As of: February 15, 2024, 1:37 p.m
Comments
Press
Split
Police officers stand behind a police tape.
© Hannes P. Albert/dpa/Symbolbild
A gang of thieves in North Rhine-Westphalia is said to have stolen more than a million euros by stealing metal and fruit crates: On Thursday, 200 police officers were deployed to stop the gang.
Düsseldorf - The police launched a major raid involving around 200 officers against a gang of thieves that specialized in fruit crates.
A total of eleven properties were searched in Essen and Cologne and six suspects were arrested, a police spokesman said on Thursday in Düsseldorf.
In addition to fruit crates, the gang specialized in non-ferrous metals.
After stealing a lot of copper and brass from roofers, she increasingly targeted fruit crates because each crate had a deposit of 3.70 euros.
With the help of fences in Cologne, the gang made money from the boxes on a large scale.
The investigators assume that the loot will amount to millions.
Accordingly, the public prosecutor's office secured assets worth 1.1 million euros.
Eleven cars and 30,000 euros in cash as well as around 10,000 of the fruit and vegetable boxes worth 50,000 euros were seized.
In total, assets amounting to around 300,000 euros were skimmed off.
Eight suspects have been under investigation since July last year.
dpa