Police recover five stolen luxury cars

THE Guardia Civil has recovered five luxury vehicles from Thailand that were stolen in Spain and the Netherlands. 

Operation Expedition was carried out by the Guardia Civil and uncovered the criminal network specialising in stolen cars being shipped through the port of Porto in Portugal bound for Vietnam and then onto Thailand. 

In February police managed to seize seven other vehicles which were intended to join the network in Thailand. In order to evade police and port controls, the highly-organised criminal group had falsified VINs, documentation and licence plates, disguising them as either German or Austrian. 

In the latest seizures, the Guardia Civil worked in collaboration with Interpol and Thai authorities to recover the cars in the port of Laem Chabang, near the Thai capital of Bangkok. Four of the cars were stolen in Madrid and Barcelona and one was stolen from the Netherlands. 

The luxury 4×4 cars were shipped in containers and were intercepted on arrival in Thailand, after a stopover in the ports of Algeciras and Singapore. 

The investigation was carried out by the Organised Crime Group Auto Central Operating Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard and Interpol, also with the collaboration of private enterprise ARGOS, dedicated to the search and recovery of stolen vehicles.