It could happen again, but it is unlikely that any of the thieves who regularly operate at El Prat de Llobregat airport would steal a handbag with a loot of 8 million euros. It happened on August 3, 2023. The expertise of the Mossos d’Esquadra meant that in three hours the thieves were arrested, and the jewels recovered. A movie heist with an all-too-happy ending for a Russian family who, unlike the vast majority of victims, didn’t even send a thank-you note.
The news went around the world several times and had an effect that turned the Prat terminals into a testing laboratory for specialized thieves who travel Europe stealing in airports for a few weeks.
Normality soon returned to the terminals, which in weeks like the last Mobile World Congress experience periods of frenetic activity that have a knock-on effect on the international criminal community. The police officers know this and, for this reason, in these moments of maximum affluence, they reinforce the devices of uniform and plainclothes that work at the airport. The Mossos have two specialized groups that operate in a highly coordinated manner in order to make things difficult for thieves.
La Vanguardia was at the airport this week closely following the work of the police from the investigation group and the ferrets (specialized in multi-recidivists). Men and women who act as civilians and skillfully camouflage themselves in crowds, rushes, queues, receptions and farewells that thousands of travelers take part in every day in corridors, car parks and terminals.
About a hundred common criminals move between suitcases and empty carts. They are not always the same. They know when the police have seen too much of them and change the scene. They prefer airports, even if they are much more confined spaces than the subway or a commercial hub, but they also know that a handbag stolen in a terminal from a newly arrived tourist will contain far more money and jewelry than a subway user’s wallet what morning to go to work “They have fewer possibilities, but more options to get more valuable loot”, acknowledges the sergeant at the head of the research group.
At the airport, cameras play a vital role in police operations. Aena has 3,500 devices, the vast majority of excellent quality, which barely leave any square meters unattended. Images that arrive in real time at the airport management center, where private security works with representatives of each of the bodies that operate at the airport: Civil Guard, National Police and Customs Surveillance, in addition to the Mossos.
In the offices of the Catalan police there are three monitors on the desk of the investigation group’s office. Live images are coming. These screens are the airport police’s best ally. To take advantage of the devices, the policeman must have a thorough prior knowledge of the space that each camera focuses on. Get to know them, memorize their identification and visualize them, one after the other, when you discover a suspect on the screen and decide to follow him through the cameras.
In this way, the officer who manages the cameras controls the entire public access area of ??the airport through the monitor. By radio or by telephone, he guides the colleagues who, on foot through the terminal, try to go unnoticed and not be discovered by the criminals during the follow-ups.
Veteran investigators identify each of the regulars by first name, last name, nationality, and even a fake name. They can already wear wigs, sunglasses or hoods, they are recognized by the way they act. “Experience perfects the methodology, but it is easy to detect a suspect in a terminal. At the airport, you come to travel, to say goodbye to someone or to wait. Any other option is suspect. When you see someone going from one end to the other, looking intently at the carts with other people’s suitcases, with no apparent direction, stop them, because they will do something”, explains one of the policemen.
A woman goes to the police stations to report. A branded handbag valued at more than 10,000 euros with money and jewelery was stolen. The victim indicates the counter where he paid and only with that information the investigating officer looks for the camera that shows him the images of the robbery. On the monitor, you can see the woman with a trolley full of suitcases and her handbag on top. An individual in a cap walks by and observes the scene. The policeman calls out his name. The suspect makes a first approach when the woman moves away from her belongings to look for an operator from the company. Something is wrong with the labeling of the bags. The thief passes by, but stays close. The policeman zooms in on the monitor to get a better view of the scene. The victim has his back to the cart for a few seconds, which the individual takes advantage of to reach out and grab the handbag. He just needs to say hello to the camera that recorded the sequence.
It is an action modeled on that of the men who took the handbag with the 8 million euros worth of jewellery, despite the fact that the thieves’ favorite scene of action is car parks.
Two police officers detail the most common modus operandi of thieves when, as if listening to them, a tourist from the Arab Emirates who had just arrived in Spain to visit Mobile falls victim to a robbery at Sixt’s facilities. The police recovers the scene on the monitors. A regular that he recognizes hangs around the offices of the car rental company. He has a cell phone in his hand with which he alerts his colleagues. Then he has already chosen the victim. The thief coordinates by phone with his colleagues, who are in a rental car that stops with the engine running and the back door open. The criminal leaves the office unhurriedly with a small suitcase and a briefcase. He gets into the car and the vehicle accelerates.
Immediately, the victim appears in the image, together with a Sixt worker, who is already calling the police. The man looks around in disbelief. He has been robbed in front of his nose and he doesn’t believe it. He is hit with reality when he discovers that, among the stolen items, in addition to the money, there is the passport with the visa that allowed him to move around Europe. He will no longer be able to pass through Amsterdam, as he had planned. Without a passport or visa, he only has two options: either get on a plane and return to his country or do the same from Madrid, after obtaining new documentation at the embassy. “Visa theft is terrible for some victims, because then they no longer have the option to continue with their plans,” explains a police officer.
Two suspects enter Terminal 1. They are young, well-dressed women, and it’s strange that they’re only a couple when they usually operate in groups of half a dozen. The policeman expels them from the terminal. It is the fifth time of the day that they have been forced to leave. It’s only two because the veteran taught the newcomer how to steal just two weeks ago. They are regular thieves in the subway, but police pressure and orders to stay away from the suburb have moved them to the airport. Well-groomed, they do not generate distrust and take advantage of the crowds on the escalators and revolving doors to steal with pushes.
You cannot finish a chronicle of security at the airport without mentioning the extraordinary collaboration between the Mossos, the National Police and the Civil Guard. In matters of foreigners, there is great coordination to activate deportation orders for repeat offenders.
