It could happen again. But it is unlikely that any of the thieves who regularly operate at El Prat de Llobregat airport will steal a bag with a loot of 8 million euros. It happened last August 3. The expertise of the Mossos d'Esquadra meant that in three hours the thieves were arrested and the jewels recovered. A film robbery with a very happy ending for a Russian family who, unlike the vast majority of victims, did not even send a thank-you note.
That news went around the world several times and had a knock-on effect that for a few weeks turned the El Prat terminals into a testing laboratory for specialized thieves who travel around Europe stealing from airports.
Normality soon returned to the terminals, which in weeks like this last one of the Mobile World Congress experience periods of frenetic activity that have their knock-on effect on the international criminal community. Police officials know this and that is why at these times of maximum influx they reinforce the uniformed and plainclothes devices that work at the airport. The Mossos have two specialized groups that operate in close coordination with the aim of making things difficult for thieves.
La Vanguardia was at the airport this week closely following the work of the police from the investigation group and the fura (specialized in multiple repeat offenders). Men and women who act in civilian clothes and skillfully camouflage themselves in crowds, races, queues, greetings and farewells that thousands of travelers participate in every day in corridors, parking lots and terminals. Approximately a hundred habitual criminals move between suitcases and packed cars.
They are not always the same. They know when the police have too many eyes on them and they change scene. They prefer airports, even though they are much more limited spaces than the subway or a commercial hub. But they also know that a purse stolen in a terminal from a newly arrived tourist will contain much more money and jewelry than the wallet of a subway user who gets up early to go to work. “They have fewer possibilities, but more options to get better loot,” acknowledges the sergeant at the head of the research group.
At the airport, cameras play a vital role in the police operation. Aena has 3,500 devices, the vast majority of excellent quality, which barely leave square meters unattended. Some images that arrive in real time at the airport management center, where private security works with representatives of each of the bodies that operate at the airport: Civil Guard, National Police and Customs Surveillance, in addition to the Mossos.
In the Catalan police headquarters there are three monitors on the desk in the investigation group's office. That's where the live images go. These screens are the best ally of airport police. To take advantage of these devices, the police must have exhaustive prior knowledge of the space that each camera focuses on. Know them, memorize their identification and view them, one after another, when he discovers a suspect on the screen and decides to follow him through the cameras.
In this way, the Mosso that manages the cameras controls the entire public access space of the airport through the monitor. By radio or telephone he guides his companions who, on foot through the terminal, try to go unnoticed and not be discovered by criminals during surveillance.
The investigation veterans identify each of the regulars by their first name, surname, nationality and even their false name. They can now put on wigs, sunglasses or hoods, they are recognized by the way they act. “Experience perfects the methodology, but it is easy to detect a suspect in a terminal. You come to the airport to travel, to say goodbye or to wait. Any other option is suspicious. When you see someone going from one end to the other, carefully looking at the cars with other people's suitcases, with no apparent direction, stick to them because they will do something,” says one of the police officers.
A woman goes to the police station to report. She had a brand-name bag valued at more than 10,000 euros with money and jewelry stolen. The victim indicates the counter where she was checking in and only with that information the investigative police search without fail for the camera that shows the images of the robbery. On the monitor you can see the woman with a cart full of suitcases and her handbag on top of her. A guy with a cap walks by and cheekily observes the scene. The police officer says his name out loud. The suspect makes his first approach when the woman walks away from her belongings to look for a company operator. Something is wrong with the labeling of the suitcases. The thief passes by, but stays close. The police zoom in on the monitor to see the scene better. The victim turns her back on the car for a few seconds, which the guy takes advantage of to reach out and grab her purse. He only needs to greet the camera that recorded the sequence.
It is a performance modeled on that of the guys who took the bag with the jewels worth 8 million euros. Although the favorite setting for thieves to operate is parking lots.
Two police officers detail the most common modus operandi of thieves when at that moment, as if they were listening to them, a tourist from the Arab Emirates who had just arrived in Spain to visit Mobile is the victim of a robbery at the Sixt facilities. The police recover the scene on the monitors. A regular whom he recognizes is hanging around the car rental company's offices. He has a cell phone in his hand with which he notifies his cronies. At that moment he already has the chosen victim. The thief coordinates by phone with his cronies, who are in a rental car that stops with the engine running and a rear door open. The criminal slowly leaves the office with a small suitcase and a briefcase. He gets into the car and the vehicle accelerates.
The victim immediately appears in the image, along with a Sixt worker, who is already calling the Mossos. The man looks around in disbelief. They have robbed him all over his face and he doesn't believe it. The reality check comes when he discovers that among the stolen objects, in addition to the money, is his passport with the visa that allowed him to move around Europe. He will no longer be able to pass through Amsterdam as he had planned. Without a passport or visa he only has two options. Or get on a plane and return to your country or do the same from Madrid, after obtaining new documentation at the embassy. “Visa theft is terrible for some victims, because then they no longer have the option to continue with their plans,” says a police officer.
Two suspects enter terminal 1. They are young, well-dressed women and it is strange that there are only a couple when they usually operate in groups of half a dozen. The police expel them from the terminal. It is the fifth time today that they have been forced to leave. There are only two because the veteran is teaching the newcomer just two weeks ago how to steal. They are habitual thieves from the subway but police pressure and restraining orders from the underground have displaced them to the airport. Very well-groomed, they do not generate distrust and take advantage of the crowds on escalators and revolving doors to steal by pushing.
A chronicle of security at the airport cannot be finished without mentioning the extraordinary collaboration that exists between the Mossos, the National Police and the Civil Guard. In matters of immigration, there is great coordination to activate expulsion orders for multiple repeat offenders.
