Guardia Civil tracks down gang of thieves stealing computers from schools

OFFICERS of the Guardia Civil have dismantled a criminal organisation made up of 11 people (seven Spanish, three Moroccan and one Romanian), who specialised in stealing computer equipment from schools across seven regions.

During the operation they carried out four house searches in the towns of Fuenlabrada and Madrid and recovered 63 laptops, 19 mobile phones, five cameras, and other assorted electrical equipment, all believed to have been stolen from various schools.

The investigation started in February 2015, following a break in at a secondary school in the town of Malpartida (Cáceres), where 200 laptop computers were stolen and following this, the officers discovered that a number of other robberies had been committed in other schools allegedly by the same organisation. 

By further review, the agents were able to locate in Madrid the existence of a group of people who may have been responsible for these robberies and a number of arrests were made consisting of three separate but interlinked groups including the alleged head of the organisation who was based in Madrid.

It transpired that not only did the members of the organisation spend time watching the centres from which they would steal, they were blatant enough to make more than one journey to some schools if there was a large amount of ‘swag’.

The stolen material was then transferred to rented storage in Fuenlabrada (Madrid), were they remained until the items were shipped to Morocco.

The Guardia Civil have registered 26 offenses of theft so far, which had resulted in the sale of more than 1,000 laptops, TVs, projectors, tablets, cameras and video equipment, many of which bear the logo of the Ministry of Education of the Autonomous Community affected.

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