Alex Trelinski
THE Guardia Civil implemented a co-ordinated swoop on Tuesday to bring down a gang behind over 50 service station and shop robberies in Murcia’s Campo de Cartagena area.
Officers visited around 20 addresses in the Torre Pacheco municipality with a dozen arrests said to have been carried out.
No official statement has been issued by the Guardia Civil.
Over a hundred specialist Guardia officers from Andalucia, Valencia, and Zaragoza joined Murcia-based colleagues for the special operation which also deployed a helicopter.
Raids started at Roldan addresses before officers moved to Lo Ferro.
Torre Pacheco mayor, Antonio Leon, said: “We are grateful to the Guardia Civil who have developed the operation for weeks in great secrecy to find this gang that has done so much damage to our municipality.”
Authorities have been trying to locate the robbers since the start of the year.
The armed criminals did not hesitate in resorting to violence if victims stood in their way, with a number receiving beatings.
Over 50 businesses have been plundered by the gang in the Cartagena, San Javier, Torre Pacheco, and Fuente Alamo municipalities.
Tuesday’s timing of the Guardia raids may have been prompted by three gambling saloons being robbed in the early hours with a San Javier employee getting assaulted.
