SHARE
COPY LINK

POLICE

Spain smashes another fake police ring that robbed tourists

Spanish police said Wednesday they had smashed a criminal gang of Iranians and Pakistanis who preyed on tourists in Barcelona by posing as police, just days after dismantling a similar ring in Madrid.

Spain smashes another fake police ring that robbed tourists
Photo: Policia Nacional

The gang would stop tourists near hotels and Barcelona's airport and ask to see identification or perform searches and would then grab cash, watches, smartphones and other valuables and quickly flee, Catalonia's regional police force said in a statement.

The ring also stopped cars with foreign licence plates on highways near Barcelona and then robbed the occupants of the vehicles said the force, the Mossos d'Esquadra.

Police arrested eight suspected members of the ring, all Iranian and Pakistani nationals, last week in Badalona, a Barcelona suburb, and Valencia.   

The suspects – six men, a woman and a minor – are believed to have taken part in 40 robberies.

Among the loot recovered during the arrests were several luxury watches, 5,000 euros in cash and a “huge amount” of electronic devices.   

“The hoax they carried out could only be carried out on foreigners because anyone who lives here would understand they were not police officers from the way they behaved,” Mossos d'Esquadra inspector Jordi Olle told a news conference.

Catalan police said members of the criminal gang travelled across Spain and had also operated in Madrid and Valencia.   

Spain's national police said Monday they had smashed a criminal gang which preyed on tourists in Madrid in the same way, with the arrest last month of nine suspects, all Pakistani and Iranian nationals. That gang is suspected of carrying out at least 21 robberies.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

POLICE

Denmark convicts man over bomb joke at airport

A Danish court on Thursday gave a two-month suspended prison sentence to a 31-year-old Swede for making a joke about a bomb at Copenhagen's airport this summer.

Denmark convicts man over bomb joke at airport

In late July, Pontus Wiklund, a handball coach who was accompanying his team to an international competition, said when asked by an airport agent that
a bag of balls he was checking in contained a bomb.

“We think you must have realised that it is more than likely that if you say the word ‘bomb’ in response to what you have in your bag, it will be perceived as a threat,” the judge told Wiklund, according to broadcaster TV2, which was present at the hearing.

The airport terminal was temporarily evacuated, and the coach arrested. He later apologised on his club’s website.

“I completely lost my judgement for a short time and made a joke about something you really shouldn’t joke about, especially in that place,” he said in a statement.

According to the public prosecutor, the fact that Wiklund was joking, as his lawyer noted, did not constitute a mitigating circumstance.

“This is not something we regard with humour in the Danish legal system,” prosecutor Christian Brynning Petersen told the court.

SHOW COMMENTS