British tourists targeted in massive £1.5m suitcase scam at Spanish airport
Workers at one of Spain's biggest airports have been caught stealing hundreds of thousands of pounds of items from holidaymakers suitcases.
14 airport workers at Tenerife Sur airport have been arrested as part of the £1.67million crime which saw them target the bags of tourists, including Brits. Another 20 workers are still being investigated.
A probe was launched when officials realised there was a suspicious increase in the number of reports filed by travellers claiming they had been the victims of robberies and thefts after checking their suitcases. Some of the thefts took place as airport workers loaded bags into the holds of planes, making sure to slow down the process slightly so they could get into the pieces of luggage without anyone noticing, the Spanish Civil Guard has said.
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An organised group stole the goods from suitcases (Guardia Civil)They also opened the luggage inside the hold, puncturing the zipper of the suitcases to open them completely. "Once they had removed the objects they were interested in from inside, including jewellery, cell phones, watches, and electronic devices, they closed the zipper again to leave the suitcase without any signs of tampering," a Civil Guard spokesperson said.
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The organised group also constructed a wall of suitcases in a warehouse where bags were stored so they could break into other items without anyone noticing. Each gang member had a different job, from choosing the right flight to target and hiding the stolen effects, to removing them from the airport facilities and selling the stolen goods in jewellery stores or on the internet.
They hid their ill-gotten gains inside pieces of clothing specially adapted to have secret pockets or by stashing them in their personal lockers.
The Civil Guard carried out several searches, both at the lockers of these airport workers and in their private vehicles and homes. In total, 29 high-end watches, 120 pieces of jewellery, 22 high-end mobile phones, electronic devices, 13,000 euros in cash and a vehicle were seized.
The value of all the stolen objects recovered amounts to 1,953,571 euros (£1.67million). Police are currently investigating 27 jewellery stores in the area.
A police spokesperson said on Friday: "The Civil Guard, within the framework of the so-called Oretel operation, has arrested 14 people and investigated another 20, all of them workers at the Sur-Reina Sofía airport in Tenerife, as alleged perpetrators of the crimes of belonging to a criminal group, robbery with force, damages and money laundering."
The investigation has been carried out by the Fiscal Investigation and Border Analysis Unit of the Tenerife South Airport with the support of the Citizen Security Unit. The Civil Guard has had the support of the State Aviation Safety Agency, Spanish Airports and Air Navigation, as well as the different airlines that operate at Reina Sofía Airport.
Last month Brits going on holiday to Tenerife were warned of "chaos" at the south airport partly caused by Brexit. Irked tourism leaders on the island say the passport control at the busy Tenerife Sur is "nonsense" and want urgent action to prevent one-hour queues to get through passport control. The holiday bosses claim that the situation has been going on for months and is affecting hundreds of thousands of Brits.
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