The Provincial Court of Castellón is set to conclude hearing evidence today against seven people accused of various crimes after having extorted a man who contacted several women through a website and whom they threatened to attack to force him to pay them, open bank accounts and rent a high-end vehicle.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office brief, the events began in May 2022, when four of the defendants contacted a man, who lived in a municipality of Lugo, after he communicated with several women on a website. The defendants called the victim on the phone, imitating an Eastern European accent, and told him that if he did not do what they demanded they would go look for him at his work and home, beat him, “break his ribs, cut his neck”, and they even sent him a video in which a person was beaten.
The victim, afraid that they might do something to him or to his mother, with whom he lived, began to comply with the demands they asked of him, including giving him a copy of his ID and opening four bank accounts, handing over his passwords, as well as those of the credit cards linked to them, to make payments and transfers between the accounts. The victim, following the instructions of the accused, made various payments to another of the defendants, who did not make any inquiry about the money received.
He was also forced to provide the data and password of his 79-year-old mother, also making several transfers where indicated, some of them to another of the defendants, who did not verify where he received the money from. They also asked him to deliver 12,000 euro in a bag of cash, which he deposited in a park in a town in Lugo, as they told him. To obtain such an amount he had to take out a loan.
Later they demanded 36,000 euro, but he couldn’t get it so they forced him to rent a high-end vehicle and left it parked (with two credit cards in the glove compartment). With that vehicle, the accused robbed in Castellón, in several gas stations, in an establishment in Onda, in two others in Moncofa and another in Torreblanca.
When they were leaving the town of Moncofa after the second robbery, they were intercepted by the Police. They tried to escape by emptying two fire extinguishers, creating a cloud of white powder, and then threw them at the police vehicle. Finally, they fled along the AP-7 without being hit.
The prosecutor requests prison sentences of between two years and two months to twelve years and nine months for the accused for the crimes of extortion, money laundering, robbery and attacks on law enforcement agents. He also requests compensation for the victim of 32,530 euro, as well as everything stolen from the respective businesses where the robberies were committed.
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