Various European police forces, including the National Police, have dismantled an organization in Naples (Italy) allegedly dedicated to the theft of luxury watches throughout Europe, and arrested 35 of its members, 27 of them in Spain.
The members of this gang, despite operating in multiple countries, have been settled in recent months in Spanish tourist cities such as Ibiza and Palma, where investigators suspect they have committed robberies, as reported Thursday by the Directorate General of Police.
Europol has coordinated different police forces throughout Europe in the so-called Operation Paranze, the latest phase of which has resulted in eight arrests.
These have taken place in Naples, where the criminal organization originated, and also involved the italian, Austrian, German and French police.
These eight arrestees, all Italian nationals, are in addition to the 27 arrested in Spain in the first phase of the operation.
However, the operation remains open and more arrests are not ruled out.
This is how they ‘worked’
According to the police investigations, the members of the network used to act in groups of three or four people and, while some identified and watched their potential victims in hotels or luxury restaurants, others committed the robbery.
On some occasions they went so far as to use force and assaulted their victims, ripping their watches off their wrists. They would then flee quickly, usually on a motorcycle.
The fact that this modus operandi was being repeated in several European cities caught the attention of the authorities, who transferred their inquiries to Europol.
The investigation and the operation were financed by European Funds from the European Union Commission through the Internal Security Fund and led by the Italian Anti-Mafia Investigation Directorate (DIA).
This is not the first time that European authorities have coordinated an operation against gangs of thieves whose main target is high-end watches. For example, in November 2022, they arrested four Neapolitans operating in Spanish tourist cities.
Although they used the same procedure – small groups, surveillance, use of force – they used to rob elderly people on vacation in Marbella, Madrid, Barcelona, Ibiza or Palma.