Madrid, March 27 (EFE) .- The Civil Guard has arrested a man and identified another as alleged perpetrators of eight crimes of careless theft in highway service areas, including the one committed to a Ukrainian family fleeing from the war and from which they stole the 7,000 euros in cash they were carrying and the few valuables with which they had managed to leave their country.
As reported in a statement, the Ukrainian family told the agents that on March 3, when they were traveling in their vehicle from Ukraine, they made a stop at a service area of the AP-7 motorway in the province of Castellón.
A group of five individuals approached them to indicate that they had a flat tire and offered to help. While one of them entertained them, the rest took advantage of the fact that the vehicle was open to steal from the interior regarding 7,000 euros in cash, jewelry, plane tickets, the keys to the apartment where they lived in Ukraine and a mobile phone among other belongings.
In addition to this family, the Civil Guard attributes seven other thefts to this group in the service areas of the A-1, A-62 and AP7 motorways, which shows signs of their mobility.
After selecting their targets -always foreign travelers-, one of the perpetrators misleads one of the victims while the other moves unseen to the vehicle, stealing bags, backpacks, wallets, or valuable electronic devices.
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The information obtained by the Civil Guard has led to the arrest of the leader of the group in a service area in Alfajarín (Zaragoza), and to the identification of another member of this itinerant gang.
The choice of victims of foreign nationality is not by chance, but they always choose foreign victims who are in transit, to take advantage of the language barriers they have when filing a complaint, as well as the difficulties in the judicial process, both to attend the trials and to recognize the perpetrators, since the victims reside abroad, thus providing them with great criminal impunity.
In addition, when they consider that they have already devastated a specific area or when the police presence increases considerably, they change the area of action.
The perpetrators of the acts are repeat offenders and have a large amount of criminal record for similar acts. They specialize in this type of theft due to its low criminal significance, as they are mostly less serious crimes of theft and minor crimes of theft.
This operation has been directed by the Organic Unit of the Judicial Police of the Civil Guard of the Comandancia de Burgos; the proceedings instructed have been handed over to the Zaragoza Guard Court.
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