Agents of the Mossos d’Esquadra of the Investigation Unit of the Sants-Montjuïc police station have arrested a 37-year-old man in Barcelona who allegedly committed six violent robberies by chemical submission to other men. As they recounted in a statement, the arrested man had met through dating applications, on the street or in nightlife venues in the city.
The detainee, who has entered prison, is related to the crimes of theft, bank scams, robbery with violence, injuries, sexual assault and robbery with force. Investigators are looking for another man who has already been identified – and for whom a search and capture order has been issued – who would have acted with the detainee to commit the acts.
The arrested man used dating applications or made direct contact on the street or in nightclubs in the city with men with whom he began a relationship. Once his trust was gained, he would invite them to a drink where he had previously put medicine or drugs, which caused the victim to become unconscious.
The detainee took advantage of that moment to steal the house keys and enter his home to steal the valuables he found, including credit cards, money, watches, jewelry and mobile phones.
As for credit cards, he used them to make fraudulent purchases. The total value of the stolen objects is more than €33,000 and another €7,000 in fraudulent purchases. In one of the events, the investigators relate it to a sexual assault while the victim was unconscious.
So far, the Mossos d’Esquadra have investigated six complaints, five of which were registered during the months of January, February and March of this year and the sixth was reported in October of last year.
The security cameras of the home of one of the victims captured their movements. The victim along with a friend of his invited the man to his home and he showed up with a drink that both the victim and his friend drank. Both were unconscious and hours later, when they woke up, they saw that the man had taken several belongings from them. The images made it possible to identify the perpetrator of the events.
On another occasion, the victim met two men in the Jardín de las Tres Xemeneies in Barcelona and they began to talk there. They offered her a beer and when she drank it she fell unconscious on the ground and woke up hours later in a hospital. When they finished carrying out the corresponding medical tests, she went to his home and verified that they had broken into a robbery and taken valuables from both him and his roommate. Later, he verified that they had made fraudulent charges with his mobile phone.
As a result of the investigation efforts, the statements of the victims, the images captured by security cameras, among other indications, the agents identified the two men. One of them was detained on March 3 and another has a valid arrest warrant.
The agents learned that the detained man was staying at a hotel in the city. They took steps with those responsible for the hotel establishment who were emptying and cleaning the room since it had to be prepared for the next clients.
When the room staff cleared the room and collected the objects, the investigators who were there analyzed them and those of interest to the investigation intervened. These are credit cards in the name of the victims, jewelry, loudspeakers, mobile phones, watches, money and documents with different identities. A bottle of pills was also located that he allegedly used to drug his victims.
The detainee entered prison after going to court.
