As part of a joint operation against the illegal international trade of vehicles, the Guardia Civil and the National Police have broken up a well-organised criminal group that had a lot of technical and logistical expertise. This stopped a lot of vehicles from leaving the country illegally.
The investigation started last October when a car with fake license plates was seized in Campello. This revelation led to the exposure of a well-organised criminal network that stole cars and then sold them on the worldwide market.
There was a big rise in thefts of certain car brands in the province of Alicante, so the Heritage Team of the Organic Unit of the Judicial Police of the Guardia Civil of Alicante and the Illicit Vehicle Trafficking Group of the National Police worked together on an operation.
The research found a criminal cell made up of four people from Belarus who live in the municipalities of Benidorm and Llíria. The suspects were not only good at stealing cars in the provinces of Alicante and Valencia, but they were also good at getting them back on the market outside of Spain.
The gang would first choose the cars and then put GPS tracking devices on them to keep an eye on where they went. After that, they would utilise frequency jammers to turn off the security systems and use cutting-edge electronic opening methods to get into the cars.
After being stolen, the cars were moved to remote places where they stayed for weeks to “cool off” so they would be harder to find. Then, fresh chassis numbers were stamped onto the cars, fake ID labels were put on them, and fake documents from various European countries were procured.
The last changes were made at a villa in Llíria. In the last step, the group members called drivers from other nations to drive the cars from Alicante to France, where they were sold as if they were legal.
A search was done on February 9th in an apartment in Benidorm, another in a rented storage container in Finestrat, and a third at the home in Llíria after it was verified that the suspects were involved. The Citizen Security Unit (USECIC) of the Valencia Command and the Prevention and Reaction Unit (UPR) of the Benidorm Police Station helped the officers with this operation.
A lot of things used to commit the crimes were taken during the raids and searches. These included a die-cutting machine for making chassis numbers, electronic devices for opening vehicles, fake license plates, fake vehicle paperwork, a key cloning/coding machine, geolocation devices, frequency inhibitors, a lot of key blades for opening doors, paint for changing chassis numbers, a set of fancy knives, and portable modems for vehicles.
Also, during the operation, eight stolen cars were found, and all the stuff that was in the storage area in Finestrat was taken.
The four males, who are between 40 and 50 years old and have previous convictions for similar crimes, have been charged with stealing a car, forging documents, and being a member of a criminal organisation. They were held in prison after going to court.
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