AN ALBANIAN gang that executed 11 violent home robberies in Spain has been busted by the Policia Nacional.
The crew acquired over €1.5 million in luxury watches, jewellery, bags and cash.
Investigations started after a villa robbery in Marbella two years ago.
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The occupants were threatened and tortured to force then to hand over their valuables and disclose the location of a safe.
The police operation was carried out in two phases with two house searches in Barcelona as well as four raids in Albania.
Six people have been arrested with two of the detainees remanded into custody.
One of the main ring-leaders was arrested in Albania last September and is facing extradition to Spain.
Another prominent member was arrested in Italy and is also the subject of an extradition request.
Two further arrests were executed in Barcelona in January plus another man in Benidorm.
A woman was also detained in Barcelona on Wednesday.
The robberies were committed between 8pm and midnight on urbanisations in Marbella, Cordoba, Cadiz and Sevilla, as well as across the eastern Levante coast.
The Barcelona-based crew travelled by road to carry out the robberies.
They had an infrastructure with associates based in Alicante, Murcia, and Malaga,
They stayed in isolated and difficult-to-access rural areas and communicated via mobile phones obtained by using fake identities.
The police found the gang used large rental cars acquired in Germany and with false number plates.
Villas were targeted that belonged to wealthy people and the crew would strike every two weeks.
The robbers were dressed in black and wore balaclavas during their home invasions.
They used walkie-talkie-type devices with earpieces during the assaults, while one of them remained in the getaway car- carrying out surveillance work.
Stolen items were hidden underground in mountainous or remote areas so that third parties could later pick them up.
The goods were then taken out of Spain, with most them going to Albania where the gang members owned multiple properties.
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