Tobacco shop manager in Marbella stages robbery: seven arrested and over €12,000 stolen
A group of seven people was dismantled by Spanish National Police after staging a robbery at a tobacco shop in Marbella. The manager of the establishment was complicit in the scheme.
Fake robbery in Marbella exposes internal network of seven suspects
Spanish National Police arrested and dismantled a criminal group of seven people that staged a robbery at a tobacco shop in Marbella, CNN Portugal reports. The scheme yielded over €12,000 and involved the establishment's own manager as an accomplice.
The court ordered preventive detention for the alleged leader of the group. Among those arrested are two tobacco shop employees — the manager and a colleague — who acted in collusion with the remaining members of the network.
The staged robbery occurred on the morning of 31 August, in the vicinity of a shopping centre in the Elviria area. The manager claimed to have been intercepted by two hooded men armed with a pistol while heading to a bank to deposit weekend takings. The two suspects fled by car with the support of other members of the organisation.
The establishment's owner was absent on that day for personal reasons, which facilitated execution of the plan.
The investigation advanced after officers tracked a rental vehicle used in the escape. They then discovered that, shortly after the robbery, a report was filed of theft of the same car at Fuengirola police station — a report that also proved to be false. The person who filed that complaint was also arrested.
Investigators intercepted a first suspect when he attempted to destroy evidence inside the vehicle recovered in Fuengirola. Subsequent inquiries established that members of the network had conducted surveillance of the establishment before the robbery and that two employees had acted as internal informants. One of the people identified during such surveillance proved to be a direct family member of one of the workers.
During the search operations, police also recovered the pistol used in the robbery — which was likewise fake — as well as the car used in the escape.
The investigation concluded that all those arrested participated in a concerted plan to simulate the theft, using an imitation firearm, and appropriate the tobacco shop's takings. The internal network that made the simulation possible was thus entirely dismantled.
Source: CNN Portugal