The Civil Guard arrests two Britons for robbing a premises in San Fulgencio and threatening the owner to pay €25,000 and half of the profits.

Submachine guns and ammunition seized from the detainee in Orihuela Costa. /INFORMATION 

Closed APR 16, 2025 8:00 PM

“We don’t mess around; we will take the war to anyone and I understand that you have a wife and there are children too”. This is one of the threats with mafia overtones sent to the owner of a cannabis club in San Fulgencio that was robbed in October by a criminal gang of British origin that has been partially dismantled by the Civil Guard for extorting owners of cannabis smokers’ associations in the Vega Baja to take control of these establishments through death threats and intimidation with firearms.

The gang, which acts like the mafia, came to take control of at least two associations of cannabis smokers in the Vega Baja and the investigations began for a robbery committed last October in a club in San Fulgencio, whose owner was extorted and threatened with death to keep the group with half of the profits. They threatened to “blow his head off” if he went to the police and at first he did not file a complaint out of fear.

Since the commission of the robbery, the Civil Guard has already arrested two people from this gang and at least four others who participated in the robbery are being sought. The last arrest was made at the beginning of this month of April in Orihuela Costa and three civil guards were injured by the suspect, who offered great resistance and even barricaded himself in the home of a foreign couple.

The latter detainee, who has been imprisoned and was assisted by the lawyer Francisco Miguel Galiana Botella, had  two submachine guns, considered weapons of war,  and more than 300 cartridges of different calibers  at his home. The arrested, 32 years old and originally from Liverpool, is called Sonny James R. but since last year he changed his name to Peter F., according to the investigations carried out by the Civil Guard, which has verified that he has an extensive criminal history in his country of origin.

Crimes charged

The court charges him with crimes of robbery with violence, threats, extortion, illegal possession of weapons and drug trafficking, since 85 amphetamine pills were seized from him  in a club in Orihuela Costa whose control the gang had also assumed through threats, according to the investigation of the Civil Guard. They also charged three of the five officers who were needed to subdue him with attack and injuries, given the kicks and punches he gave to try to avoid arrest. The Civil Guard also included the crimes of illegal detention and membership of a criminal group in its complaint.

The investigation is being carried out by the Organized Crime and Anti-Drug Team (EDOA) of the Organic Unit of the Judicial Police of the Civil Guard of Alicante, in coordination with the Territorial Team of the Judicial Police of Guardamar.

The extortion of this gang has generated great social alarm in these premises of the Vega Baja and there are witnesses who have refused to testify before the investigators for fear of the components of this criminal group, whom they consider very dangerous.

The robbery with intimidation in a cannabis club located in the La Marina de San Fulgencio urbanization was committed on the afternoon of October 23, but the Civil Guard, as the victims did not file a complaint, did not know about the robbery until the beginning of November, when the wife of the owner of the establishment asked for help through the Alertcops application. The wife denounced that the British Sonny R. had kidnapped her husband and father of her children and that two weeks earlier he demanded 25,000 dollars from them. He also said that two armed men entered the garden of his house in Pilar de la Horadada and that Local Police officers had appeared at his home.

As a result of this call, the victims have already reported the robbery and the Civil Guard established a surveillance device in the vicinity of the cannabis association chaired by the partner of the complaining woman. He intercepted and arrested a British man who left the club and was later identified as one of the six perpetrators of the robbery.

In the robbery, one of the club’s employees was threatened with a gun and they seized the cannabis, 600 euros from the proceeds and other effects. The gang warned the owner, who was not present and called him on the phone, that he had to pay them 25,000 euros, that half of the profits of the premises would be kept and from that day on they would assume control. In fact, they took the keys to the premises and the next day they began to exploit the club.

In addition to the information provided about Sonny, the complainant also explained to the Civil Guard that after the robbery he held a meeting with another member of the criminal group, who tried to force him under threats to sign a document where he acknowledged that half of the business belonged to the gang that robbed him. She refused, but they did not attack her despite the fact that this person was accompanied by the six who participated in the assault.

Read original article