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Box with fruit and vegetables (symbolic image)
Photo: Thomas Trutschel / photothek / IMAGO
In North Rhine-Westphalia, the police with around 200 officers took action against a gang of thieves that specialized in fruit crates. A total of eleven properties were searched in Essen and Cologne and six suspects were arrested, a police spokesman said. In addition to fruit crates, the gang specialized in non-ferrous metals.
After stealing copper and brass from roofers, she increasingly targeted fruit crates because there was a 3.70 euro deposit for each crate. With the help of fences in Cologne, the gang made money from the boxes on a large scale. The investigators assume that the loot will amount to millions. Accordingly, the public prosecutor's office secured assets worth 1.1 million euros.
Eleven cars and 30,000 euros in cash as well as around 10,000 of the fruit and vegetable boxes worth 50,000 euros were seized. In total, assets amounting to around 300,000 euros were skimmed off. Eight suspects have been under investigation since July last year.
kha/dpa