The National Police and the Civil Guard, in the framework of the operation ‘Kanji-Palas’, have developed a joint investigation that has resulted in the arrest of seven people, two of them minors, for allegedly forming part of an experienced criminal group dedicated to committing robberies and robberies in shops in Cartagena, reported sources of the Government Delegation in the Region in a statement.
Specifically, they have been arrested as alleged perpetrators of three crimes of robbery with violence and intimidation and membership of a criminal group.
The investigation began last November, when both police forces detected the involvement of common targets in several robberies carried out in their respective police districts.
Once the joint team between the Benemérita and the National Police was created, and the first actions were initiated, both in the places where the robberies had been committed, and through the exchange of information, the agents confirmed their hierarchical structure, the relationship between their members and their ‘modus operandi’, as the criminal group directed their criminal actions to all types of shops, previously selecting their targets and having prior knowledge of the environment.
The investigation revealed that it was a group of young people who met prior to committing the crimes, with the ringleader deciding on the location where the crime would be committed.
They travelled to the designated location in a vehicle and carried out a reconnaissance of the area on the spot to ensure the appropriateness of the robbery and to establish the escape route in the vehicle parked nearby with a driver waiting inside.
MINORS
Once the premises had been selected and it was verified that there were no customers inside, the robberies were carried out by up to three people, who, hooded and using knives and firearms, violently attacked the shop manager, with the clear intention of intimidating him and stealing the existing takings in the shortest possible time.
On some occasions, only minors were used to carry out the robberies, while the adults carried out distraction, surveillance, support or waiting in the vehicle in which they would later flee the place.
The evidence obtained by the investigators bore fruit until each member of the criminal group was identified one by one, ascertaining their homes and places of work or, in the case of the minors, their places of study, determining with precision the degree of participation of each one of them in the different criminal acts.
Operation ‘Kanji-Palas’ has culminated in the dismantling of an experienced criminal group, whose seven members have been arrested as alleged perpetrators of the crimes of robbery with violence and intimidation and membership of a criminal group.
FOUR DETAINEES SENT TO PRISON
The seven arrested, the effects recovered and the proceedings have been placed at the disposal of the Magistrate’s Court of Cartagena and the Murcia Juvenile Prosecutor’s Office, who have ordered the imprisonment of four of the adult detainees and the placement of one of the minors in a juvenile detention centre.