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Date Published: 17/05/2023

Malaga hugger muggers pose as tourists to rob cruise ship passengers

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In the Andalucía city, 99% of the pickpockets are women and robberies are “continuous”

Malaga hugger muggers pose as tourists to rob cruise ship passengers

Meet the latest career criminal on the Costa del Sol: this 29-year-old woman used three different identities to dodge the 11 courts across Andalucía that were searching for her in relation to ‘hugger mugger’ crimes against the elderly.

The Police had already arrested her 20 times for similar pickpocketing crimes, but her rap sheet was far more varied: Marbella, Vélez-Málaga and Cádiz had all issued search and arrest warrants against her for crimes against property committed between 2018 and 2020. After years on the run, the fugitive has been hunted down again, this time in Alicante, but the nerve centre of her work, like so many other pickpockets, is the Costa del Sol and its thriving cruise tourism.

Hugger muggers are a new breed of thief and in Malaga, the vast majority of them are women. The robbers dress and act like tourists and get up close, ‘hugging’ their victims and swiping jewellery, watches, wallets and phones. On the Costa del Sol, the authorities have warned visitors that these criminals are constantly on the look-out for victims on commuter trains in wealthy areas.

“Here they have an operational base and they rent apartments, in which four to seven people can live. One day they travel to Marbella and another to Fuengirola... They have a lot of mobility along the coast,” a Police spokesperson explained.

“Ninety-nine per cent of them are women, dressed as another foreigner to blend in with the crowd. They wear a tank top, shorts, a cap and even have long blonde hair that allows them to pass for any Scandinavian,” he added. But their passport gives them away, since most are actually Romanian or Bulgarian.

Pickpockets are especially prevalent in the Port of Malaga where droves of tourists disembark daily from cruise ships, while the Plaza de la Marina y de la Aduana, Calle Granada and the vicinity of the Cathedral are other black spots.

In these busy hubs, the thieves usually creep up behind their unsuspecting victims and filch wallets and other valuables from backpacks and pockets.

Generally, around seven or eight of these pickpockets are nabbed by Police on a daily basis, but the criminal activity, according to the source, is still pretty “continuous” in the historic centre of Malaga.

In other news: Outrage as Andalusia greenlights project to build golf resort on drought-stricken nature reserve

Image: Freepik

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