Campo de Gibraltar real estate scam gang shut down

The Guardia Civil has dismantled a plot dedicated to the usurpation, the act of controlling something without proper authorisation, of real estate properties for their subsequent sale to third parties in different locations in Campo de Gibraltar. In the operation, 8 people have been arrested and 120 land segregations have been sealed in the town of La Línea de la Concepción.

In addition, 99 people are being investigated for crimes against territorial planning for carrying out unauthorised urbanisation, construction or building works on land intended for public domain property.

The operation began when the Nature Protection Service (SEPRONA) of Algeciras received a complaint from the owners of a piece of land located in the municipality of La Línea de la Concepción, in which they reported the commission of a possible crime against the environment and urban planning due to illegal parcelling, as well as the usurpation of the land they own.

For this reason, the agents, in the first inspections, were able to verify the usurpation of the reported land, as well as the beginning of the segregation works on it, which had been put up for sale in lots.

Continuing with the investigations, the agents were able to verify that a former Property Registry worker was the person considered the intellectual author of this plot because he was the person who had all the knowledge of the administrative procedures necessary for the execution of the pre-established plan, intervening as authorised in all the procedures carried out on the sale to third parties of the executed segregations.

Likewise, it was learned that the function of the former Property Registry worker was to create false private purchase-sale documents that were later made public through fraudulent notarial procedures, with the participation of a notary from Algeciras, who acted as notary public in the vast majority of the protocols carried out in the actions investigated, omitting the controls that legislation requires.

The objective of the plot was to appropriate real estate properties to sell them to third parties. For the selection of properties, it is estimated that the group handled privileged information obtained illicitly from cadastral databases and the Property Registry.

Likewise, this criminal group tried to usurp other properties in the towns of Algeciras and San Roque.

In execution of the provisional measures agreed upon in the procedure carried out by the Junta de Andalucía, the 120 land segregations in the town of La Línea de la Concepción have been sealed. In the execution of these seals, carried out by the Ministry of Development, Territorial Coordination and Housing of the Junta de Andalucía, Guardia Civil from the Nature Protection Service (SEPRONA) and Agents from the Attached Police of the Junta de Andalusia, National Police and Local Police of La Línea.

The detainees are charged with the alleged crimes of criminal organisation, money laundering, fraud, document falsification, usurpation, and prevarication. Among those detained are a former Property Registry worker and a notary.