There was no sabotage. The theft of copper at the Montcada Bifurcació station on May 12, which left thousands of Rodalies users stranded, was allegedly carried out by a group of four people, a woman and three men, residents of Terrassa, who were arrested by the Mossos d’Esquadra, two last Wednesday the 22nd and the others the following day. This Friday, the four were placed at the disposal of the head of court 5 of Mollet del Valles, who took over the investigation after the Cerdanyola magistrate inhibited it. Lawyers from Adif, Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat and even a representative of the State Attorney’s Office have appeared at the courthouse to try to get the four into provisional prison. In their reports, the Mossos accuse them of public disorder and various crimes of havoc.
The Mossos d’Esquadra reported the arrests this Friday. The incident of May 10 was passed into the hands of the Criminal Investigation Area of ??the northern metropolitan police region, which already had several lines underway regarding other copper thefts affecting railway facilities. Police officials in the region put the robbery group to work with force but with the support of the rest of the groups in the area since the investigation became a priority.
Investigators had two groups of suspects. Some who had already been recently arrested and released and who moved around the territory with a Seat Alambra, in fact were known as those from Alambra. And another made up of three men from Terrassa, of Spanish nationality, and a Portuguese woman. All with a history of similar acts and also very active in copper theft. In fact, the four of them had around twenty criminal records.
A very important element is that among those arrested is the person in charge of a waste management company that the Mossos d’Esquadra accuses of working in connivance with thieves, from whom it bought the copper at a good price without caring about its illegal origin. . A man who already had a record of similar acts since it was common to prevent or hinder the inspections that investigators periodically carry out in this type of establishments.
The first two to fall, a man and a woman, were caught red-handed by the private security guards of the Generalitat Railways near Esparraguera. There had just been a power outage and they were intercepted. The security guards alerted the municipal police of Esparraguera, who held them until the arrival of the Mossos d’Esquadra, who already had them under their sights for the events of May 12.
The four are accused of six copper thefts in railway facilities in the Barcelona district, affecting the circulation of trains. And not only from Adif, because two of the detainees, the 52-year-old man and the 23-year-old woman, were arrested red-handed when they were stealing copper at a Generalitat Railways facility on Wednesday. The next day, Thursday, the other two suspects were arrested in Santa Perpètua de Mogoda and Sabadell.
In addition to the theft of the catenary on Sunday the 12th with the consequences that it had, they are attributed with another theft on May 1 in Mollet del Vallès and the one on the Friday before the elections in Montcada i Reixach that also left numerous train lines without service. .
The destruction of the 12th and the repercussions it had did not diminish the capacity of the group that the next day stole cable from the catenary near Olesa de Montserrat. They returned to the same section on the 18th and on the 22nd they were arrested in Esparraguera when they were carrying out the robbery at dawn.
Investigators maintain that the four make up a criminal group with established roles to commit their actions. Two of them, one of the men and the woman, were in charge of the robberies. A third party was responsible for logistics and transporting the material in one of his two vehicles to the waste center where the fourth detainee acquired the material.
Pending what the Mollet judge who received them and who has directed the investigation in recent weeks determines, the Mossos accuse them of crimes of public disorder and reckless destruction.
