Alex Trelinski
AN ALICANTE province gang has been busted for stealing motorhomes and camper vans, which they sold on second-hand sites via social media platforms.
The Policia Nacional recovered two vehicles that had their VIN chassis numbers altered and sold to unsuspecting customers in Murcia and Gijon for a total price of €87,000.
The vans had been stolen in France and Burgos.
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Five people have been arrested in Concentaina and Benidorm of Spanish, Belgian, Greek, Bulgarian and Venezuelan nationalities- four of them with existing criminal records.
Police monitored buying and selling sites on social media and grew suspicious about motorhomes that were being put up for sale.
The gang posted 13 advertisements with different usernames to generate interest.
One of the group had a specific task of getting the vehicles re-registered and to get them through an ITV test before advertising them.
The thieves also produced bogus papers that looked genuine, fooling Spanish authorities.
