The Mossos d'Esquadra have dismantled a criminal group specialized in the theft of truck loads that were parked in service areas on the AP-7, especially in the Girona and northern Barcelona areas, with the arrest of four of its seven members . The detainees resided in Badalona and Santa Coloma de Gramenet (Barcelonès Nord)
As reported this Thursday by the Generalitat police, the detainees are related to eight thefts of truck loads and six thefts of vehicles and are accused of belonging to a criminal group. In a period of about seven months, the group would have stolen products valued at more than 120,000 euros.
The thieves acted at night, taking advantage of the fact that the truckers parked the vehicle to sleep and, in half of the cases, used violence and intimidation to secure the robbery, to the point that one of them threatened the drivers with a firearm.
After arresting four members of the group, the Mossos have recovered six stolen vans and have located and dismantled two warehouses that they used in the first logistics phase to introduce the stolen products on the black market. To do this, the Mossos made entries and searches in three of the homes of the detainees, in the Barcelona towns of Badalona and Santa Coloma de Gramenet.
In the houses, they located some of the stolen goods and some 11,000 euros of cash, in addition to seizing tools to commit this type of robbery -cutters, gloves, defense sprays, an electric defense and a simulated firearm-, as well as electronic devices to commit van thefts of various brands.
At the end of August 2022, the Mossos located a warehouse located in the town of Mataró (Maresme), where large-volume vans that were all listed as stolen unloaded products stolen from the trucks on a regular basis.
This fact prompted the start of the investigation efforts and the investigators were able to determine that this was one of the warehouses used by the criminal group that was carrying out robberies in the service areas of the AP-7 motorway, in the Gerona area. and north of Barcelona. After committing the robberies, the gang transported the merchandise from the service areas to one of the clandestine warehouses that the group had in Mataró and Vilamalla (Girona).
Among the stolen products are computer equipment, medicines, household appliances, technology or brand clothing, among others. The investigation is still open and the arrests of the other members of the criminal group in the coming days are not ruled out.
