A GANG that robbed parked cars at Valencia and Murcia region motorway service stations has been brought down by the Guardia Civil.

Four men aged between 35 and 45 years have been chargd with two counts of robbery with violence and intimidation, 16 robberies with force inside vehicles, forging documents and belonging to a criminal gang.

Two properties were searched in Torrevieja, with Guardia officers seizing stolen jewellery and money from different countries in addition to various items used during the robberies.

SEIZED ITMES FROM TORREVIEJA SEARCHES

Gloves, torches, knives, screwdrivers, a defensive spray, a spark plug and two golf clubs were removed while two high-end vehicles were impounded.

The Guardia Civil launched Operation Open at the start of the year after noting a significant increase in car robberies at AP-7 service areas in Alicante, Castellon, and Valencia provinces along with the Murcia region.

The gang acted in a coordinated way and chose targets along the AP-7 with robberies committed at night.

They used two rental vehicles, one for regular travel and the other allegedly used to drive to and from robbery sites, with both cars hired using bogus identities.

The Guardia Civil said the crew carried pre-robbery surveillance to check out any police presence and to choose possible cars to rob.

They then reported their findings to other gang members.

The investigation discovered that the men used fragments of spark plugs to quickly break car windows and to get inside to snatch any personal effects.

The gang also did not hesitate to assault any car owners who may have got in their way.
Click here to read more Costa Blanca News from The Olive Press.

A GROUP of Spanish businessmen has been sentenced to four years in jail after burying a million tonnes of untreated waste beneath Costa Blanca farmland.

Named as Angel Javier Fenoll Pastor, Francisco Poveda Poveda, Francisco Fenoll Perez and Javier Bru Garcia, the men were also ordered to pay fines of €6 a day for 20 months – around €3,600 each.

The Alicante Provincial Court, based in Elche, heard the huge environmental crime took place between 2005 and 2011 at a former quarry in La Murada, a district of Orihuela.

The group turned the site into an illegal landfill, accepting vast quantities of household and construction waste without the permits or treatment required by law.

Miracle of nature as up to 9,000 newborn flamingo chicks begin spectacular annual migration across Torrevieja lagoons

According to the ruling, the defendants operated the site as a highly profitable business while deliberately flouting environmental regulations.

The court also found citrus trees were planted over the waste near La Murada to disguise more than a decade of illegal dumping.

Experts warned the scale of the dumping could have long-lasting consequences for local agriculture and underground water supplies.

The case has become one of the biggest environmental crime convictions seen in the Vega Baja region in recent years.

La Murada lies inland from Orihuela and is surrounded by farmland that produces citrus fruits and other crops sold across Spain and Europe.

The sentence is not yet final and can still be appealed before Spain’s Supreme Court.
Click here to read more Environment News from The Olive Press.