Date Published: 26/02/2021
ARCHIVED - Benidorm pizzeria owner arrested after robbing 73 cashpoints using explosives
ARCHIVED ARTICLE
Removal of ATMs with tow trucks is the preferred method in Alicante with the latest incident in San Fulgencio this week!
After a joint investigation with the Carabinieri in Italy the Policía Nacional have arrested an Italian pizza restaurant owner in Benidorm, in the province of Alicante, after establishing that he was the ringleader of a group which carried out 73 cash point thefts in various parts of his home country using explosives to gain access to their loot.
A further nine people were arrested in Italy in connection with the thefts in the regions of Lombardy, Piamonte, Emilia Romaña and Lazio over a 2-year period, each of them having performed a clearly defined role within the group’s operations: one was in charge of obtaining the explosives, others handled them and another group drove the getaway cars from the scenes of the crimes, which netted them booty of approximately 3.5 million euros.
All of those arrested are from the city of Bologna but the ringleader, named in press reports as Giuseppe, had set up his pizzería close to the Playa de Levante in Benidorm, where he lived with his family until Wednesday, when the police raided his home and arrested him after he had taken the children to school. He will now be returned to Italy for trial.
Meanwhile, further south in the province of Alicante, it is reported that thieves broke into the premises of a construction materials company in the La Hoya district of Elche on Wednesday evening and stole a tow truck, which they then used to steal a cashpoint machine by ripping it from the wall in the town of San Fulgencio, approximately 12 kilometres away.
The truck was loaded with 800 euros’ worth of materials which were to have been delivered to a customer the following day, but that delivery was not made as it was not until the following morning that the truck was found, not far from the yard from which it was taken, on one of the small roads leading into the natural park of El Hondo. It was at that point that investigating officers linked the theft in Elche to the disappearance of the ATM in San Fulgencio.
While the pizzero in Benidorm preferred to use explosives in order to extract money from cash dispensers, the removal of the entire machine using lifting machinery appears to have become the most popular modus operandi in the province of Alicante, and in recent months half a dozen similar robberies have been reported including one in Orihuela Costa in October of last year.