The prosecution has requested a total of 55 years in prison for eight defendants who are accused of being members of a criminal gang that was dedicated to the robbery of ATMs that were ripped out with the assistance of crane trucks. The gang seized over 341,000 euros from banking entities in the provinces of Alicante, Murcia, Almería, Valencia, Tarragona, and Barcelona in less than a year.
All of the defendants are currently on provisional release, and several of them are represented by attorneys Aitor Esteban Gallastegui, José Manuel Alamán Aragonés, and Iván Rodríguez Lorente. They are accused of burglary, vehicle theft, and membership in a criminal organisation.
The sentences requested for each defendant, which are determined by their level of involvement in the events, vary from six years in prison for five of the five to 11, 10, and 8 years for the remaining three. The Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Guardia Civil conducted the investigation, which was presented to the courts in Cartagena, where the trial is scheduled to occur.
Playa de San Juan in Alicante and Los Montesinos were the residences of the two ringleaders of this organisation. They caused €334,583 in damages to seven of the nine institutions in addition to the cash stolen from ATMs. Consequently, the Public Prosecutor’s Office is requesting that they provide compensation for the money that was stolen and the harm caused to the bank branches and vehicles that were stolen as a result of their illegal activities.
Operation “Featherman”
In late November 2024, the Guardia Civil conducted an operation known as “Plumajero,” during which they apprehended seven individuals in Alicante, Los Montesinos, Barcelona, Tarragona, and Madrid. Initially, all were remanded in custody after appearing before a magistrate in Cartagena. Subsequently, an eighth suspect was apprehended, and none of the defendants, who are of Serbian and Albanian descent, are currently in pretrial detention. The parties involved in the case have been convened to attempt to reach a plea agreement. If no agreement is reached, a trial date will be scheduled.
The Guardia Civil estimated the loot acquired at over half a million euros and attributed a total of 19 bank robberies to this gang. Nevertheless, the Public Prosecutor’s Office has indicted the group for nine bank robberies.
The defendants, according to the Public Prosecutor’s preliminary findings, conspired to establish a network that would enable them to steal ATMs from a variety of institutions. They utilised crane trucks that had been previously stolen from construction companies or warehouses. The cash receptacles were extracted from the bank branches using a small crane that is included in these vehicles.
A series of violent incidents
Between April and November 2024, the gang was responsible for nine ATM robberies, two of which were attempted. The prosecution alleges that a leader of the criminal organisation, an Albanian man who was apprehended by the Civil Guard in Los Montesinos, was involved in each of them.
In the early hours of April 26, 2024, at a Caixabank branch in Palma de Gandía, Valencia, the prosecution identified the gang as the perpetrator of the first robbery. Using a crane truck that had been stolen previously, they shattered the bank’s window and secured two ATMs with slings, which contained a total of €91,735. The ATMs were extracted from their sockets, loaded onto the vehicle, and fled to a dirt road in Xàbia. There, they used an angle grinder to unlock the cash dispensers and fled with the entire loot.
This was the initial incident in a series of burglaries that persisted until November in municipalities throughout Murcia, Almería, Alicante, Tarragona, and Barcelona. The gang’s final heist was executed in the town of Olesa de Bonesvalls. The Guardia Civil apprehended the perpetrators the following day after they robbed an ATM containing €67,935.
Only one of the nine robberies that the defendants were accused of committing took place in the province of Alicante. It transpired in the early hours of May 21, 2024, at a Caja Rural Central branch in La Algorfa. Additionally, they employed a crane vehicle to extract an ATM that contained €65,173.
