By Dilip Kuner • Published: 15 Feb 2019 • 21:00
A GANG whose leader consulted the horoscope to choose the right days for burglaries didn’t predict their imminent arrest by police.
The four-strong group specialised in burgling bars with their contortionist leader using his skills to gain entry through narrow spaces.
Despite making full use of the signs of the Zodiac and living in a hut in the middle of a forest the 55-year-old Romanian gang leader couldn’t hide from the Catalan Mossos d’Esquadra police force.
They tracked him down to the Barcelona municipality of Sentmenat where they arrested him along with two Spanish men aged 46 and 26 and a 24-year-old Venezuelan.
They are suspected of 20 burglaries, 15 of them in Barcelona. An investigation began in October after a burglary in Barcelona. Investigators realised that the method used by the perpetrators matched several other incidents. The gang selected bars which could be entered by making holes from an adjacent stairway without being discovered by neighbours.
The leader then used his contortionist skills to squeeze through the small holes made. The gang members would first watch the premises to find out the schedule and routes used by the owners and staff of the targeted bars.
Before committing the burglary the group leader consulted the horoscope to choose the best day to act.
The group was arrested after the October burglary when a getaway driver was apprehended. Police eventually tracked the leader to his hut, where they found a notebook detailing the results of other surveillance operations.
Desarticulem un grup de lladres que accedien a comerços fent "butrons" gràcies a les seves habilitats contorsionistes. El cap del grup consultava el zodíac abans d'actuar https://t.co/QXUAC0NyBg pic.twitter.com/wv9tN52Dmo — Mossos (@mossos) February 11, 2019
Desarticulem un grup de lladres que accedien a comerços fent "butrons" gràcies a les seves habilitats contorsionistes. El cap del grup consultava el zodíac abans d'actuar https://t.co/QXUAC0NyBg pic.twitter.com/wv9tN52Dmo
— Mossos (@mossos) February 11, 2019
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