Would be bank robbers caught in the nick of time

The Guardia Civil, in the so-called Barrengolp-Mozorroa operation, has dismantled a criminal group dedicated to robbery with violence and intimidation in banking entities in Cantabria and Navarra. The agents have arrested four people and have investigated another one for their alleged participation. The arrests were made moments before they committed another robbery. In total, five consummated robberies and one attempted robbery have been clarified.

Two of the detainees, with extensive criminal records, had been part of the gang called “La Viuda”, made up of expert robbers that had been operating for more than a decade throughout the national territory.

The investigation began in 2021 with two robberies at bank branches in the Cantabrian town of Puente Viesgo and in Arbizu in Navarre. The agents found out that the perpetrators were the same in both robberies and that they were specialised in this type of criminal act.

In 2022, the criminal organisation committed three other bank robberies in the Navarrese towns of Lakuntza and Lekunberri and another in the Cantabrian town of Roiz.

The robbers carried short weapons to intimidate both employees and customers who were inside the banks. In some cases, they even handcuffed bank employees. Likewise, the detainees used wigs, ski masks, masks, caps, even clothing usually used by construction workers to make their identification difficult.

The investigators determined that it was a criminal group made up of four men, each one with defined missions when it came to preparing and committing the robberies.

The agents found that the gang was preparing a new robbery for this year and, among the different places they had been studying, the detainees decided that their next target was a branch in the Cantabrian town of Somo.

The Guardia Civil organised an operation with the support of the Special Intervention Unit (UEI) to prevent the robbery. At the end of February, the members of the group were detected in Somo, two of them being arrested moments before robbing the branch. Several small arms, a knife and other effects and means of masking were intervened.

The other two members, who were carrying out watch and wait missions to facilitate their escape, were later intercepted and detained.

Investigators have seized four vehicles and have carried out three house searches, two of them in Vizcaya and one in Cantabria.

With this operation, the Guardia Civil has cleared up five robberies of banks in Cantabria and Navarra, where more than 360,000 euro were stolen, and has prevented another one in the town of Somo.

The Court of First Instance and Instruction of Medio Cudeyo, Cantabria, has ordered the entry into prison of the four detainees.

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