A criminal gang that has dismantled the Civil Guard of Palencia, with 17 arrested for stealing up to 26 trucks, took over the parked vehicles and their merchandise and then sold them.
The thieves had prepared a network that began in service areas of half of Spain and ended in Paraguay.
The value of what was stolen amounts to 2.5 million euros, as the criminals disassembled the trucks to relocate them in Paraguay through the port of Valencia.
Likewise, the loads were offered to Chinese bazaars, for which they looked especially at heavy vehicles full of drinks or Amazon delivery.
The detainees are 12 people of Spanish nationality, another four Chinese and one Paraguayan, to whom the crimes of belonging to a criminal organization, robbery of things and reception are attributed.
The group has gone to court and four of them have been ordered to go to prison.
The investigation of the so-called Operation Sawtruck began in March, after reporting that a robbery had been robbed in Villamediana (Palencia), and the investigations revealed an organization structured and divided into two well-differentiated areas.
The first of them was in charge of stealing the trucks that were in polygons, rest places for drivers or service areas in provinces such as Palencia, Ávila, León, Cantabria, Guadalajara, Madrid, Zaragoza, Huesca, Lleida, Toledo, Ciudad Real. and Jaen.
To do this, they looked at those covered by tarpaulins that cracked to go to the cabin and disable the GPS system by which companies have proof of the exact location of the truck.
As soon as they did, they headed towards the Community of Madrid always behind “shuttle vehicles to avoid police controls”.
Once there, they parked in polygons where they distributed the load.
Another faction, seeing that its hits were very profitable, bought a second-hand heavy vehicle “and specialized in stealing only the truckloads that moved its own,” specifically targeting Amazon delivery and beverage trucks.
The strategy consisted of parking his truck next to those who would later assault, as explained by the captain of the Civil Guard Enrique Peláez: “When they saw something of interest,
Civil Guard sources report that one of the ringleaders of the plot was a Paraguayan man who had a company and used it to send illegally obtained goods to his country.
The criminals disassembled the stolen vehicles in fields "on the outskirts of Madrid" and kept these parts in large containers that left the port of Valencia for the South American country.
Another of the key elements in this group was a person of Chinese origin who acted as an "intermediary" to offer illegally obtained merchandise to his compatriots who run department stores or bazaars, especially in the Community of Madrid.
For this, he negotiated a price with these clients so that the articles ended up being made available to the clientele mixed between legal products.
The Civil Guard has attributed the theft of up to 26 trucks to them, three of which were stolen in Palencia, and the agents have managed to recover some of the stolen vehicles as well as part of the loads.
The investigation remains open.
