Eight family members of violent luxury watch theft gang arrested in Spain

Using a technique known as "love hug" thefts a gang of luxury watch thieves has been disbanded by Spain's National Police. The perpetrators used a modus operandi where female gang members would approach the victim to seduce him, even going as far as touching his genitals and proposing sexual relations. This diversionary manoeuvre was deployed while the victim’s luxury watch was snatched.

Police investigators attributed eight thefts of luxury watches in Malaga, Granada, Murcia and Alicante worth 60,000 euros to the group which was made up of family members.

The gang acted in pairs and travelled to the scene in groups of between six and ten people. They rented houses or flats in the targeted cities for a few days and drove to tourist areas of these locations looking for potential victims, who were selected by the watch they were wearing. The profile of their victims were drunk foreign tourists, mainly men, who were elderly or with reduced mobility.

The first investigations began last March, when officers became aware of the violent robberies using the "love hug" theft tactic that were being committed by an itinerant criminal group. The investigation found that the group sometimes travelled to cities in cars registered in the name of third parties who acted as front men to make police tracking more difficult. They had a fleet of vehicles that they were constantly renewing.

The female gang members approached the victim while male members remained waiting inside the vehicles to facilitate a quick getaway, or to collaborate and use violence, in case the victim resisted.

Officers swooped on a rural house in Granada province where eight people were arrested. Three house searches were carried out in Madrid, in which various electronic devices and documentation were seized.