Andorra la VellaAgents of the Generalitat Police – Mossos d’Esquadra last Wednesday in Vielha arrested three women and two men, aged between 20 and 57, as alleged perpetrators of six armed robberies and four burglaries address, reception and entry into another’s home.
The arrests are the result of an investigation started at the end of last year after a series of forced robberies and thefts were detected in homes in the municipalities of Vielha e Mijaran and Naut d’Aran.
The modus operandi used by the thieves was always the same. They chose single-family houses, mainly in rural areas and where elderly people lived, where the owners left the front doors open during the day or hid the keys outside the house. In these cases, the thieves knew where the hiding place was, used the keys and left them back in the same place so as not to arouse suspicion. Once inside, they stole jewelry and cash.
This way of acting meant that many victims were initially unaware of the thefts, as they did not force any of the accesses.
In order to sell the stolen material, the members of this group traveled to Lleida, far from the Aran Valley, and sold them to jewelery shops.
The investigation revealed that the main suspect would be a resident of Vielha, who knew the circumstances of the area perfectly because she had worked cleaning houses.
After analyzing the records of the gold buying and selling establishments, the environment of the main author, and collecting sufficient evidence, last Wednesday a device was set up to arrest the thieves.
During the morning an entry and search was made at the home of the main suspect in Vielha. Five people, three women and two men, were arrested in the operation, and numerous jewels were recovered.
The detainees are linked to six robberies and four thefts, committed in Vielha, Garós, Betren, Escunhau and Casarih and also to five break-ins to other people’s homes, since in some cases they had entered the houses without stealing anything . The total value of the stolen jewels amounts to more than 100,000 euros.
The investigation remains open in order to deliver the recovered jewels to their rightful owners and to find out if those arrested may be involved in other criminal acts.
Two of the detainees were released after testifying at the Vielha police station, with the obligation to appear before the judge when required.
The other three detainees, with previous records, went to court yesterday before the court of inquiry acting as a guard in Vielha.
