The Civil Guard dismantles a criminal group that stole copper wiring in the Marina Alta The Civil Guard dismantles a criminal group that stole copper wiring in the Marina Alta
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05 July 2022 - 12: 13

The Civil Guard of Alacant, within the framework of operation Cobraira, has dismantled a criminal group specialized in the theft of electric cables for public lighting. Its members have been accused, depending on their level of participation, of committing 19 crimes of robbery and theft, 4 crimes of usurpation of marital status and 1 crime against road safety. The Court of Guard and Instruction of Dénia has ordered the woman's imprisonment, because she had 4 judicial orders for search and imprisonment.

In the month of October of the year 2021, the Civil Guard of Alacant, through the complaints of several city councils, learned that various robberies and thefts of electrical wiring for public lighting were being committed in various locations in the Marina Alta and Turia Camp. These criminal acts, in addition to creating great economic damage to the affected town councils, began to create a feeling of insecurity among the neighbors upset by the power outages that were generated.

The ROCA Team of the Calp Civil Guard Company, in order to clarify the reported facts, started the Cobraira operation. The beginning of the investigations allowed the agents to determine the modus operandi used, which turned out to be the same in all the robberies, which led to the suspicion that they had been committed by the same group of people.

The modus operandi was simple, using a crowbar or similar tool, they forced the lighting sewer boxes to later section and extract the electrical power cable that ran underground between each lamppost.

During the course of the investigations, the agents were able to detect the patterns used by the authors in terms of times and places where they most frequently committed the robberies. Thanks to this information, it was possible to identify the vehicles used to commit the robberies, a vehicle owned by one of the criminals and several large-capacity vans that were sometimes rented depending on the quantity and size of the material to be stolen. 

Behind the vehicles used, there was a couple known for their extensive criminal history, a 28-year-old man and a 27-year-old woman, both residents of the town of Riba-roja del Túria. 

In different police controls, it was possible to verify how the woman, in order to hinder the investigations and avoid her possible arrest for other pending legal cases, did not hesitate to usurp the identity of another person so as not to be correctly identified.

The agents found out that there was a third member of the gang, he was a 42-year-old man at a junkyard in the town of Valencia. His function was to facilitate the sale of the stolen material so as not to raise suspicions.

Immediately, the agents carried out an inspection at the workplace of this third member, locating and intervening 200 kg of copper wiring that had been stolen in an urbanization in the town of Casinos (Valencia).

Once all the members of the criminal group have been identified and their participation in various robberies in the towns of Xàbia, Teulada-Moraira, Dénia, Benissa and Casinos (Valencia), all that remained was the location and arrest of the material authors of the wiring thefts.

On June 9, on the public road in the town of Riba-roja del Túria, the couple was arrested, and also in the offices of the Civil Guard in the same town, the third member was investigated for receiving the stolen material. All of them, in different degrees of participation, have been charged with 19 crimes of theft and robbery with force in things, 4 crimes of usurpation of marital status and 1 crime against road safety.

As a result of these investigations, in addition to the material seized in the inspection of the junkyard, the Civil Guard has managed to recover more than 3.000 meters of electrical wiring that had been stolen in an urbanization of Xàbia and in the Paseo de les Rotes de Dénia, and also more than 1.500 Kg of material stolen in a work on one of the access roads to Benissa. The vehicle owned by one of the detainees has also been brought to justice, as it is linked to the facts under investigation.

The detainees and the investigated, all with police records for similar events, have been made available to the Dénia Guard Court. While the woman has been imprisoned due to the 4 judicial notices of search and admission to prison that she had emanating from various courts in the province of Valencia, the rest of the members have been released with charges.

Comments
  1. Pedro Diaz Manjon says:

    To the attention of the councilor in charge of the urbanizations Doris Coucelles of Javea, who reads the news of the arrests of the thieves of the electrical wiring of the lampposts of the Monte Olimpo urbanization so that they replace it since we have been without electricity for 3 years and it seems to me that it is time to replace it.

  2. Erika says:

    Let's see, I don't understand anything: The woman had several proven crimes, a search warrant and imprisonment, her partner, the same or something similar; the recipient of the stolen material is caught "red-handed" and the judge only puts the woman in prison (we'll see how long she stays) and leaves the others free "with charges"? Why do they keep stealing? The laws we have are… I better not say what I think.


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