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CRIME

Spain arrests 10 for robbing Ukrainian refugees

Spanish police said Friday they arrested a criminal gang that targeted the homes of refugees who had fled the war in Ukraine and stole items worth more than €1 million.

Published: 4 March 2023 11:21 CET
Spain arrests 10 for robbing Ukrainian refugees
Photo: JAVIER SORIANO/AFP

The 10 suspects “had specialised in this type of victim since they usually bring all their savings and valuables”, Spain’s Guardia Civil police force said in a statement.

They are believed to have broken into seven homes of Ukrainian refugees in the eastern provinces of Alicante and Murcia on Spain’s Mediterranean coast, the statement added.

Police said they had recovered stolen goods and cash worth €1.25 million ($1.32 million), including a stamp collection valued at around half a million euros, jewellery and computers.

The gang is suspected of using trackers placed on victims’ vehicles to “study their routines” and determine when they were not at home.

Police said they had arrested seven Ukrainians and three Russians as part of the investigation and did not rule out uncovering more victims and making more arrests.

Spain has welcomed 160,000 Ukrainian refugees, who have been granted temporary status protection after fleeing their war-torn country.

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CRIME

Spain seizes 1.8 tonnes of Sinaloa Cartel’s crystal meth

Spanish police said Thursday they had seized 1,800 kilos of crystal meth that Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel was trying to sell in Europe, the country's "biggest-ever seizure" of the narcotic.

Published: 16 May 2024 17:07 CEST
Spain seizes 1.8 tonnes of Sinaloa Cartel's crystal meth

Police arrested five people during the raid in the eastern Alicante province, one of them a Mexican running the cartel’s Spanish operation, a statement said.

“This is the biggest-ever seizure of crystal meth in Spain and the second largest in Europe,” Antonio Martinez Duarte, head of the police’s drug trafficking and organised crime unit, told reporters.

“Among those arrested is a Mexican citizen linked to the Sinaloa Cartel,” he added.

READ ALSO: What are the penalties for drug possession in Spain?

He did not give his name but indicated the suspect was responsible for receiving the narcotics in Spain then distributing them within Europe.

The Sinaloa Cartel is one of Mexico’s oldest, largest and most violent criminal groups whose influence remains strong despite the arrest of its founder Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman and his son.

Both have been extradited to and jailed in the United States.

During the operation, police also detained three Spaniards and a Romanian, seizing five cars, documents, a weapon and cash.

But police believe it was a one-off trafficking operation and that “Mexican organisations are not permanently based” in Spain, Martinez Duarte said.

“These organisations send a trusted person who carries out the operation in line with their interests” and once that is over, he goes back home, he explained.

The seized narcotics had been due to be shipped to central Europe.

Although Spain is one of the main drug gateways to Europe, seizures of synthetic narcotics are uncommon as most traffickers usually deal in cannabis and cocaine.

READ ALSO: Why is Spain’s Europe’s cocaine gateway?

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