They always acted with extreme violence in their home robberies, hitting the inhabitants from the start and threatening them at gunpoint to tell them where they kept their money and valuables. And they always chose as their target for these robberies businessmen of Chinese nationality who lived in luxury villas. On May 14, the Civil Guard arrested six alleged members of a criminal organization, all of them Venezuelan nationals, who are considered responsible for two of these robberies, in Bétera (Valencia) and Alhaurín de la Torre (Málaga), in which they brutally mistreated a total of four people, one of whom died days later due to the injuries suffered and his delicate state of health, according to information provided by the Armed Institute on Thursday.
Investigators link the now arrested men with other similar assaults also on Chinese citizens with high purchasing power committed in their country of origin and in the Dominican Republic. The six, who were seized with a pistol that was ready to fire and a shotgun, have been sent to provisional prison by order of the head of the Court of First Instance and Instruction number 5 of Lliria (Valencia).
The operation, dubbed Operation Brigantes, began on December 30 last year, when a businessman of Chinese nationality reported that he had been assaulted in his home in Bétera. According to him, hooded men had managed to enter the property where the home was located without being detected and assaulted him when he was in the kitchen. The thieves tied up the hands and feet of the three people who were in the house at that time with cable ties, and they also gagged them, and beat them repeatedly until they finally left the house taking cash, jewelry, electronic devices and other valuables, such as luxury brand handbags.
“The robberies lasted no more than 15 minutes and they only took what they could easily transport,” said sources close to the investigation. The robbers did not strike again until almost three months later, on March 20, more than 600 kilometres away, in the Malaga town of Alhaurín de la Torre. Then, they waited to enter the home of another businessman from the Asian country until there was only one woman inside, with whom they again used violence.
The investigation, in which agents from the Territorial Team of the Judicial Police of Lliria (Valencia) and the Central Operative Unit (UCO) participated, focused on a fingerprint found in the first house attacked. This allowed the identification of one of the alleged members of the group, an individual resident in Madrid who had a police record for other crimes. The surveillance and the control to which he was subjected allowed the rest of the group to be named. None of them had a known job or residence permit, they lived spread out across three cities – Madrid, Malaga and Almeria – and avoided interacting regularly with each other so as not to be linked. “However, about 10 days before committing an assault, they met to prepare it,” said sources close to the investigation.
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In that short period of time, the six members of the group closely monitored the victims using geolocation devices placed in their vehicles. “They observed what their routines were, whether they had security systems in their homes and, above all, when they went to their homes with significant amounts of money from their businesses,” added the sources consulted. The investigators are convinced that this was the main objective of the robberies, knowing that many businessmen of this nationality handle large amounts of cash that they keep outside the banking circuit. “They were the ideal victims,” emphasized the same sources.
Once the victim was chosen, the group went to the vicinity of the chalets in a stolen vehicle with false number plates and, after forcing open the doors that gave access to the property with sophisticated locksmith equipment, they assaulted the victims. The perpetrators tried to hide their identity using balaclavas and gloves, although in the end they were not excessively careful. The Civil Guard found the fingerprint of one of them in the first chalet assaulted and, in addition, in this one and two of his accomplices, one of the victims was able to see their faces and identified us without a doubt in his statement to the Civil Guard.
In the seven searches carried out after the arrests, the agents found part of the jewellery that had been stolen in the robbery of the businessman’s house in Alhaurín de la Torre, as well as around 10,000 euros in cash. Of the rest of the loot, which could not be quantified, there is no trace. “We suspect that the cash was quickly sent to Venezuela,” said the sources consulted.
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