The violent criminal network dismantled by the Civil Guard was going to perpetrate another assault in a house in Lanzarote. In fact, that is what precipitated the intervention of the agents, who brought forward the arrests to prevent a new robbery. Currently, the operation is still open and pending new arrests of other members of this network. Precisely for this reason, the arrests had not been made public until now, although they occurred almost two weeks ago.
The detainees, between 36 and 60 years old and all of them natives of the Canary Islands, resided in Tenerife. However, they were arrested in Lanzarote, where they had already moved to perpetrate the new assault. At least one of the arrests occurred in Costa Teguise, where on the night of Friday, February 26, a strong presence of agents could be seen in the vicinity of the El Palmeral urbanization. It was in that area where one of the searches took place.
In addition to being pending new arrests, the investigation now focuses on clarifying the participation of this criminal network in other violent robberies registered in the Canary Islands in recent years. For the moment, there are already indications of their possible participation in two assaults also registered in Lanzarote in 2013. One of them took place in the town of Tinajo, in October of that year, and another a few months later, in December, in Tinguatón. In both cases, the assailants used extreme violence with the victims. Even, they even drilled one of them in the knee.
Victims subjected to "torture"
The modus operandi thus coincides with that used in the house in El Islote, where they also subjected the owner of the house to "torture". In this case, instead of a drill, they used a device to apply electric shocks all over his body. In addition, they subjected him to strong blows, which are what could have triggered his death this Thursday, almost a month and a half after the attack. Now, the autopsy will confirm or not this extreme and a possible new charge for homicide.
The death of Antonio "the carpenter", as this resident of El Islote was known, has also advanced the public dissemination of this police intervention. Until now, the agents and the investigating judge had kept it secret so as not to harm the investigation, which remains open. And one of the aspects that has most caught the attention of the investigators is the "unusual violence" used by the assailants.
Informants to "choose" the victims
In addition to the people who have been arrested as alleged members of this network, there would also be other people involved who acted as alleged "informants". According to the Civil Guard, these people were subjected to possible coercion and threats by the criminal organization, which thus gained access to information to "choose" the victims.
In the case of the El Islote house, as had already transpired, the assailants were looking for cash, but did not find it. Thus, they would only have managed to take objects such as jewelry, some of which have been recovered in this intervention by the Civil Guard. This could suggest a "miscalculation" when choosing the victims, since apparently this gang chose isolated homes where they believed they could find cash. In the case of one of the homes assaulted in 2013, it should be remembered that they managed to take 12,000 euros.
Another aspect that gives dimension to the level of organization of this gang is the way they used to flee, separating as soon as they committed the assault. Even, after the violent robbery in La Florida, they would have returned to Tenerife on different flights and even on different days.
