The most active organization dedicated to the robbery of bank tellers using explosives falls in Spain, Romania and Belgium

He is credited with 22 attacks in Europe, seven of them against Spanish banks in the northwest of the peninsula using Ribadeo (Lugo) as a base.

MADRID, 8 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Civil Guard has participated in an operation carried out in Spain, Romania and Belgium against the "most active" organization in Europe dedicated to the robbery of ATMs using explosive devices with black powder. There are seven detainees for 22 attacks since 2019 in different European countries, seven of them in small municipalities in northwestern Spain thanks to a logistics base installed in Ribadeo (Lugo).

Among those arrested is one of the leaders of this criminal group, of Romanian origin, who had extensive experience in handling explosive substances. The band used black powder that they introduced into Spain from third countries and the last records were made two weeks ago, according to Civil Guard sources.

The Civil Guard attributes to the group seven assaults on banking entities in Spain and another 15 in Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and France, with an amount of more than one and a half million euros stolen. 18 crimes related to vehicle theft and other robberies with force in different Spanish companies, committed simultaneously with the main crimes, have also been clarified.

The organization acted in the northwest of the peninsula using itinerant operational cells, having a logistics branch in Ribadeo (Lugo). In October, in fact, sources from the Civil Guard already announced that two people had been arrested in this Galician municipality and another three in Oviedo. The agents detected that they wanted to act in Cantabrian and Asturian towns, finally setting their next objective in San Claudio (Oviedo).

In this municipality, the members of the gang were arrested after stealing a vehicle from a dealership, then moving to the selected target to, after attacking an ATM, flee the place with a loot of 48,000 euros. Those arrested from what is considered the most dangerous cell led to other arrests in Torrejón de Ardoz (Madrid), as well as in Belgium and Romania.

The investigation has found that the organization preferably chose ATMs in locations with less police surveillance and with quick access to major communication routes to facilitate their escape. The alleged criminals, moreover, frequently left the country where they had committed the robbery once it had been carried out.

Among the material intervened, for example in Torrejón de Ardoz, uniform garments of the State Security Forces and Bodies stand out, as well as covers for bulletproof vests. It has also seized very advanced beaconing technical means or IP cameras prepared to hide in undercover media.

The method used in the attacks on ATMs was known as the "Pizzero Shovel", causing serious damage to the structures of the buildings that housed the attacked branches. The amount of explosive used often caused damage to the rest of the building where the bank was housed.

The 'Operation Berthelot', in which the Central Operational Unit (UCO) has participated together with the Organic Unit of the Judicial Police of the León Command, began in Spain in 2020 after an attack with explosives on a bank branch in the municipality Leonese of Toral de los Vados, a population of less than two thousand inhabitants.

The explosive and the 'modus operandi' coincided with other similar actions in Europe, also in the use of a previously stolen vehicle to attack the bank and, subsequently, abandon it by spraying its entire interior with a fire extinguisher to prevent any identification of its authors.

The investigation in Spain has been directed by the Court of First Instance and Instruction number 6 of Ponferrada and the Prosecutor's Office of said town, and carried out by the Team Against Organized Crime (ECO-Galicia) of the UCO of the Civil Guard, the Organic Unit of the Judicial Police of León and the Technical Unit of the Judicial Police, under the coordination of EUROPOL and EUROJUST.