On February 22, the Mossos d’Esquadra arrested five men between 20 and 28 years old who were part of a group specialized in theft of copper wiring in companies in Pla d’Urgell and Les Garrigues (Lleida). They are accused of two crimes of robbery with force and membership in a criminal group.
The first robbery occurred on December 16 in Bellvís, where copper wiring was stolen from a company, which had to stop its activity as a result of the damage suffered. The second was in the early morning of February 21 in a company in Juneda
The thieves were arrested in Esparreguera (Barcelona), where they had sold 500 kilos of copper cable at a recycling point.
In Bellvís, the thieves cut off the electricity supply and after bursting the pipes and manholes through which the wiring passed, they ripped it out with the help of an excavator that they found in the same premises. They then cut up and stripped the wiring in a nearby lot, to take it to sell. The company estimated that the damage caused would exceed 400,000 euros.
Based on these events, an investigation was opened that allowed the identification of four people, whose whereabouts were unknown but there were indications that they resided in the metropolitan area of ??Madrid and moved throughout the state to commit robberies of this type.
In the Juneda robbery, in the early hours of February 21, the modus operandi was similar and they also stole abundant copper wiring that they cut up and stripped in the same area.
Upon learning of this case, and suspecting that the thieves would try to sell the copper before returning to Madrid, the investigators activated a police alert with the data obtained during the first assessment of the theft.
Around nine in the morning the next day, a local police patrol in Esparraguera reported that it had detected a vehicle occupied by five men on a street in the town that matched the description of the suspects. The thieves had already sold the wiring they had stolen the night before and had just deposited the money into a bank in Esparraguera.
Investigators discovered shortly after that the detainees had sold more than 500 kilos of clean copper cable at a collection center in the municipality.
The investigation remains open and it is not ruled out that those arrested will be investigated for other copper thefts in Catalonia.
The five detainees were brought before the court of Martorell on Saturday.