A 41-year-old man has been arrested after keeping the residents of Villamediana de Iregua (La Rioja, with about 8,000 inhabitants) in fear for months for shooting "at homes and schools" with compressed air shotguns, one of which he had modified to to fire 22 caliber projectiles instead of 5.5 buckshot.
The Civil Guard has reported that the person arrested in Operation Necromancer had generated "a great social alarm", especially after having opened fire on a school and a nursery.
The now detainee, in addition, spent seasons in the house of his sentimental partner, attached to a kindergarten, where "ecstasy users went daily" to buy said drug.
The investigations by the armed institute began after six complaints were filed by citizens of Villamediana, after observing projectile impacts in chimneys and antennas of residential buildings, a school and a nursery, "with the consequent risk to people."
Suspicions centered on a usual suspect, who in recent months had been identified "on several occasions" by the armed institute.
"The agents had intervened in different controls inside his car three long weapons of the 5.5 mm caliber, two visors, a box of ammunition, a large knife," the Civil Guard stresses in a press release distributed this morning.
Frame from the video provided by the Civil Guard of the arrest of the sniper in Operation Necromancer.
The weapons had been tweaked, one of them to use .22 caliber projectiles "and deliberately increase their lethality", while another of the carbines had been modified "to obtain greater firepower".
The ballistic comparison of the projectiles collected in the attacked buildings determined that "they were fired by one of the seized carbines."
With these wickerwork, the Investigating Court number 1 of Logroño (the La Rioja capital borders Villamediana) authorized the search of two houses and a cabin, where three other modified weapons were intervened, telescopic sights, accessories for precision shooting, two Taser pistols with lantern skin, eight ammo boxes, and counterfeit weapon guide cards.
The Civil Guard adds in its note that, in the search of the house in which he lived "occasionally" with his sentimental partner, 120 MDA pills, a small amount of
speed
and some
hashish
postures were seized.
Ecstasy users used to come daily to this property, located a few meters from a school and a nursery, to stock up on this substance.