A network specialized in theft of agricultural supply material falls

The planning of a criminal group specialized in stealing construction material for greenhouses and phytosanitary products for agricultural use based in Roquetas de Mar and El Ejido (Almería) was very meticulous.

Its members, first, tested the possible targets and even visited them to check the amount of material they stored and their security systems.

Later, they were raided at night and even crawled on the ground to avoid surveillance sensors.

Later, they escaped with stolen vehicles, which they filled with fuel that they also stole from the places they raided.

The Civil Guard arrested two of the members in July, who are released on charges after going to court.

A third member of the gang fled the country.

The

began at the end of last year.

Several industrial buildings in the province of Almería had suffered forceful robberies in which greenhouse manufacturing materials such as "plastics, wires or irrigation tubes", phytosanitary products, tools and fuel disappeared.

In all cases, they were "very expensive products," say sources from the Judicial Police Organic Unit of the Civil Guard, which has carried out the investigation together with the Field Robbery Team (ROCA), the cynological service and that of Citizen Security of the Command of Almería.

The start-up of a greenhouse costs "around half a million euros", they add, to underline the importance of the stolen merchandise.

2 people arrested for committing 23 robberies in businesses in the agricultural sector in the provinces of Almería, Granada, Málaga and Alicante

They stole products and tools worth €250,000, recovering a large part of them, 2 vans and a truck https://t.co /dp9gkEhJTX pic.twitter.com/OipF2nueBh

– Civil Guard 🇪🇸 (@guardiacivil) August 9, 2022

The investigation lasted several months.

The agents identified assaults with similar methods in Granada, Malaga and Alicante.

The security cameras of some of the robbed establishments, most of them wholesalers of agricultural products or storage warehouses of companies and cooperatives in the sector, showed thieves protected with special fabrics and hoods, who crawled along the ground to prevent the alarms from going off and they selected the products that could reach the highest value on the black market.

On July 12, the Civil Guard registered five properties in Roquetas de Mar and El Ejido.

In the operation they managed to recover "the vehicles used and stolen to commit the crimes, in addition to 450 liters of fuel, 65 tools, some of them valued at over 1,000 euros and fifty phytosanitary products."

Two of the suspects were arrested.

One of them went through preventive detention by order of the Investigating Court 6 of Almería, although finally all were released with charges.

"The investigation is still open and new arrests, recovery of other stolen objects and the clarification of other crimes by this organization are not ruled out," said the sources consulted.

The third is missing, abroad.

To avoid this type of crime, the Civil Guard recommends that agricultural supply and storage companies install "security systems" and have night surveillance services in their warehouses.

It also calls for "reporting all crimes" that occur and "preserving the traceability of its products from the origin" to facilitate the detection of criminal gangs such as the one that has been dismantled in Almería.