Alex Trelinski
11 PEOPLE have been arrested on the Costa Blanca after over €1 million of clothes were stolen from the Inditex fashion group and sold off at bargain prices to markets and a warehouse.
Seven of those detained by the Policia Nacional were on theft and misappropriation charges.
They included transport company workers who delivered items from a logistics centre used by Inditex.
Four people were arrested for handling stolen goods, with the police saying 83,900 clothes under the Zara and Lefties brands had been pilfered over six months.
Stores that never saw their consignments were within shopping centres based in Alicante, Elche, Petrer, the Orihuela Costa, Murcia, Lorca, Cartagena and San Pedro del Pinatar.
Inditex complained to the police after a former freight transport employee from a logistics centre at El Bacarot in Alicante blew the whistle on what was going on.
Police confirmed that goods from El Bacarot eventually ended up on market stalls in Alicante, San Juan, and Elche.
Investigations found that some traders bought the stolen clothes from a warehouse at Sueca(Valencia).
The side-hustle at El Bacarot saw drivers loading the goods onto trucks but instead of delivering them to stores, they ended up elsewhere- including the warehouse.
Police seized over 1,800 items of clothing from the Sueca facility.
