The Police are looking for the individual who robbed a Chinese bazaar in Ronda de La Unión, where there was an armed robbery in December, and are investigating the robbery at knifepoint in a Capitanes Ripoll bakery
Two new violent robberies in businesses in the city of Cartagena have put the security forces on alert and have revived the fear and indignation of residents and businessmen, particularly in the neighborhoods of Sector Estación, Las Seiscientas and San Ginés.
Since Saturday, agents of the Local Police and the National Police have been looking for a middle-aged man as the alleged perpetrator of the robbery in a Chinese bazaar on Ronda Ciudad de La Unión avenue. The video surveillance cameras captured his image on the street, with his face uncovered and wearing a sweatshirt. According to police sources, the assault took place around ten o’clock at night and “it is very likely that due to the clothing it corresponds to other robberies of the same type.”
This establishment already suffered a robbery on December 21, in that case by three individuals, two of whom broke in with guns. The thieves were barely able to take any money, thanks to the resistance put up by the shop assistant, a citizen of Chinese origin. The video of the robbery, where the woman snatches the cash register from the criminals at the last moment and goes outside asking the Police for help, overcoming the scare and death threats, went viral on internet social networks.
Also last weekend, specifically on Friday, there was again a robbery on Capitanes Ripoll Avenue, located on the same communications axis of the city. An individual entered a bakery and took out a knife, with which he intimidated the owner. He managed to get hold of an amount that has not transpired and fled.
The establishment is located a few meters from the Chinese bazaar and grocery store where on Sunday, January 9, two men tried to get hold of the money, after threatening the shopkeeper with a pistol at eleven o’clock at night. The clerk’s husband foiled the robbery by leaving the store with a knife and a stick and chasing away the robbers.
A few hours later, the National Police arrested a 37-year-old man as the alleged perpetrator of four robberies with violence and intimidation perpetrated in less than 24 hours in different businesses in Cartagena. The duty judge sent him to prison for his alleged participation in the assaults on the Repsol gas station located next to the Mandarache shopping center, in the connection between Ronda de La Unión and Plaza Severo Ochoa, four hours before the robbery in the bazaar.
The agents confirmed their links to the robbery in a food store and a hotel in the Cabezo Beaza industrial estate, also after showing a firearm. They also blamed the bag pull on a 78-year-old woman. At the time of the arrest, he was carrying a simulated pistol and, under his jacket, the old woman’s bag and 600 euros.
Before the new robbery in Capitanes Ripoll, the president of the Association of Neighbors of the Station Sector, Fulgencio Sánchez, once again demanded an urgent increase in the police presence in the neighborhood. «There are already four robberies since the end of last year. The neighbors are afraid and, in the end, if the situation continues like this, the shops will have to close, “Sánchez warned in statements to LA VERDAD.
They urge the neighborhood agents to take off
It so happens that, as this newspaper reported yesterday, the Department of Citizen Security has prepared a deployment of local neighborhood police officers in this area of the city and in Los Dolores. The goal is to deter criminals and increase the sense of citizen security. Since September, pairs of motorcyclists have been patrolling the Ensanche, the Virgen de la Caridad neighborhood, Torreciega, Barrio Peral, José María Lapuerta, San Félix and Cuatro Santos.
However, the Federation of Neighborhood Associations of Cartagena and Comarca, chaired by Leandro Sánchez, has also demanded a reinforcement of security in areas such as the historic center and Santa Lucía, due to vehicle thefts and various acts of vandalism.
Demand more civil guards in rural areas
The Federation has also demanded from the Government Delegation that there be more Civil Guard agents in rural areas, to avoid waves of robberies in homes, shops and other properties in the northern part of the municipality and in the Mar Menor sector. Among the ‘black spots’ are La Aljorra, Pozo Estrecho, El Albujón, Los Urrutias and Los Nietos.
The Ministry of the Interior, led by Fernando Grande-Marlaska, has assured the Neighborhood Federation in writing that it is studying a historic claim from residents and professional associations of agents such as AUGC: to modify the territorial demarcation of the Benemérita. For years, residents have been asking the National Police to take charge of areas near the city, such as Santa Ana, Molinos Marfagones and the Cabezo Beaza industrial estate, and to reinforce the staff of the El Albujón and Fuente Álamo barracks. They explain that they are forced to cover a large area of territory with an “insufficient” number of troops.
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