The Civil Guard and the Police arrest six people for more than 40 assaults on pharmacies, banks and other establishments in the province of Alicante, Valencia and Murcia.

Closed 19 MAR 2025 20:00 – Updated Mar 20, 2025 11:55

A joint operation by the National Police and the Civil Guard of Alicante has made it possible to dismantle an organized gang of Kosovar Albanian origin specialized in robbing safes from pharmacies, banks, supermarkets and other establishments.

So far, six members of the gang have been arrested  and accused of more than 40 robberies in the provinces of Alicante, Valencia and Murcia, assaults in which they used tools stolen from the San Vicente del Raspeig Fire Station – especially a hydraulic clamp used to release people trapped in crashed vehicles – to consummate access to establishments and unanchor or burst safe deposit boxes.

In addition to the assaults on establishments, they have also been charged with a theft of license plates and the theft of two vehicles that they used to commit crimes.

One of the pharmacies assaulted in El Campello. /INFORMATION

The economic damage caused by the gang exceeds 200,000 euros between cash and stolen material. To this amount must be added the value of the automatic cash registers that were stolen from pharmacies, which exceed 10,000 euros each, or the 30,000 euros of an ATM installed inside the town hall of the Valencian town of Llocnou de Sant Jeroni, which they destroyed with the hydraulic clamp stolen from the Alicante firefighters.

Bail for one detainee and imprisonment for four

The arrests of those involved, five of whom have been assisted by lawyers Francisco Miguel Galiana Botella, José Manuel Alamán and Miguel Ángel Monserrat, have been carried out in Finestrat, La Vila Joiosa, Orihuela Costa and Torrevieja.

Police and Civil Guard agents in one of the searches. /INFORMATION

The arrested appeared in different courts and provisional detention without bail was agreed for four and freedom with bail of 6,000 euros for a detainee defended by Francisco Miguel Galiana, who appeared in the Benidorm duty court.

Safe broken by thieves. /INFORMATION

Of the robberies with force that are imputed to them, several of them attempted, more than half were committed in the province of Alicante, five in Valencia and seven in the Region of Murcia.

The assaults were mainly committed during the months of August and September of last year, but the gang’s activity continued until its recent dismantling.

A thief enters a gas station with the firefighters’ hydraulic gripper. /INFORMATION

Nine of the assaults were perpetrated in pharmacies in Alicante, El Campello, Benidorm, La Vila Joiosa, Elda and Dénia. Another four were in banks in Rojales, Benejama and in the Valencian towns of Llocnou de Sant Jeroni and Gavarda, although the latter was found empty. The gang also assaulted two Burger Kings in Ibi and Cabo de Palos (Cartagena) and several supermarkets and commercial establishments in Santa Pola, Torrellano, San Javier, Pozo Estrecho, Sangonera and Moixent, among other municipalities in the three provinces where they operated.

The tools used for a large part of the robberies were stolen from the San Vicente Fire Station, where three hooded men entered in the early hours of July 27 last year and stole material valued at 39,000 euros, including the hydraulic clamp and a hammer used in the robberies.

Car thrown by the side into the transfer canal near Los Montesinos. /INFORMATION

Those involved tried to rob a real estate agency in Campoamor, in Orihuela Costa, on September 26,  and fled after struggling with a security guard. The stolen car in which they fled, a BMW X5, was thrown into the transfer canal near Los Montesinos and sunk to erase traces.

The tools used for a large part of the robberies were stolen from the San Vicente Fire Station, where three hooded men entered in the early hours of July 27 last year and stole material valued at 39,000 euros, including the hydraulic clamp and a hammer used in the robberies.

The investigation has been carried out by the Heritage Team of the Organic Unit of the Judicial Police (UOPJ) of the Civil Guard of Alicante and the Team against Organized Crime based in Alicante (ECO Levante) belonging to the Central Operational Unit (UCO) and the Specialized and Violent Crime Unit (UDEV) of the National Police of Alicante and the Judicial Police Brigade of the Dénia Police Station,  units that have had the collaboration of the Judicial Police Team of the Civil Guard of Sant Joan d’Alacant and the Civil Guard and the Local Police of El Campello during their development.

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