A GANG that robbed mainly petrol stations across eastern Spain has been brought down by the Guardia Civil.
Four people have been arrested in Murcia and Alicante with three addresses searched.
Authorities have so far pinned down 102 robberies to the crew with nearly half of them committed in the Murcia region.
They also struck in Alicante, Almeria, Granada, Albacete and Cuenca provinces.
Three properties were searched with €12,000, two vehicles and around 50 pieces of jewellery plus clothes worn during the robberies being seized.
Over 30 stolen cars used by the criminals in the robberies by the gang between September and November of last year have also been recovered.
Investigations started in July after several petrol station robberies in the Alicante and Murcia areas were found to follow a common pattern.
The thieves moved at dawn in stolen vehicles to the service stations.
They then broke doors with sledgehammers before taking the cash register and tobacco machines within a few minutes.
The units were then driven to isolated areas where they were emptied and then dumped.
The crew made a mistake when they left behind one of their phones during a robbery in Granada.
Using information from the device, Guardia officers observed a break-in where several armed hooded men stole around €80,000 from a filling station in Murcia.
Officers discovered that the gang not only robbed service stations and stole cars, but they targeted hospitality businesses and homes with residents- not hesitating to use violence against them.
In November and December, they focused activities on Lorca and Mazarron in the Murcia region.
They took advantage of the holiday season to strike in the early hours of Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve to rob homes in Albacete province.
Two of the crew were arrested en route to Almeria where they planned to move their base from Murcia.
Two of their colleagues were subsequently detained in the Cartagena and San Javier areas of Murcia.
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