The Guardia Civil arrested two people as being responsible for committing at least 23 thefts of phytosanitary products, tools and material for the construction of greenhouses in the provinces of Almería, Granada, Málaga and Alicante.
The Guardia Civil has recovered a large number of the stolen effects, in addition to two vans and a truck with which they committed the crimes and which had also been stolen.
The FITOBESAY operation began at the end of last year 2021 when the Guardia Civil became aware of several robberies with force in establishments and businesses linked to the agricultural sector in the province of Almería.
The agents in charge of the investigation verified that those responsible for the robberies not only acted in the province of Almería, but also used two stolen vans and a lorry to commit the robberies and transport the material.
In addition to the province of Almeria, they acted in Granada, Malaga and Alicante, where they committed at least 23 robberies with a value of more than 250,000 euro between greenhouse construction material, phytosanitary products and tools. The perpetrators even stole the fuel from the vehicles they used to commit the crimes and for their personal use. In some of the robberies, the authors crawled on the floor of the establishments to avoid the surveillance sensors and set off the alarms.
During the course of this operation, the Guardia Civil carried out five searches in the municipalities of Roquetas de Mar and El Ejido (Almería), where the two alleged perpetrators were arrested. The officers managed to recover the vehicles used and stolen to commit the crimes, in addition to recovering 450 litres of fuel, 65 tools, some of them valued at over 1,000 euro, and fifty phytosanitary products, mostly returned to their legitimate owners.
The operation has been carried out by the Organic Unit of the Judicial Police of the Guardia Civil, Robbery Teams in the Field (ROCA), Cynological Service and Citizen Security of the Almería Command. The investigation is still open and new arrests, recovery of other stolen objects and the clarification of other crimes by this organisation are not ruled out. The proceedings carried out together with the detainees are made available to the Investigating Court No. 6 of Almería.
