Spanish cash machine gangs broken up with 14 arrests

Criminals used homemade explosives and dressed as police officers to commit violent robberies across country

Spanish police have arrested 14 people and seized guns, satellite trackers and several police uniforms after breaking up two gangs whose members used homemade explosives to blow up cash machines and who dressed as police officers to carry out violent and meticulously planned robberies across the country.

The nationwide investigation began in autumn last year after the same gang used explosives to rob three banks in Málaga and Valencia. Investigators traced members of the gang to Madrid and Málaga and discovered that the group had its own bomb-maker who built the explosives by filling metal capsules with gunpowder from fireworks.

"Officers then discovered another criminal group – based in Madrid – whose members also robbed cash machines using explosives," the Guardia Civil said in a statement. "The suspects, who used a similar modus operandi and the same provider of homemade explosives, carried out seven attacks on cash machines in Barcelona, Madrid, Alcalá de Henares and Madrid in 2022, making off with almost €550,000 (£479,000)."

Police established that there was a flow of members between the two gangs – both of which were painstaking in their raids. As well as turning off their mobile phones during the robberies and disposing of their clothes afterwards, they torched the stolen vehicles used in order to destroy any evidence.

But their activities were not confined to banks. In March this year, members of the gang dressed up as police officers – complete with pistols, badges and bulletproof vests – to rob a woman in Málaga province. After tying her up and beating her, they stole her identity documents, her house keys, her car and €1,270 in cash. The following month, they stole €30,000 in cash from a man after boxing in his car, smashing its windows and dragging the victim out.

Other robberies followed a similar, three-stage pattern. After identifying people connected to the drug trade or in possession of large sums of money that could not be easily explained, the gang would keep tabs on their intended victims’ movements using surveillance cameras and GPS trackers.

The third phase was the robbery itself, in which the suspects would "pretend to be police officers, using law enforcement techniques, resources and equipment, and during which they would not hesitate to illegally detain their victims and use extreme violence".

Fourteen people were arrested at the end of April and 23 different properties searched in south and central Spain. Among the items seized were: a large quantity of banknotes impregnated with security dye; numerous firearms and ammunition; satellite trackers; alarm-jammers; Policía Nacional and Guardia Civil clothes and equipment; seven vehicles; false number plates; and 112 marijuana plants.

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Police established that those arrested had extensive criminal records, were well-versed in police techniques and equipment, and had carried out 15 robberies throughout the country between June 2022 and April 2023.

They have been charged with membership of a criminal organisation, theft, armed robbery, vehicle theft, illegal detention, wounding, impersonating public officials, illegal weapons possession and being in possession of false documents.