A gang of alms thieves falls in town churches

In Madrid, the Civil Guard has arrested seven people from a gang of alms thieves in town churches, who have dealt at least 21 blows, mostly at night, in as many temples in the municipalities of Salamanca, Toledo and Madrid. The network traveled in rental cars to unpopulated or sparsely populated areas to enter churches, causing great damage, to take money from the brush and other donations, generally jewelry given to charity by parishioners. Thefts from temples in uninhabited Spain have become a kind of criminal trend. Last year, for example, a Cantabrian couple was arrested who stole mites from 93 churches in Cantabria, Asturias and Palencia and the following month temples in Alicante and Murcia suffered a wave of robberies. Those now detained had 77 kilos of marijuana in their possession when they were arrested.

The action of the Salamanca Civil Guard began last March 2023, following the report of several robberies in churches in seven towns in the province of Salamanca. The system was always the same, since the perpetrators accessed the churches without fear of causing significant damage to the building or religious heritage. Afterwards, they searched the brushes and the sacristies and took the money accumulated there, a total of 20,000 euros in the seven cases analyzed by the Salamancan investigators. The agents' investigations confirmed that the organization was based in Madrid, according to a note from the Civil Guard. Once located, it was found that the criminal group, made up of six men and one woman, traveled to the places they were interested in aboard rental cars to try to mislead the authorities.

The seven detainees stayed in hostels near the municipalities where they carried out the robberies and, after obtaining the loot, went back to their place of residence. The seven were arrested in the Madrid neighborhood of Villaverde and during the searches 77 kilos of marijuana, a large quantity of tools, numerous jewelry, knives, simulated short weapons, two long detonating weapons manipulated to light fire and a hand-made weapon were seized. with the capacity to carry out live fire of 22 millimeter caliber along with 29 cartridges.” The operation has been carried out by members of the Organic Unit of the Judicial Police of the Civil Guard of Salamanca and had support from the Citizen Security Unit of Madrid.

The criminals were between 18 and 54 years old and have been accused of crimes of robbery with force, robbery inside vehicles, trafficking of narcotic substances, illicit possession of weapons and membership in a criminal group. In addition to the seven attacks in the province of Salamanca, they are attributed with their participation in a total of 14 criminal acts committed in the provinces of Madrid and Toledo in addition to the robberies in the Salamanca towns. The investigation remains open in case it could clarify more robberies of these characteristics in churches in sparsely inhabited municipalities, where many times there are neither adequate security measures nor the presence of witnesses to prevent these illegal actions.