Alex Trelinski
THIEVES pretended to be charity workers to steal second-hand clothing worth around €1 million from containers in the Valencian Community.
The Policia Nacional have arrested 13 people- including the gang leader- over the theft of 300 tonnes of clothes that were earmarked for needy people.
Investigations started in June 2024 after the head of a charity helping people at risk of social exclusion complained about a spate of robberies from clothing collection containers across the Valencia region.
READ MORE:
- Delivery drivers stole €1m of clothes from Spain’s top fashion retailer to sell cut-price sales to markets and warehouses
- Sweatshop exploited workers ordered to carry 80 kilos of clothes on their backs in Spain’s Alicante
Officers identified several individuals who were in rental vans and posed as employees of the foundation wearing work clothes to go unnoticed.
The robberies were executed at day and night.
Police surveillance discovered they had special keys to open the containers and made up to several trips per day to various drop-off points.
In the first phase of the operation, officers observed gang members cramming a rental van to the limit with clothes.
They followed it to Ontinyent where the clothes were unloaded and weighed at an industrial warehouse.
A raid on the facility uncovered eight workers trying to hide from the police among piles of clothing.
The firm had workstations to divide up the clothes, and industrial machinery, such as two lifting machines, a scale and a packing-strapping machine.
The business owner in charge was arrested and he operated a network to sell the stolen items to other countries.
All of his staff did not have a contract and were subjected to health and safety violations.
Some of the employees were undocumented and were in Spain illegally.
The van loaded with nearly 2,000 kilos of stolen clothing- valued at almost €6,000- was seized along with multiple tons of clothes, industrial machinery, plus keys used to access clothing containers.
Two vans and a high-end vehicle used by the gang leader were also impounded.
The second phase of the Policia Nacional operation took them to Alzira where stolen clothes were also stored.
Officers found 200,000 kilos of clothes along with a van loaded with around 2,000 kilos of items.
.
Click here to read more Crime & Law News from The Olive Press.
