This Alicante National Police culminated with 15 arrests and seventeen cars were recovered, an investigation that took more than two and a half years and made it possible to dismantle one carInternational ed dedicated to the illegal traffic of high-end vehicles. thieves specialized He had modern devices for car theft and cloning keys to unlock vehicles and start them.
gang of citizens from various Eastern European countries, stole people’s cars and also confiscated rental, leasing and temporary rental cars. Most of the stolen cars were sold in other European countries, mainly in France. Arrests were made in Alicante, Elche, Torrevieja, San Vicente, Madrid and La Vila Joiosa. One of those arrested in Alicante is a Latvian national with a valid European arrest warrant issued by his country’s authorities for vehicle theft.
Investigators from the Illegal Vehicle Smuggling Group of the Alicante Provincial Judicial Police Brigade have proven that the dispersed network also provides “rental” vehicles to people involved in drug trafficking, while confirming that the cars belong to rental companies.
Theft in La Vila Joiosa
The operation began in July 2020 when Police recovered a high-end vehicle in Alicante that was reported stolen a month ago. Public parking lot of La Vila Joiosa, where they stole a second tourism with similar characteristics.
Investigations into these robberies uncovered the existence of a highly specialized criminal network with extremely valuable and hard-to-obtain technical means to steal cars. Likewise, they identified their connection to international vehicle traffic and identified a flow of vehicles that placed Spain not only as a point of departure but also as a destination. In this sense, vehicles from countries France, Estonia, Italy or the United Kingdom He was found throughout the investigation in Spain.
Alicante Police experts confirmed that in addition to stealing the individuals’ cars, those investigated also confiscated the vehicles “through other criminal methods”. hire, short-term rental and release of leasing vehicles with title deed outside Spain”.
In the case of cars stolen from individuals, their destination is their fragmented view and selling on the black market or altering its identifying elements – what is known as “make-up” – and registering these with false documents for later sale outside of Spain, especially in France.
The second of the ways used was the misuse of vehicles from non-paying rental, leasing and temporary rental contracts. This included fraud against the affected owner or financial company, followed by registration in a third country through forged documents.
Members of the network have always acted in a meticulous and coordinated manner. The stolen vehicles were not randomly selected, they were carefully selected. They also use geolocation devices (beacons) Perfectly scrutinized to learn about the owner’s routines and the time of theft. They then took advantage of certain tools and devices that allowed both. blocks alarm signals such as opening the vehicle. Once inside, they cloned the key thanks to advanced electronics. According to the police, “Although the organization has stolen vehicles of different brands that demonstrate the high technology of its members, it is noteworthy that each car brand needs special devices to unlock and clone the key.”
key cloning
Once the key was cloned, the vehicle was stolen within seconds and left to “cool down” before being brought into workshops or underground garages, meaning it was left on public roads for several days. They didn’t carry any un-removed devices that allowed the owner or the Police to find them.
From then on he was transported to a safe place where he was “made up”. They suppressed their defining element – mainly record, framework and documents– and they created new ones to give the car another identity. Finally, after the vehicle was “folded” and documented, it was put back into circulation so that it could be put up for sale and made available to real buyers unaware of its illegal origin.
The first two phases were carried out between 2020-2021. hire He arrested two people while retaining his title. In this sense, they have identified a company that is used to obtain registered and proprietary vehicles. fraudulently taken to France.
The second was aimed at the traffic of rental cars and ended with the arrest of five people. They signed a contract with the same company, which was identified a few months ago, by leasing the vehicles, which were again registered and fraudulently transported to France.
The third and final operational phase, which took place last December, focused on stolen vehicle traffic. After the agents determine their hiding place and the “make-up” of the vehicles Eight more people were arrested and conducted several searches at a farm in the district of Elche. La Marina, Alicante, Torrevieja, San Vicente and La Vila Joiosa and a large number of parts and documents related to stolen vehicles and other passenger cars were involved. Likewise, they confiscated items such as transmission equipment used to steal cars, GPS locators, or devices for unlocking and cloning vehicle keys.
profits
The investigation revealed that all connections in the network are making huge profits from the sale of vehicles. Likewise, through the illegal sale of cars, some bought other vehicles from abroad and sold them after they were registered in Spain. In this way, they laundered the money they obtained illegally.
Not excluding new arrests, the police arrested 15 people on charges of membership in a criminal organization, embezzlement, document tampering and vehicle theft. They also collected evidence of vehicle theft from 2019 until last November, when the last theft investigated took place.
Likewise, 17 vehicles, a large number of documents belonging to other cars, tools and documents used in theft, theft and falsification, keys and 6,500 euros in cash were interfered with. At the same time, vehicles were recovered in other European countries, in particular. France -where part of the organization is based-, so the French authorities arrests and confiscated vehicles of Spanish origin.