Alex Trelinski
HI-TECH thieves used a drone to track people carrying large amounts of money on the streets of Alicante province.
The five men are accused of 22 crimes- mainly in the region- but also in Almeria, Murcia, the Balearic Islands, and Tarragona.
The Guardia Civil say they stole over €122,000- over half of which was €63,000 from a single victim.
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The gang continually changed addresses, rental cars, and used false or stolen identity documents.
They and the drone would monitor potential targets who may have made large bank or business withdrawals.
The men then stole the cash either through a straight-forward snatch or by creating a distraction like puncturing the tyres of a victim’s car.
The crew operated in Torrevieja, San Miguel de Salinas, El Campello and San Pedro del Pinatar.
Two properties in San Miguel, two in San Pedro, and one on the Orihuela Costa were searched by the police.
The raids yielded €1,584 in cash, a drone, 12 sunglasses, clothes and accessories that they used to hide their identity, a smoke canister, special tools for breaking vehicle windows and for puncturing tyres, binoculars, a torch, two laptops valued at €2,400 and a walkie-talkie transmitter.
The detainees, who were bailed by a Torrevieja court, have been charged with robbery with violence, robbery with force, fraud, damage, document forgery, and belonging to a criminal group.
