The planning of a criminal group based in Roquetas de Mar and El Ejido (Almería), specializing in the theft of building materials for greenhouses and crop protection products for agriculture, was very meticulous. Its members first tested the possible targets and even visited them to check the amount of material they stockpiled and their security systems. They were later ambushed at night, even crawling on the ground to avoid surveillance sensors. They later escaped using stolen vehicles, which they filled with fuel, which they also stole from the locations where they raided. The Civil Guard arrested two of the members in July, who are being released after a trial with charges. A third member of the gang fled the country. Investigators credit them with 23 raids on agricultural suppliers in Almería, Granada, Málaga and Alicante since 2021, with loot worth 250,000 euros.
Operation Fitobesay began late last year. Several industrial buildings in the province of Almería had suffered violent robberies in which materials used to make greenhouses such as “plastics, wires or irrigation hoses”, crop protection products, tools and fuel disappeared. In all cases, these were “very expensive products”, say sources from the Organic Unit of the Judicial Police of the Guardia Civil, which carried out the investigations together with the Field Robbery Team (ROCA), the Canine Service and the Citizen Protection Command of Almería. The commissioning of a greenhouse costs “around half a million euros,” they add, underscoring the importance of the stolen goods.
2 people arrested for 23 robberies on farms in the provinces of Almería, Granada, Málaga and Alicante
They stole €250,000 worth of products and tools and captured a large portion of it, 2 vans and a truck https://t.co/dp9gkEhJTX pic.twitter.com/OipF2nueBh
– Guardia Civil 🇪🇸 (@guardiacivil) August 9, 2022
The investigation lasted several months. Agents identified assaults using similar methods in Granada, Malaga and Alicante. Surveillance cameras at some of the robbed establishments, most of them wholesalers of agricultural products or warehouses owned by companies and cooperatives in the sector, showed thieves protected with special fabrics and hoods crawling across the floor to prevent the alarms from going off , and she selected the products that could fetch the highest value on the black market.
On July 12, the Guardia Civil registered five properties in Roquetas de Mar and El Ejido. In the operation, they managed to recover “the vehicles used to commit the crimes, which were stolen, as well as 450 liters of fuel, 65 tools, some of them worth over 1,000 euros, and fifty crop protection products”. Two of the suspects were arrested. One of them was placed in preventive detention by order of the Almeria Court of Inquiry 6, although all were eventually released on charges. “The investigation is still open and new arrests, the seizure of further stolen objects and the investigation of further crimes committed by this organization are not excluded,” the sources consulted said. The third is missing, abroad.
To avoid this type of crime, the Guardia Civil recommends that agricultural supply and storage companies install “security systems” and have night surveillance services in their warehouses. It also calls for “reporting all crimes committed” and “preserving the traceability of its products from origin” to facilitate the detection of criminal gangs like the one dismantled in Almería.
What affects most is what happens next. Subscribe so you don’t miss anything.
Subscribe to