A nine-strong Algerian robbery gang has been arrested in Alicante Province and Barcelona after allegedly running an extensive operation which saw homes robbed across the Southern Costa Blanca, plus Bilbao and Barcelona, with some of the items then shipped by ferry from Alicante to Oran in Algeria.
Eight people were detained in the Alicante area with the other arrested in Barcelona, and, according to the National Police, they are aged between 20 and 56, with two of them being female. They are accused of 30 crimes, of which 21 are robberies, as well the kidnapping of an Algerian man in Alicante, who was held for a ransom demand of 40,000 euro from his family. One of the gang members was also allegedly involved in a violent street assault in Alicante last summer as well as slashing the face of another man in another incident, before hiding locally in the hope of trying to escape to France.
The National Police said that the gang had, up to their latest spate of burglaries, accumulated a total of over 200 arrest warrants, but that had not put them off from their criminal activities. They went for money and jewellery, with the items then pawned off to second-hand shops or gold centres, or even taken by ferry to Algeria.
Police searches of three homes in the Alicante area, after the arrest of the gang, turned up four stolen cars that were taken from four different addresses, as well as tools and electronic devices used to break into houses, plus a large selection of stolen watches and jewels.
Many of the gang members used fake French nationality papers to ease their movement around Spain and further afield, with countless arrest warrants issued against them. No information has been released as to the court appearances of the accused, and whether some or all of them have been granted bail.
