National Police in Spain have made 29 arrests in the breaking up of a Serbian gang of thieves responsible for over 100 frauds and burglaries. The gang would often use the ‘Rip Deal’ con, in which they pretended to be foreign businessmen interested in a currency exchange where they would hand over fake cash.
The 29 arrested acted in four different groups right across Spain, Portugal, Italy and France. A jeweller arrested among the group is thought to have passed on the stolen property.
The investigation is being carried out by the judge in Instruction Court 2 in Denia and started looking at cases in Alicante province. But it soon emerged that the gang was operating over a much wider area.
The first Spanish group was based in Orihuela and worked across the provinces of Sevilla, Granada and Córdoba, while a second group based in Hondarribia in Guipúzcoa extended their activities to the south of France as well as in Navarra and the Basque Country.
A third group in Castellón travelled to Tarragona, Valencia, Murcia. Alicante and Albacete, and a fourth group operated in Portugal.
The arrests were made in March and April and three searches were carried out which resulted in more than 4 kilos of jewellery, two gold ingots weighing 600g each one, and 70,000 € in cash in addition to the false money to carry out the frauds.
