Edition 208
www.thecourier.es
Friday 13th February 2015
ON THE HOOK
DOOR SLAMMED ON MOROCCAN THIEVES
An eleven strong Moroccan足led burglary gang allegedly responsible for at least 100 home robberies across Alicante Province and the Murcia region have been arrested by the Guardia Civil. They were nabbed under Operation Arcen which started last October, with the gang members also said to be involved in drug trafficking, once they had sold off their stock of stolen goods. The thieves were based in Callosa de Segura and Redovan, with the authorities alerted to their activities
after breaking into a house in Quesada in October. The thieves used the old fishing rod trick of a long pole with a hook to net the home keys after forcing open a window so that they could get the stick through. They then stole computer and electronic gear in addition to money, with the Guardia working out that the way the crooks operated was similar to some thieves that they had come across before and had been convicted of burglary. That timely recall led to the start足up of Operation Arcen last autumn to bring down the gang. Authorities said that the mob would always have a
look足out in a car to warn his colleagues if the police or anybody else was approaching their intended target, and then they would ship out their loot to either Morocco or other parts of Spain to be sold, with the proceeds then used to buy drugs, which they in turn would sell on at a profit. The Guardia have recovered a wide amount of goods from what they say are 25 burglaries, but they added that they believed the gang was behind more than 100 robberies in the area. Eleven men, including an Algerian, appeared before a Torrevieja judge, who denied bail for all of them.