The Spanish National Police arrested eight men who were stealing high-end watches in luxurious neighborhoods of Madrid.
Among the arrested men are four Venezuelans, one North African and three Romanians who are accused of 19 robberies committed with loot valued at more than 400,000 euros, details the Spanish newspaper El Mundo.
The arrests are the result of four police operations carried out in the last two months, after receiving a complaint in February at the police station in the Madrid district of Salamanca in which the victim reports that she was assaulted by men on a motorcycle after following him to a car park, where his watch valued at 40,000 euros was forcibly snatched from him.
In March, a device ended with the arrest of one of the robbers after violently stealing a Philippe Patek watch valued at 80,000 euros with a motorcycle on Calle Príncipe de Vergara.
In another parallel investigation also started in February, agents from the Salamanca district police station detected several violent robberies of luxury watches during weekend nights in crowded entertainment venues.
In this case, the perpetrator, a young man from North Africa, surprised young people in a friendly way when nightclubs in the Salamanca district closed, fostering close personal contact to facilitate the abduction and when the victims noticed and tried to resist, they suffered assaults. Several police devices allowed the identification and location of this man, who was arrested as responsible for six robberies with violence.
In the third similar investigation, which began in October of last year, several robberies were reported on restaurant terraces in the Madrid districts of Salamanca, Hortaleza and Chamartín.
These Venezuelan robbers, who used to act in pairs, attacked the victims with extreme violence with the back of a gun, even causing serious injuries to seize their watches and escaped on motorcycles.
The devices culminated last May 17 with the arrest of four men. The youngest is 22 years old and the oldest is 31. They are charged with seven assaults.
