The clock strikes six a.m. as a group of workers park their crane next to a bank branch, place the cones around it and begin spreading their material. In the Madrid municipality of Alcalá de Henares, rush hour begins and dozens of cars drive past the group of seemingly normal workers. No one is surprised until they break the glass of the building with the front part of the crane. But the reaction time is short: in less than two minutes they surround the ATM with cable ties, the crane accelerates and tears it down. They load him into the truck bed, cover him with a tarpaulin and flee. Job done. They simply stole more than 100,000 euros before it even dawned.
What they did not know was that the coup carried out in January was the beginning of the end for the El Grúas gang, the leader of this group, a 50-year-old Spaniard who had already been arrested several times for robberies and to whom he was referred When he was arrested, he told the agents, “It's a good thing you caught me, because tonight I was planning on taking another hit.”
After the robbery in Alcalá, they flee along the highway, but a National Police checkpoint tries to stop them. The crane at the wheel of the vehicle swerves, crosses the highway like lightning and manages to escape the agents after getting out of the vehicle and getting into a car that was waiting for him a few kilometers away. He exits the ATM covered with a tarp that was left on the back of the crane and also stolen. The gang's brains in question had “spectacular” driving skills, emphasize the agents involved in the operation.
El Grúas had been recruiting his gang since the middle of last year. This is a group consisting of at least three other men who were recruited from their circle of acquaintances for the blows that they wanted to carry out using this special technique. In September they gave the first donations attributed to this organization in a town in Guadalajara, then in the capital Madrid, in Pinto, in Alcalá de Henares and in a small town in the mountains of Madrid called Navalafuente.
At this last point the band changed their approach a bit because the ATM was at street level and there was no need to break glass. For this attack, they used a truck to tow damaged vehicles. This device had only recently been installed in the city after the mayor requested this service from the bank following requests from neighbors.
After trading, they took the ATMs to an abandoned property in El Molar (Madrid), where there was a restaurant years ago. Two of the band members lived there with two friendly dogs who agreed to cuddle with the police when they came in to arrest their owner. He and his three companions were arrested at the beginning of February for five violent robberies and another attempted robbery, as well as membership in a criminal organization. During one of the blows their reins were broken and they had to change their plans.
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On this farm, they forcibly opened the ATMs to empty their bowels of banknotes. They then threw the various parts in different places, although investigators from the Madrid Police Headquarters found some carcasses and other parts on the ground in which they could even read the name of a banking unit. The criminals knew when it was best to act: when the machines were busiest, because the weekend was about to start or it was pension payment day. The investigators suspect that they stole more than 400,000 euros in four months.
“Before the robberies, there was prior planning and one of the important elements was that there was an easy escape route from the location where the branch was located,” explains one of the researchers. “After dividing the money, they quickly spent it on all sorts of luxuries: cars, dinner, clothes…” adds another. They are accused of 19 crimes, because in addition to the violent robberies of ATMs there are other crimes, such as the theft of all the vehicles that they used in the attacks, the falsification of documents and the attack on an official. Because they put the lives of the police officers in danger when they escaped control in Alcalá de Henares.
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