The Mossos they have arrested in Barcelona five members of a group of repeat offenders who robbed commercial establishments who acted in a very violent manner. The investigators attribute nine violent robberies with a firearm to different jewelers and establishments from which they took money, jewelery and other objects worth more than 75,000 euros. They even threatened the victims with a real firearm that they used on four occasions, one of which they fired. against one of the victims, although they missed the shot.
The investigation began when the Mossos detected violent robberies with the same method: between three and four people approached the store in a vehicle, and while the driver stayed to ensure the escape and monitor the perimeter, the others entered the interior. Once inside they did not hesitate to beat up workers and customersdisplay a firearm and even use it by shooting at the walls or ceiling to exponentially increase the level of intimidation of the victims.
At the end of January
The distribution of tasks was also the same in all the robberies. The person who carried the weapon was the one who gave the orders, while the other perpetrator(s) were the ones who accessed the cash register and warehouses of the stores to take the material.
The investigation started at the end of January with a robbery to an establishment buying and selling gold in which the authors used violence on one of the local employees until they forced her to open the safe.
In mid-February there were four robberies on the same day, one of them attempted, in four jewelers in Barcelona. In that case, although the modus operandi was similar, the perpetrators traveled on mopeds. Later, the investigators observed that the authors were the same as in the first robbery.
In one of these robberies, one of the perpetrators brandished a firearm, pointed it at one of the people who worked in the establishmentshot with the intention of neutralizing her in his attempt to ask for help, although he finally the shot hit in a wall.
A jewelry store in Badalona
Parallel to the course of the investigation, on February 21 there was another violent robbery with a firearm in a Badalona jewelry.
DIC agents in Barcelona launched an investigation on December 31 following a violent robbery at a technology store. Those investigated agreed and threatened with a real firearm with which they shot at one of the walls of the establishment to take cash and computer equipment.
The different procedures carried out made it possible to identify two of the people who committed the robbery, and from there they obtained sufficient evidence to link them to two other events: one to another technology store, where they exhibited the semi-automatic pistol again, and the other in a food establishment.
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Prior to the robberies, the members of the group stole two medium-high range vehicles hours before the commission of the act, with the intention of hindering police action. Once the robbery was carried out, they fled and abandoned this means of escape in other towns.
The coordination between the central and regional investigation units and the investigative units of the affected police stations made it possible to detect the group’s action, and the coincidences between the perpetrators in all the facts investigated. Thus, they were able to identify five of its members and obtain sufficient evidence to attribute the authorship of seven violent robberies in Barcelona, one in Cerdanyola and another in Badalona.