Suspects arrested for stealing almost €50,000 in Mazarrón and Orihuela

Victims were followed after taking money out of banks

Guardia Civil in the Region of Murcia have arrested three alleged members of a gang of thieves from Chile known as “Los Fantasmas” (the ghosts), which has already been broken up by police once before in 2018.

So far they are suspected of stealing cash and goods worth about €55,000 in the provinces of Murcia, Alicante and Almería.

The investigation started in December last year, when a resident of Mazarrón reported that €12,000 had been stolen from his car.

He said he had just taken the money out of a cash machine in Puerto de Mazarrón and left it in his car while he went to visit a friend when his vehicle was broken into.

The Guardia Civil checked security cameras and saw a person in the bank looking “lost but alert”, who picked out the victim.

Other gang members followed the target and waited until he had parked his vehicle and left before they forced it open and took the money.

Enquiries enabled some of these men to be identified as experienced criminals linked to thefts in various provinces around the east coast of Spain.

Two of them were based in Los Alcázares and Murcia city, so officers set out to find and arrest them.

In Los Alcázares, officers saw a rented vehicle occupied by several people arrive at a possible meeting point.

Two people were arrested, one of them for his alleged involvement in the theft of €35,000 in Orihuela, from a victim who had just taken the money out of a bank.

Another man was arrested in Murcia, and officers searching his vehicle found clothing, gloves and tools that had allegedly been used to commit the thefts.

The investigation found evidence indicating that the gang used wireless communication devices, rented vehicles, stayed in holiday homes and went under false identities.

So far, the suspects are accused of two thefts with forced entry in Mazarrón, one of which was foiled at a business and the other was the €12,000; another was a burglary at a business in Albox (Almería), where motorcycling accessories worth over €7,000 were stolen; another break-in at a business in Huercal Overa (Almería); and the theft of €35,000 in Orihuela.

The three men, aged 36, 37 and 61, are also accused of falsifying documentation and belonging to a criminal organisation, but the investigation remains open and more arrests have not been ruled out.

Images: Guardia Civil