The Mossos of Esquadra Six people were arrested in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat and Santa Coloma de Gramenet (Barcelona) who were allegedly part of a criminal group dedicated to committing thefts in apartments in the Catalan capital.
The suspected thieves were specialized in the use of markers: they placed a thin thread of glue and a piece of plastic on the doors of houses or garages, they returned after a few hours or days and, if the mark was still intact, it meant that they were empty and they could enter without being discovered by the owners.
The Mossos explained in a statement that they became aware of the group after carrying out various thefts in Barcelona using the same system in mid-May this year, which they linked to other thefts carried out during the year 2023, one of them in the fact that They marked 14 floors of the same building of the Catalan capital and where they finally entered in two.
Once the investigation was completed and the suspects located, the Criminal Investigation Division (DIC) of Barcelona established a system with three entries and searches of their homes, two in L’Hospitalet with four detainees and one in Santa Coloma with the fifth inmate. while the sixth was arrested on the public highway.
In the archives, the agents They recovered numerous pieces of jewelry and various specialized devices worth around 20,000 euros, other items linked to the thefts, a radial to burglarize the safes and tools to open the doors. The six detainees were brought to court on Saturday.
A hierarchical organization
The Mossos investigation confirmed that behind the events was a clearly hierarchical criminal group and with a wide distribution of taskssupervising the tasks carried out by all members, marking and monitoring accommodations, executing and monitoring when carrying out thefts and the subsequent sale of the stolen jewelry and sending money.
One of the detainees held a leadership position in the organization and directed the marking of addresses, how to access apartments and even how to make the investigators’ work difficult by establishing countermeasures to hinder the investigation, such as fleeing the Spain or constantly changing addresses. .
The investigationMonitoring measures have been taken on public roads to avoid detection by the police, they constantly monitored their surroundings, gathered in public places, avoided routines and changed clothes several times in the same day.
