6 arrests were made and 40 vehicle and 2 motorcycle thefts solved
Disruption of a criminal organization who was committing vehicle thefts in various areas in Attica was arrested by the police who confiscated 18 vehicles and a number of accessories.
As it was established, the illegal financial benefit exceeds 980,000 euros
A criminal organization was dismantled from the Sub-Directorate for the Prosecution of Crimes Against Life and Property of the Attica Security Directorate, whose members were committing vehicle thefts in various areas of Attica.
On the morning of Tuesday, March 12, 2024, an organized police operation was carried out by the Property Crimes Department, in collaboration with the Organized Crime Department of Crete, together with a special unit of the Weapons – Traces and Tools Department of the Criminal Investigation Department and other police teams, in regions of Attica and Crete, during which 6 members of the organization were arrested, while the case file includes 2 more people.
A case file was filed against them for – as the case may be – criminal organization, distinguished thefts by conspiracy, by continuation and by profession, forgery, money laundering and violation of the law on weapons and drugs.
As it emerged from the investigation, the members of the organization had set up and joined a criminal organization with a specific structure, which carried out the theft of vehicles and motorcycles with a particularly high purchasing demand, with a specific mode of action (modus operandi), for the purpose of illegal possession income.
To achieve their goal, they had distinct roles, namely:
- A 35-year-old man, who held the leading role, was the sole regulator of the operation of the organization, while the stolen vehicles were counterfeited in a body shop owned by him. He directed the actions of the members of the organization, taking care of the receipt, storage and further disposal of disassembled parts and spare parts. In addition, they managed the cash flow for the operation of the criminal organization, such as payments for dismantling cars and operating costs of facilities.
- 32 years old, operated in direct dependence with the leading member of the organization, while he had a key role in its operation as he carried out registrations of vehicles from abroad and then proceeded to sell the forged cars, receiving the prices and deceiving the buyers,
- 43-year-old, who had undertaken the installation and operation of a makeshift clearinghouse in an abandoned building. He was the person who received the stolen vehicles, hid them and saw to their dismantling. When he completed the work, he delivered the parts using closed trucks to the lead member,
- 29-year-old and 21-year-old, they were the operational arm of the organization and removed vehicles, which covered the needs of the organization. In order to achieve their goal, they moved at night in various areas of Attica, looking for vehicles. After committing the theft, they moved the vehicles to neighborhood streets or to their “kavaza”, so as not to be found, and
- 51-year-old, who also owned a car repair shop, where he operated a makeshift vehicle scrapping, in an outdoor area with a high fence and a large double door. From him the leading member, using a car – van, loaded and received car spare parts, for a fee.
Characteristic of their methodicality is that they did not commit opportunistic thefts, but they removed vehicles of a specific make, model and color, which perfectly matched vehicles they had just registered each time.
From the searches carried out as part of the operation, among others, the following were found and seized:
9 stolen vehicles,
9 vehicles, whose legal origin is being examined,
1 stolen motorcycle,
8 vehicle frames (chassis), with the chassis number plates and their labels and stickers removed,
8 car engines,
fake license plates,
number of license plates of foreign countries,
fake stamps,
radio frequency interference device (jammer),
car brain diagnostics,
plugs connected to vehicle OBD,
a particularly large number of spare parts – vehicle parts,
cell phone crowd,
a number of documents related to vehicles coming from abroad,
number of vehicle keys and passepartout key,
laptop computers,
number of sim cards and USB and micro sd data storage media,
-1.332- grams of cannabis,
clothing worn during the commission of the thefts,
-2- weapons (pistol and revolver), -3- air pistols and -1- revolver replica,
-11- knives of various sizes,
-100- cartridges and
-1730- euros.
For the case, investigations had also been carried out in an earlier time, specifically in containers belonging to the company of the leading member as well as in a car dealership belonging to a member of the organization, during which -among other things- the following had been found and confiscated:
-3- stolen vehicles,
-12- dismantled vehicles, without identification numbers and their unique stickers,
-39- vehicle engines, most of them with scraped identification numbers,
multitude of doors, bumpers, lights, rubbers, axles and other vehicle parts and
multitude of car disassembly tools.
From the investigations so far, -40- cases of car thefts and -2- motorcycle thefts have been solved, while the illegal profit from the activity of the criminal organization is estimated to exceed the amount of -980,000- euros.
The arrested persons, who have been employed in the past for thefts, forgeries and other related crimes, were brought to the competent prosecution authority, while investigations to fully verify the scope of their criminal activity continue.
Source: Skai
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