Criminal gang thwarted in Alicante after sealing over 40 catalytic converters

Criminal gang thwarted in Alicante’s Elche after sealing over 40 catalytic converters.
Officers from the National police in Spain have arrested three people in Elche for allegedly stealing over 40 catalytic converters from vehicles. The arrests included one minor and the gang had managed to steal over 16,000 euros’ worth of converters.
The gang was thwarted by the combined action of the police and citizen collaboration. The alleged perpetrators of the thefts had a record with the police for similar crimes too.
The minor has been handed over to the Fiscalia de Menores de Alicante and the two other people were passed onto the Juzgado de Instruccion de Guardia according to police sources.
The arrests were made after National police received a call on Tuesday, August 10. The call said that several people had been seen tampering with vehicles from underneath them. The call also provided the officers with the location of the cars that were being tampered with.
Multiple police units from the Elche police station rushed to the scene, which was in fact a public car park. The officers soon observed two people who were hiding a third person from full view who was lying on the ground tampering with a vehicle.
According to 20 minutes, the “rapid police action prevented the theft, as the officers located two vehicles with several hydraulic jacks attached to their chassis, which were raised several centimetres off the ground, presumably to remove the catalytic converters.”
National police officers were able to arrest three people who they believed had committed the thefts from multiple vehicles. The people were also linked to other crimes including the theft of multiple catalytic converters from a municipal storage area in the city.
Further arrests have not been ruled out.
 

Thank you for reading, and don’t forget to check The Euro Weekly News for all your up-to-date local and international news stories.