The arrest was carried out during a routine control of the trio’s car which was travelling near Ljungby in southern Sweden, Kronoberg county police spokesman Robert Loeffel told AFP.

The Romanian citizens, aged 25, 30 and 32, were wanted by Spanish police following a robbery in July at a residence in Ulldecona, Catalonia, during which one of two people in the house at the time died.

“The robbers had tied up and gagged the two people. One of them, an old woman whose age is unknown, died from being strangled or choked to death. Spanish police is treating the case as a murder,” a spokesperson for the national police board in Stockholm told AFP.

The suspects are reported to have made off with cash and jewellery.

The suspects have been taken into detention in the southern Swedish city of Vaxsjö and their case has been handed over to the Swedish authorities in charge of international crimes, Loeffel said.

The men have been arrested and the Swedish police confirmed that contact would be made with the Spanish law enforcements authorities.