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Spanish police arrest airport staff over theft of passengers’ valuables

Spanish police said Friday they have arrested 14 workers at the main airport on the Canary island of Tenerife on suspicion of stealing €2 million worth of watches, laptops and other valuables from checked-in luggage.

Published: 15 December 2023 16:46 CET

tenerife airport theft

Tenerife South airport handled 10.8 million passengers last year, making it Spain's seventh busiest airport, according to state-controlled airport operator Aena.(Photo by DESIREE MARTIN / AFP)

Officers seized items worth nearly €2 million ($2.2 million) which they suspect were stolen by employees of Tenerife South airport, including 29 luxury watches, 22 high-end smartphones and 120 pieces of jewellery, as part of their operation, police said in a statement.

Police believe the 14 arrested suspects sold many other stolen items either to local stores or online.

Another 20 employees of the airport are under investigation as well as 27 jewellery shops in Tenerife, one of the seven islands which make up Spain’s Canary Islands.

#OperacionesGC I Detenidos varios trabajadores del aeropuerto #Tenerife Sur por #robar en las maletas de los pasajeros

▶️14 detenidos
▶️20 investigados
▶️Valor de efectos recuperados 2M€https://t.co/bPGRlhBPQ2 pic.twitter.com/Na7ol4Hki6

— Guardia Civil (@guardiacivil) December 15, 2023

Police said they began their investigation after getting a rise in complaints from passengers about thefts from their checked bags.

The authorities believe the thefts happened as baggage were placed in the hold of aircraft, with the suspects forcing open the suitcases and removing valuables when they were out of sight of passengers and other employees.

“They hide the stolen items in pockets they sewed on their clothes or their own personal lockers,” the police statement said.

The suspects face charges of membership in a criminal group, robbery by force and money laundering.

Tenerife South airport handled 10.8 million passengers last year, making it Spain’s seventh busiest airport, according to state-controlled airport operator Aena.

Tenerife, the largest and most populous of the Canary Islands, has another airport in the north. The island is popular with northern European sunseekers.

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New 6-hour Madrid-Lisbon train to launch in 2027

In the meantime, while it’s waiting to be finished, a new service taking six hours, rather than the current nine, has been proposed to begin in 2027.

The news was announced by the Portuguese government this Tuesday when discussing the construction of a new airport. Portuguese authorities mentioned that a highspeed Madrid to Lisbon connection would be ready within the next decade.

The main reason that this will now be possible is the construction of a third bridge over the Tagus River.

Currently, there is no direct route between the two cities, a situation that hasn’t changed since the early days of the pandemic in 2020 when Spain’s Renfe decided to get rid of the sleeper train between Madrid and Lisbon.

That means that you now need to change trains at least twice if not three or four times. The fastest train takes around nine hours and of these, there are around three per day.

The main objective of the new high-speed line to is cut this journey down to three hours.

While the works for the creation of this route are completed, both governments are working on a line that will be completed in sections allowing the journey time to be cut down to six hours by 2027.

READ ALSO: Why are there so few trains between Spain and Portugal?

Spain has already built 150 kilometres of track between Plasencia, Cáceres and Aragón. According to the Secretary of Transport and Sustainable Mobility José Antonio Santano, they are in talks with the local government of Castilla-La Mancha to create another part of the route.

“We are going to get there sooner,” the minister stated, referring to the fact that he believes the works will be completed in 2030. Santano added that the “pending parts” of the route are being analysed.

The Portuguese government, on the other hand, has already started on the construction of one of these sections from Évora to Elvas, which could be operational by next year.

Not all is as it seems

Unfortunately, not everything has been going according to plan and there have been several teething problems.

Not only that, the matter of poor Spain-Portugal rail connections is in fact a long-running political saga, which began 24 years ago.

In 2000, the governments of both Spain and Portugal began to talk about the possibility of linking their capitals via the high-speed AVE trains. But at the beginning of 2023, each country was still disagreeing on where the line should run.

The Ministry of Transport of Spain said the line would pass through Extremadura, while the Portuguese government wanted it to go via Galicia en route to Porto and then down to Lisbon from there.

Could Spain and Portugal have finally put their problems behind them to work together?

The new routes also plan to connect several other cities, including the journey between Porto and Vigo, which will take 50 minutes and between Porto and Lisbon, which will take one hour and a quarter.

Thanks to this alternative, the 40 daily flights between Lisbon and Madrid and twenty between Porto and the Portuguese capital could be reduced.

“The investment schedules will be compatible with Spain, to guarantee a coordinated and timely execution of the project, fully optimising the availability of European financing,” said a statement from the Portuguese government.

Although Spain has already completed its sections of the line in time, Portugal will take another few years to make it fully operational, taking us up to 2027 when the faster route between the capitals will finally be possible.

In late 2023, Spain’s junior coalition partner Sumar called for the return of the sleeper train that once connected Madrid with Lisbon (before it was halted during the Covid-19 pandemic). As of yet, there has been no mention if this will happen, but when the new sections of the track are complete, it may be possible that it might return.

It remains to be seen whether the ultimate objective of a three-hour connection between Madrid and Lisbon will be ready by 2034.

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