MADRID
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They are children in all the breadth of the word. Less than 14 years old. And, therefore, unimpeachable. Up to a total of 37 minors have been used by two Romanian clans, which formed the same criminal organization, to perpetrate, so far as it is known, 200 robberies of the elderly in ATMs. The Cashier operation It is unprecedented and is the largest trafficking of unimpeachable minors for criminal purposes that this type has been carried out so far. There are 26 detainees: 18 are the bosses and the other eight are minors with criminal responsibility (from 14 to 17 years old).
The device, commanded by Group XVI, organized crime, of the Judicial Police Brigade of the Higher Headquarters of Madrid began last December and has culminated with the arrests on October 13, last Wednesday. District and local police stations have also participated.
These children, who of course were out of school, lived with their families in Madrid (the five searches have been carried out in Getafe and Fuenlabrada) or they were brought from Romania, supposedly for a better life.
Old people beaten and on the floor
But really their destiny was to go, in groups, to hot zones of bank branches. There, they selected potentially vulnerable victims, especially the elderly, and offered to help or distract them. They committed theft of the money they took from the ATMs, but they also beat them, until they threw them to the ground, police sources report.
Complaints of this type accumulated in different police stations in the Community of Madrid and the investigators smelled that there was a common pattern and that a criminal organization must be behind it. And so it was. The main culprits were two heads of two family clans with a well-defined structure.
At the top were those parents, who selected the areas where their children and the rest of the criminal slaves should act. In a second step were the patriarchs of other families, who took the children to the arranged places. Finally, there were the kids.
‘Crime tours’
These last, when they were already ‘burned’ by the police (they had been identified several times), they were sent to other Spanish provinces, but also to neighboring countries of the EU, so that they continue to operate in the same way. What the gang called ‘crime tours’.
On October 13, an operation of a hundred troops was coordinated to arrest these criminals. In the records were found 10,000 euros, high-end watches, mobile phones and various documentation.
Five in prison
The Group of Minors of the National Police (Grume) has taken charge of the 37 unimpeachable children. Of the adults, five are already behind bars. The accused are accused of trafficking in human beings for the purpose of criminal exploitation, belonging to a criminal organization and crime against family rights and duties.
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism