus operandi” are also diverse (the mataleón – suffocation, in this case by North African women -, the theft of love – hugs and kisses committed by Romanians -, the ronaldinho – making the victim dizzy with fake drops in the air, which is usually drunk -); and the points of action are the wealthiest neighborhoods, such as Salamanca, Chamartín, Centro, Moncloa and Retiro. In Operation Luco, one of the first to be developed, 60% of the victims were foreign tourists.
There are people from North Africa to Venezuelans and Colombians, but especially the Neapolitan mafias, with great geographical mobility, are felt; in fact, in the Salamanca neighborhood, the summer has been quieter in this sense, because these thieves go to luxury summer tourist areas, such as Marbella and Ibiza, to do their work.
