Under the name of Operation KLOPE, the Guardia Civil has dismantled a Criminal Gang in the south of Tenerife who have carried out several armed robberies using, in some cases, extreme violence. 16 people have been arrested and linked with the crimes.
The investigation began in the middle of May last year, after a robbery was committed in a house in the Las Moraditas area of Adeje during the state of alarm, and thieves stole, amongst other items, a high-end Mercedes 4x4 which was involved the following afternoon in an armed robbery at the petrol station on the main road in Las Zocas in San Miguel De Abona, with the perpetrators holding the owner at gunpoint.
A few days later the same group committed a violent robbery in a house in San Miguel, where they stole a similar vehicle, which was recovered by the police days later, and which allowed the identification of part of the group.
In one of the robberies they investigated, police found that the gang used such violence against the inhabitants of the house, that it led to one of the victims being admitted to the intensive care unit of the Hospital de la Candelaria for several weeks in a critical condition.
After following multiple leads and surveillance work carried out on the suspected group, blatant evidence of their involvement in the aforementioned crimes was obtained, and they were tied to five armed robberies, six robberies with violence, one crime of ABH, drug trafficking, and illegal possession of firearms.
The raid part of operation KLOPE was carried out in three phases, the first of which was triggered by two of the members of the gang, who were arrested after flying to Barcelona, when they were found in possession of a 6,000 euro watch from a robbery at a home in La Camella in Arona, and agents discovered that one of them was carrying DNI identification from another person to try to hinder police work.
In the second phase two houses were raided in Valle San Lorenzo and Torviscas Alto where the investigated resided, and in the third phase, they raided another five homes where the rest of the members lived, located in Valle San Lorenzo, Arona, Guía de Isora, El Fraile and Golf del Sur.
As a result of the operation, 16 people have been arrested, 14 men, one minor, and two women, aged between 17 and 45 years old, all of them residents in the south of Tenerife, and charged with armed robbery, drug trafficking, illegal possession of weapons and belonging to a criminal group.
During the raids, two kilos of marijuana, 80 grams of hashish, 12 grams of cocaine, and 67 ecstasy pills have been seized, along with 2,000 euros in cash, and utensils for preparing the drugs for selling, different weapons including, a sawn off shotgun, pistols, knives, and machetes, as well as the recovery of a multitude of objects from the different robberies.
The Operation was developed by the Territorial Team of the Judicial Police of Playa de las Américas with the support of various units of the Company of Playa de Las Américas, Rural Security Group No. 8, USECIC of this Command, and directed by the Prosecutor's Office of the Provincial Court of Tenerife and the Court of First Instance and Instruction number 3 of Granadilla de Abona, who immediately sent 12 of the detainees to prison.
