A GANG of Spanish-based Bosnian pickpockets who were going to the Olympic Games in Paris has been arrested in Madrid and Valencia by the Policia Nacional.
Tourists were the main targets for the 17 members of the crew- all from the same family.
Though based in Madrid and Valencia, the investigation uncovered that they regularly travelled to Andalucia to carry out ‘criminal campaigns’.
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They had also planned a special operation in Paris with the city welcoming a massive number of tourists and sports fans.
They have been charged with multiple counts of theft as well as human trafficking, fraud, money laundering, and document forgery.
House searches resulted in the seizure of two high-end vehicles and nearly €100,000 in cash plus foreign currencies including Colombian pesos, Swedish kroner and Indian rupees.
The male gang members coordinating activities while the women committed the thefts, sometimes under threat from the men.
If any robbery targets resisted, they were assaulted or threatened.
The middle-ranking male members and the women lived in different squatted properties which allowed them to change their centres of operation easily.
All of them carried fake documents under bogus identities.
The men moved all the profits out of Spain- mainly to France, Italy or Bosnia- via a laundering method known as ‘smurfing’.
This involves large numbers of people making small transfers to bank accounts in the names of legitimate customers.
The criminal organisation is also accused of various scams involving stolen bank and credit cards pilfered from victims.
