Construction site looters on trial

The Courts of Colón in Salamanca will host the trial this Thursday of three alleged members of a gang that looted multiple houses under construction to take mainly boilers, but also radiators, taps, machinery and tools.

The prosecutor requests for the accused – CB, VC and RE – sentences of up to six years in prison in the case of the former for a continued crime of robbery with force and another of belonging to a criminal group; five years and three months in prison for the second for the same crimes; and one year and six months in prison in the case of the third for reception. He also asks them to pay compensation and costs.

There is also a fourth suspect, identified with the initials TV, who remains at large.

The modus operandi was always the same, using three vehicles, two of the accused went to previously established locations and stole the effects. Then they delivered the loot to another of them who sold the merchandise through the company in which he worked – which was unrelated to the illicit activity of its employee – located outside the province and which was dedicated to international road transport between Spain and Romania.

The prosecutor charges them with a dozen robberies in this case in Moriscos and Castellanos de Moriscos, as well as in towns in the Community of Madrid such as Arroyomolinos, Paracuellos and Boadilla del Monte, or in Guadalajara such as Cabanillas del Campo. Thefts that took place in 2017.

Likewise, the prosecutor points out, two of the accused also acted on behalf of another, who, in order to obtain supplies that he later used in his professional construction and renovation activity, contacted them to give him the effects despite knowing of their illicit origin.

The prosecutor highlights that the accused CB and TV were already sentenced by a Palencia court to one year in prison for the crime of attempted robbery with force.

The arrests are directly linked to ‘Operation Nagy-kazan’ that the Guardia Civil completed, an operation in which eleven alleged members of the group were arrested in Salamanca, Torrejón de Ardoz, Coslada, Alcalá de Henares and Madrid capital. According to the armed institute, the detainees – Romanians, Moldovans and Bulgarians – were considered perpetrators of almost one hundred robberies.

The officers estimate the total amount stolen and the damage caused at half a million euro.

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