The Civil Guard, in the so-called Barrengolp-Mozorroa operation, has dismantled a criminal group dedicated to robbing banks in Cantabria and Navarre with violence and intimidation. The agents have arrested four people and investigated yet another for their alleged involvement. The arrests were made moments before they committed another robbery. In total, five completed robberies and one attempted robbery have been cleared up.
Two of the detainees, with a long criminal history, had been part of the gang called “La Viuda”, composed of attacking experts that operated more than a decade ago throughout the national territory.
The delegate of the Government in Cantabria, Ainoa Quiñones, and the delegate of the Government in Navarra, José Luis Arasti, presented this Wednesday the operation in a press conference together with the colonels of the Civil Guard of both Autonomous Communities, Antonio Orantos and José Santiago Martín, as well as other commanders of the bodies that have directed the investigations that have led to the dismantling of this criminal gang.
The investigation began in 2021 with two robberies to bank branches in the Cantabrian town of Puente Viesgo and in the Navarre Arbizu. The officers found that the perpetrators were the same in both robberies and that they were specialized in this type of criminal act.
In 2022, the criminal organization committed three other robberies on banking entities in the Navarre towns of Lakuntza and Lekunberri and another in the Cantabrian town of Roiz.
The robbers carried short weapons to intimidate both employees and customers inside the banks. In some cases, they even managed to manipulate the bank employees. Likewise, the detainees used wigs, balaclavas, masks, hats, even clothing usually used by construction workers to make it difficult to identify them.
Arrests in fraganti
The investigators determined that it was a criminal group consisting of four males, each with defined missions when preparing and committing the robberies.
The agents noted that the band was preparing a new robbery for this year and, among the different places they had been studying, the detainees decided that their next target was a branch of the Cantabrian town of Somo.
The Civil Guard organized an operation with the support of the Special Intervention Unit (UEI) to prevent the robbery. At the end of February, the members of the group were detected in Somo, two of them being detained moments before robbing the branch. They were involved in several short weapons, a knife and other masking effects and means.
The other two members, who carried out surveillance missions and waited to facilitate the escape, were subsequently intercepted and detained.
The investigators have seized four vehicles and have carried out three home searches, two of them in Vizcaya and one in Cantabria.
The Civil Guard with this operation has clarified five robberies to banking entities of Cantabria and Navarra, where they stole more 360,000 euros, and has avoided another one in the town of Somo.
The Court of First Instance and Instruction of Medio Cudeyo, Cantabria, has ordered the imprisonment of the four detainees.
This operation has involved components of the Civil Guard belonging to the Organic Judicial Police Units of Cantabria and Navarra, the UCO (Central Operational Unit) and the UEI (Special Intervention Unit).