Thieves who Stole Vehicles to Break Down to Parts Arrested

In a joint operation between the Guardia Civil and the Municipal Police of Madrid, within the framework of the OVIBIKE operation, 16 people belonging to a criminal organisation dedicated to the theft of vehicles for their subsequent manipulation, disassembly and sale as original parts, have been arrested.

In the operation, an undetermined number of stolen motorcycle and passenger car frames and engines have been seized. In one of the searches carried out, nearly €35,000 in cash were seized from criminal offences committed. Until now and due to the number of stolen vehicles, it is not possible to determine the heritage value of all the intervened material.

The operation began in April of this year, as a result of a coincidence of information by the police forces, for which a joint work team was created to proceed to monitor those allegedly involved who falsified the documentation and “made up” vehicles for sale.

As a result of the investigations, the agents were able to determine that the organisation was made up of a first echelon that was in charge of locating and stealing the motorcycles they needed and that they left them parked near the workshop of one of the members. Subsequently, they were introduced to proceed to their total dismantling, for the transfer of said pieces according to the needs, to another workshop or to a larger warehouse in the province of Toledo, for storage and subsequent distribution.

Next, and to get rid of the remains that could not be used, they contacted others involved, who in a box truck transported all the disposable material to scrap yards for its total destruction, deleting the chassis number of the motorcycles, in order to eliminate any trace that could locate them.

With these parts and in the same workshop, they assembled the stolen engines on motorcycles of legal origin that they had previously acquired. In this way, they had a double benefit, that of the parts that had been mounted on the motorcycles of people who came for their repair and not paying said parts to the manufacturer, since they were stolen.

On the other hand, they selected the vehicles that they were going to take according to the needs by brand and model, either for parts or to sell them once they had been “made up”.

The first phase of exploitation that has been carried out in various areas of Madrid, has resulted in the entry and search of five properties, two of them in the homes of the main leaders and another two in the workshops where they cut the motorcycles of different brands, which had previously been stolen, where they hid different material used and carried out the manipulation.

The fifth search has taken place in the province of Toledo, where a warehouse has been inspected, in which a large number of stolen pieces have been located.

To proceed with the sale of the stolen parts, they used several internet profiles in which they offered more than 500 products, all of them motorcycles, which, after their economic analysis, would reach a market value of around €300,000.

They have also seized material that they used to erase the chassis numbers and tools for cutting up and for cloning keys and chassis makeup, as well as frequency inhibitors and blank vehicle documentation.