The criminal group behind a series of ram-raid robberies has been dismantled, including the raid on the supermarket El Jamón de Sabinillas on 4 September and the one at Joyería Cleto at the end of July.
In a joint operation, the Guardia Civil and the National Police have dismantled a criminal group dedicated to committing robberies by ramming vehicles into commercial premises in Málaga and Cádiz. Three people have been arrested as alleged perpetrators of more than twenty robberies involving force.
In a joint investigation, officers from the Guardia Civil and the National Police carried out the so-called «Smoon-Yellow-Moon» operation, which dismantled a violent criminal group dedicated to committing robberies by ramming vehicles into numerous commercial premises in towns in the provinces of Málaga and Cádiz.
The group, made up of four people and based in the province of Málaga, would first steal the vehicles they then used to carry out the robberies at the premises.
The investigation began at the end of July 2023 after a robbery with force, carried out by ramming a vehicle into the premises, took place in Estepona at a shop buying and selling electronic goods, and also at a jewellery shop in the town centre of San Luis de Sabinillas, in Manilva (Málaga), where jewellery worth €15,285 was stolen.
The vehicle used in the ram raid was stolen hours before the robbery in the same town and was later abandoned at the scene. The Judicial Police Unit of the Guardia Civil Command in Málaga took over the investigation, analysing the data obtained in an exhaustive inspection of the scene. Meanwhile, the UDEV PATRIMONIO Group of the Local Judicial Police Brigade in Estepona, following enquiries, managed to identify the getaway vehicle used in the Estepona robbery, which was used by one of the members of the criminal group.
However, further robberies with the same modus operandi followed during August and September in San Pedro de Alcántara, Ronda, Nuevo Guadiaro, Jerez de la Frontera and Palomares, so all the Guardia Civil and National Police investigation units affected in the provinces of Málaga and Cádiz joined forces to identify those responsible.
All the robberies took place at weekends, coinciding with the prison leave of one of those arrested, who took advantage of his open-regime (third grade) status to commit further offences.
One of these robberies was the one on 4 September at the supermarket El Jamón de San Luis de Sabinillas, which was foiled by patrols that had been alerted, forcing the criminals to flee the scene in haste.
As on other occasions, they first stole a vehicle, which they used to travel, to carry out prior surveillance of their target and which they would then ram into the premises.
This criminal group is believed to have committed 22 offences: 12 ram raids on commercial premises and 10 vehicle thefts in barely four months.
Collaboration and coordination between the two police forces, and the information obtained during the investigation, led officers to identify the members of the criminal group, and a series of operations were set up to arrest them. Arrests Finally, after a large police operation, one member of this criminal group was arrested on 18 August while committing one of the robberies under investigation, at a supermarket in Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz).
Two others were arrested on 6 October while carrying out another robbery at premises in San Pedro de Alcántara (Málaga), and a fourth person is under investigation.
The arrests were made in the act, after the criminal group carried out ram raids in both towns. The three detainees, all Spanish nationals aged between 22 and 32, were brought before a judge for the alleged offences of robbery with force, vehicle theft and membership of a criminal organisation, and were remanded in custody.
