The Bulgarian tennis player Grigor Dimitrov was in Barcelona for the Conde Godó tournament. He was driving a vehicle through the center of the city – April 14, 2023 – when a motorist folded the rear-view mirror. He rolled down the window to reposition it using the nearest hand, the left, the one in which he carries the watch. The Bianchet (70,000 euros) disappeared from his wrist.

It was not necessary to do the rear-view mirror trick to Robert Lewandowski. When he lowered the window to sign some autographs -August, 2022- the Barça player was torn off a Patek Phillippe (70,000 euros). Two months earlier – June, 2022 – another footballer, Dani Olmo, was robbed of a 30,000-euro Rolex in Valencia. The Saudi ambassador to Spain and his wife were walking through the center of Madrid on April 30 when a motorcyclist pointed a gun at them and stole another Rolex (25,000 euros). Of the same brand (8,000 euros) was the watch that was taken in Palma from the chief prosecutor of the Balearic Islands, Bartomeu Barceló, in December 2019. In the case of the Atlético de Madrid footballer Koke was an Audemars Piguet of 70,000 euros.

They are some of the most mediatic victims of a form of crime, the theft of luxury watches, with enormous activity in the Spanish cities through which more tourists with high purchasing power move: Barcelona, Madrid, Palma de Mallorca, Marbella and Ibiza fundamentally. The latter saw the record theft to date: a Richard Mille (RM) 50-03 MCLaren F1 valued at 1,150,000 euros owned by a 25-year-old tourist from Azerbaijan.

Such is the incidence of theft of luxury watches in these locations that some, such as Marbella or Barcelona, have created police groups dedicated exclusively to fighting against it. In Barcelona, the Titani team began operating in May 2022 and in the six months it was operational – the most touristic – there were 229 arrests of watchmakers, as these thieves are called, 100 of them directly the result of the work of those of Titani.

This May they have been activated again and are considering staying beyond the tourist season, explains Josep Naharro, head of the Criminal Investigation Division (DIC) of Barcelona. Those in the DIC are responsible for the last major police operation in the city. Initiated by the Titani group, they took charge of it when they detected that there could be a criminal organization behind it. And so it was.

The group deactivated this May – seven detainees – is very representative of how these gangs operate. They are above all, explains Naharro, itinerant groups that act in different parts of Europe. This gang in question had been in Barcelona between 9 and 12 months and accumulated 72 records between the robberies committed in Catalonia and previous ones in Switzerland and Germany. "Until 2019 they were carried out exclusively by organized crime, gangs from other countries that came, took a loot of equis clocks and left. They saw that the most dangerous thing was to commit the robbery itself, because it has more criminal reproach and more possibilities of being caught, and they have ceded that part to local criminals, "says Naharro.

Thus, of the seven detainees, two were Spaniards – the executors of the robbery – and the other five members of the gang itself, of North African origin. "One of them looks at the wrists, detects a good watch and marks the victim. One or two go to that person and, at best, distract him by giving him a hug and misleading him while the other pulls on the leash. If the person turns around, a third party tries to obstruct him to facilitate the escape, "explains Naharro.

To escape they use electric scooters so the Mossos are trying that, just as it is forbidden to drive who commits a crime with a car, the same happens to those who help themselves with a scooter. They also have the focus on trying to attack the reception. "If we neutralize the reception, if nobody buys watches, nobody is going to steal them, but we have the handicap of the little penalty provided for in the Criminal Code, which makes it impossible to carry out deep investigations," laments Naharro. The receiver, he adds, "turns on the green light to start committing crimes" by warning that he is going to Barcelona on a certain date. "He arrives one night with an empty suitcase and leaves the next day with it full."

  • Barcelona
  • Palma de Mallorca
  • Ibiza
  • Marbella, Spain
  • Koke
  • Events
  • Delinquency
  • Mossos d'Esquadra

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