The Guardia Civil have arrested five men in Granadilla de Abona in the south of Tenerife, following an investigation for burglary, breaking and entering, vehicle theft, falsifying public documents, and the crime of usurpation of marital status.
The investigation began at the beginning of this year when the Guardia Civil became aware through a denuncia filed by the victim, who is the owner of a company located in San Isidro that deals in second-hand cars.
His denuncia claimed that several crimes of ‘robbery with force’ had been committed, because the accused broke into his warehouse, where the aforementioned company is located, and stole a total of 16 second-hand and high-end vehicles, valued at more than 220,000 euros.
Following up on the denuncia, officers started an investigation with a visual inspection of the warehouse, witness statements, CCTV footage, and surveillance of the accused.
During the investigation, they discovered that two men had threatened and coerced one of the company's workers to open the premises for them, so they could steal the vehicles, claiming there was a debt between the complainant and the detainees.
The Guardia Civil also found out that other similar thefts had happened at a second warehouse owned by the complainant, which is located in Costa del Silencio, where another four vehicles had been stolen.
Crimes of forgery and usurpation of marital status:
After questioning the detainees, agents managed to deduce that the objective of the accused was to ‘steal’ the shares of the complainant's company, so they could access the company's bank accounts. To do this, they had forged documents showing they were the shareholders and sole administrator of the SL company, with one of them accused of ‘usurpation’ after posing as the victim, with fake identification documents, to sign the necessary documents and get the various changes to the deeds made.
During the investigation, Guardia Civil recovered five vehicles valued at approximately 50,000 euros. The proceedings have been handed over to the Court of Granadilla de Abona.
