The Guardia Civil, within the Sanandres operation, arrested two people for committing at least 93 robberies in churches in up to 82 different towns in Cantabria, Asturias and Palencia.
The main objective of the robberies was the money they kept in the churches. As an example, the in the theft from the Sanctuary of Valvanuz in Cantabria, some 1,000 euro was stolen from the donations of the Christmas nativity scene. However, other ecclesiastical objects were also reported stolen, presumably for later sale.
The first robberies were committed in December of last year in various churches in Cantabria. After the investigation by the agents, two people from the Cantabrian town of Villacarriedo were arrested. A house search was carried out where some 140 effects of an ecclesiastical nature were seized, among which images, cases with oil paintings, small chests with keys to the tabernacles, reliquaries for oleas, temple keys, sound instruments and two carved wooden bases for coffins. A large number of coins of small value from the collections were also found.
Likewise, various tools that could be used in robberies were seized, such as crowbars of different sizes, a hydraulic jack, screwdrivers, pliers, and a night vision device.
The investigations determined that the alleged perpetrators were a couple. The woman was the one who carried out a preliminary study of the temples that were subsequently assaulted, in which considerable damage was caused. To carry out the robberies they used different vehicles with which they travelled to different places.
The Guardia Civil suspected that, before the start of the Lebaniego Jubilee Year in the monastery of Santo Toribio, with the increase in pilgrims and donations in the churches located along this path, the robberies could once again increase.
The operation arranged for the security of the Camino Lebaniego allowed a patrol to stop the suspicious vehicle during one night in the town of Tama, in Cantabria.
Days later, in the Cantabrian town of Quijas, another Guardia Civil patrol identified the same couple carrying tools similar to those of Tama in the vehicle.
With all the evidence and given the suspicion of the start of a new wave of robberies in churches, an operation was arranged that made it possible to identify the male suspect driving a vehicle in which he hid tools that could be used to steal, and he was arrested.
Subsequently, and at her home in Villacarriedo, the woman was arrested, subsequently carrying out a search of the house and where the agents found a large number of effects from the robberies carried out in the churches.
The proceedings were forwarded to Investigating Court number 2 of Medio Cudeyo (Cantabria).
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