Alex Trelinski
THE POLICIA Nacional has arrested 20 members of a travelling pickpocket gang who set up pitch in the Valencia area after arriving from Madrid.
The street thieves were all female Bosnian nationals who travelled east to get police in the capital off their trail and tended to work in pairs to catch out tourists.
Madrid officers joined their Valencia counterparts in rounding up the gang members with the investigation still continuing.
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The Las Provincias newspaper has reported that the crew operates on an organised basis throughout Spain and switches locations regularly to mislead authorities.
They are said to share tasks in a concerted and coordinated manner under a well-established hierarchy with each member having a certain role.
Valencia is a popular haunt for international pickpockets targeting tourists.
A group of women from Bosnia and Bulgaria regularly operate in the city centre and try to camouflage themselves among the many visitors- wearing sunglasses to try to put police off their scent, who still recognise them.
Arrests are frequently made for what courts deem as petty thefts, as judges bail the culprits within hours- allowing them to return to the streets to commit more crimes.
The 20 Bosnian detainees are not part of a Bosnian-Bulgarian gang that have been working the streets for years.
In April, the pickpockets stole money from Swiss spectators watching the Women’s Cycling Tour of Spain in the city.
The thieves fled the area after police were alerted and threw away wallets and purses into the street so that any evidence could not be linked to them.
Also in April, four women were arrested after a group of Chinese tourists were robbed at a popular sight-seeing spot by the City of Arts and Sciences.
The Valencia Policia Local said they used accessories like glasses and bags as signals to communicate with each other to mislead victims.
All of the female pickpockets carried a large amount of items such as sunglasses, umbrellas, hats and scarves, which they hoped would make identification harder if police trawled through security camera videos.
