Specialized and perfectly structured, they were arrested immediately after the commission of their last violent assault in the Arinaga Crossing, seizing more than 3.500 euros from this assault.
The entry into prison of 5 of the members of the gang has been decreed, thus dismantling a criminal group that robbed with extreme violence using knives in the commission of robberies.
The Civil Guard of the Las Palmas Command and the National Police, within the framework of the joint operation called CROSSOVER-TAHUR, have arrested eight people, aged between 19 and 52 years old, five of them with numerous police records. , as alleged perpetrators of eight violent robberies with a knife, a crime against road safety and another of belonging to an organized criminal group, being a very active criminal group since July 2023, specialized in violent assault with knives in different betting houses and bingo halls distributed throughout the island of Gran Canaria.
The investigation began as a result of the first robbery with violence that occurred on July 31, 2023 in a betting room in Vecindario, after which the members of the gang selected other establishments located in the towns of Agüimes, Santa Cruz as targets. María de Guía, Arucas, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Telde, until his arrest.
Extreme violence to perpetrate robberies
In the first investigations it was possible to verify that it was a very violent group that used knives to intimidate both the employees of the establishments and the potential clients, also perpetrating the assaults in very close days, generating serious social alarm. , committing robberies in a few seconds as they are very well organized.
Young and perfectly organized and structured
Despite the young age of the perpetrators, this organized group committed the robberies in a coordinated manner and fully structured in their functions of surveillance, planning, driving and logistical support, with the collaboration of third parties since they used rental vehicles in their name. of people interposed to hinder police action and even hiding the license plates during the commission of the robberies to make their subsequent identification difficult.
Thus they obtained a great economic benefit, raising the total of what was stolen to more than 35.000 euros, since they selected the objectives and locations that allowed them a more agile escape to change police demarcation, without being aware of the investigation and monitoring that was already underway. was being carried out on them by the units specialized in this type of violent crimes of the Civil Guard and the National Police.
Interception and detention operation
The constant exchange of police information between forces was key to carrying out a joint operation that would allow the arrest, on GC-3 near the Tamaraceite neighborhood, of four men and one woman, with the collaboration of the Local Police of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, at which time 3.526 euros in cash were seized from the last assault committed moments before in a betting house in the municipality of Agüimes.
Immediately, agents of the State Security Forces and Bodies continued the actions that would allow the clarification of eight crimes of robbery with intimidation using knives and thus dismantling a criminal group that caused serious social alarm due to the violence they carried out. charging one of the perpetrators with a crime against road safety when it was found that he was performing the functions of driver in the commission of the events without having obtained a driving license at any time, in addition to arresting 3 other members and investigating another collaborator, necessary cooperators in the commission of these acts since they were the obtainers of the rental vehicles used.
Those arrested and investigated were placed at the disposal of the competent Judicial Authority of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, where the imprisonment of the five most active members of the gang was ordered.
