The Civil Guard truncates the activity of a group specialized in kidnappings and locates the industrial warehouse where they were holding their victims
They are attributed with the kidnapping of a neighbor of Gijón (Asturias) last March, who was violently transferred to Valencia, from where they demanded 5 million euros for his release
The vehicle used in those events, which had previously been stolen, as well as different rooms and supplies arranged for the commission of new kidnappings, was located in the warehouse.
The kidnapped person was released in the province of Albacete by the kidnappers themselves before police pressure, and they were arrested months later.
The Civil Guard, in the so-called “Taynik” operation, has detained the two leaders of a group specialized in the commission of kidnappings, and a third person was also investigated. They are attributed the authorship of the kidnapping of a Gijón neighbor, who was attacked at gunpoint and held for five days in captivity in an industrial warehouse located on the outskirts of Valencia.
The investigation began last March after the agents learned of the disappearance of this person while he was working in the family business. According to the first investigations, the authors accessed the aforementioned company and, under threats with firearms, forced this person to enter the trunk of a vehicle.
€ 5,000,000 ransom
After the first actions, it was concluded that the victim could have been kidnapped by a violent group, putting his life in serious danger, so a joint team of members of the Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard and the Gijón Command.
The kidnapping was finally confirmed the next day when the perpetrators contacted a family member of the victim demanding 5 million euros for his release.
The investigators, who carried out their activity in a frenzy during the first days of the kidnapping due to the real danger to the life of the victim, located the vehicles that the kidnappers had used for the commission of the facts.
Liberation in the province of Albacete
Although during the transfer of the victim the captors adopted great security measures, even changing the license plate of the vehicle used on several occasions, the agents confirmed that the victim had been transferred from Gijón to some point in the Spanish east, and was finally released by his captors before police pressure in a small town in the province of Albacete.
Once the physical integrity of the victim had been assured, the investigation focused on knowing the identity of the perpetrators, their modus operandi and locating the specific place of captivity.
In this way, as a result of the analysis work carried out, results were obtained that led the researchers to an industrial warehouse in the province of Valencia, as well as to prove the direct involvement in the events of two people, as well as the specific vehicles employed both to commit the act and transfer the kidnapped person, as well as to carry out surveillance tasks.
Complex location and simultaneous stops
It should be noted that the location of the leader of the group, a native of a small town in the north of Madrid, was quite complex due to the extreme security measures that he adopted in all his movements, always using false documentation.
But, in the middle of last August, the agents detected that one of the vehicles usually used by this person was moving along the A-3 motorway towards Valencia, coordinating a device for this purpose with different units of the Civil Guard, which allowed their location and identification. Despite identifying himself as another person, it was verified that he was the main investigated in the proceedings, proceeding at that time to his arrest in the province of Valencia and, simultaneously, to the arrest of the other implicated in the Community of Madrid.
Analyzing the vehicle used by the first detainee, it was possible to find out the existence of a sophisticated system of concealment of access to double funds, locating on the same mobile phones, three sets of forged license plates, zip ties, a police rotary, anti-odor sprays, balaclava, duct tape, shackles and various clothing.
250 liters of sulfuric acid
Provided with the corresponding judicial authorization, a search was made in the ship, which had been under surveillance from its location. Said registry evidenced the high degree of specialization of these people in the commission of kidnappings and their clear intention to continue committing similar acts.
In addition to the high-end vehicle used to transport the kidnapped, whose key was found hidden in a light strip, more items were found ready for the imminent commission of new kidnappings, such as identity documents, balaclava, flares, shackles or tape Americana, as well as special cleaning tools and even a pulley system for lifting heavy objects on a large metal drum. Along with this were numerous carafes that contained a highly corrosive substance that, after the corresponding analyzes, turned out to be about 250 liters of sulfuric acid.
The two detainees PPJ, and CRM, 38 and 51 years old, residents of small towns in the north of the Community of Madrid, were placed at the disposal of the Guard Courts of Requena and Colmenar Viejo respectively, decreeing their entry into prison preventive without bail for both.
These two people have a long criminal history, including committing a kidnapping in Madrid before, in which one of them was arrested. Observing the specialization of these people, as well as the elements intervened and, mainly, the disposition and elements located in the registered industrial warehouse, the investigations are currently focused on knowing other kidnappings or even crimes against life that may have been committed previously and to those that have used the means and localized infrastructures.
The police actions have been directed by the Court of Instruction number 3 of Gijón in collaboration with the Prosecutor attached to that same Court. They have also been carried out by the Homicide, Kidnapping and Extortion Section of the UCO and the Organic Unit of the Judicial Police of the Gijón Command, also with the support of various special units of the Civil Guard such as the Cynological Service, the Traffic Group, the CBRN Technical Unit (Nuclear, Radiological, Biological and Chemical) and the Criminalistics Service, as well as personnel assigned to the Valencia, Madrid and Gijón Commanderies.
For more information, you can contact the Press Office of the Central Operational Unit (U.C.O.), telephone 915.031.327 or the Gijón Command at number 985.385.800.
