National Police have broken up a criminal group specialising in the theft of luxury vehicles across the provinces of Alicante and Murcia. The gang utilised advanced electronic equipment capable of cloning smart key signals. Four individuals were arrested during the operation and have all been remanded in custody. To date, investigators have solved the theft of four luxury cars with a combined value of more than 400,000 euro.
The six-month investigation was conducted by officers from the Illicit Vehicle Trafficking Group at the Alicante Provincial Police Station alongside Cartagena Police Station. Three searches were executed across Murcia, Orihuela Costa, and San Pedro del Pinatar, leading to the seizure of specialised tools and electronic devices worth in excess of 100,000 euro.
Police report that the gang pre-selected their target vehicles and meticulously tracked the routines of their owners. The suspects fitted tracking beacons to the selected cars to learn driving habits and daily movements, enabling them to determine the ideal moment and location to intercept electronic key signals.
This technique allowed the culprits to unlock and start the vehicles without leaving any physical damage. The devices they used were designed to capture, clone, and retransmit signals emitted by smart keys. Following the group’s arrest, officers discovered they were already preparing further thefts of high-end cars that had already been fitted with geolocation beacons.
After stealing the vehicles, the group hid them temporarily in various spots across Alicante and Murcia. The cars were subsequently moved to a secret workshop inside a garage in San Pedro del Pinatar. There, members of the organization allegedly altered primary identifying markers, including chassis numbers, licence plates, and manufacturer labels, to forge a new identity for each vehicle and facilitate export abroad.
The operation reached its climax on 22nd July when officers caught two suspects red-handed as they tampered with a car inside the clandestine workshop. The two individuals lived in Orihuela Costa, prompting a subsequent search of their residence.
Throughout the searches in Orihuela Costa and Murcia, police uncovered an extensive array of equipment used for the thefts and alterations, including a VIN stamping machine, frequency jammers, and tracking devices.
The investigation was initially launched following the theft of a luxury vehicle worth over 100,000 euro in Cartagena. Inquiries pointed to the organized group, linking them to additional car thefts along Spain’s eastern coast.
So far, police have confirmed the theft of four vehicles valued collectively at over 400,000 euro, with one vehicle already recovered and returned to its rightful owner. The four arrested men, aged between 23 and 45 and of Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian nationality, face charges of burglary, document forgery, and belonging to a criminal organisation. A judge has ordered all four men held in pretrial detention.
