The Guardia Civil in Dílar, Granada, have arrested eight Lithuanians involved in the theft of cars in Málaga, Granada and Almería provinces.
The gang, six men and two women, are thought to have stolen around 60 vehicles and shipped them back to Lithuania to be sold. They specialised in Seat León and VW Golf models, fitting them with license plates from similar cars stolen earlier in England and Lithuania.
Changing chassis numbers, fitting new plates and forging documentation, the gang shipped the vehicles back to Lithuania where they were sold ‘legally’.
The police carried out raids on two houses in Dilar and Granada, confiscating various license plates, air pistols, two laptop computers, some stolen jewellery, €2,600 in cash, stolen credit cards, stolen cameras and, naturally, 12 mobile phones.
The investigation also led to the discovery that several of those detained were wanted for other crimes, including the murder of two Bulgarian nationals in calle Jasmine, Madrid, in 2003.