The DNI of the Salamanca neighborhood, the target of the pickpocket mafia: they used them to request loans

Luis F. Durán Madrid

Madrid

Updated Thursday, March 21, 2024-00:15

Macro raid against pickpockets operating in the Metro and the center of Madrid with more than 50 detainees.

The Municipal Police has dismantled a group that used or

sold stolen documentation to request loans from financial institutions and carry out other types of massive scams

.

Six of those arrested are already in prison, including the two ringleaders, a Spaniard and a Moroccan with numerous police records.

Ten of those arrested were Spanish and Romanian pickpockets who stole wallets during rush hour on the subway.

They did not throw them in the trash and sold the DNI and other types of documentation to a second group.

It is estimated that both organizations have been able to obtain a loot of close to three million euros with these crimes that they began to carry out in 2022. There are more than 200 victims.

The pickpockets were the bottom rung of the plot.

Above all, they sought

to steal ID cards from people registered in the Salamanca neighborhood,

thinking that they were targets with more money in their accounts.

They were the most sought after, better if they were women's, for which they received up to 200 euros.

They sold the DNI and credit cards to the second mafia group that used them to request loans in the name of those people, some of up to 20,000 euros.

To do this, they captured the usurpers, drug addicts who disguised the victims of the stolen documents in a similar way and those they took to the banks to request a loan or withdraw cash.

If necessary, they were characterized with wigs and glasses.

The investigation began in August of last year 2022 when the agents of the Investigation and Fraud Group of the Mobile Brigade of the National Police became aware of numerous thefts that were being committed on the Madrid suburban network.

Furthermore, the victims of these crimes, spread throughout Spain,

subsequently reported new criminal acts at different points

in which the documentation that had been stolen from them was used.

The first to report did so because she saw a bank statement for 2,500 that was not hers.

These were crimes such as massive fraud, document falsifications, misappropriations, money laundering, theft and usurpation of marital status, etc.

Those arrested

quickly spent the money they got on partying or on large gifts.

Two women laundered money by selling products on trading apps, investigators have indicated.

Concluding the investigation, last January a police device was established for the arrest, on February 8, of the members of the criminal organization in which three entries and searches were carried out.

Numerous effects, cash and identification used in the criminal acts were recovered.

Furthermore, in a park in the Moratalaz district of Madrid, several vaults were located where a large part of the documentation was found, between 60 and 70 DNI and NIE, in addition to about 30,000 euros in cash.

They also found a kilo of ecstasy and small quantities of cocaine and heroin in an apartment in Getafe.

Then the 53 people were arrested as alleged perpetrators of the crimes of

money laundering, usurpation of civil status, against public health, theft, fraud, human trafficking,

document falsification and membership in a criminal organization.

Eight of those involved in this operation are also in prison for other crimes, investigators have indicated.