Every summer day, the incident reports of the National Police collect the theft of “three or four luxury watches”. More than one hundred watches stolen per month in Spain. Most of the victims are in Barcelona, Malaga, Marbella, Ibiza, Palma de Mallorca and Madrid, as they explain to CASO ABIERTO, an investigation and events channel of the Iberian Press, from the Central UDEV Robbery Group, in charge of fighting against these criminals. Who are the thieves?
“75 percent of these robberies are committed by Neapolitan citizens, many linked to the Camorra“, Says a member of the UDEV. Since 2020, this police group has developed the first database with the most dangerous watch thieves in Spain. There are already 250 Neapolitan citizens included in it.
The Italian Guardia di Finanza has confirmed to its Spanish colleagues that many of these thieves are part, in their lower links, of the Camorra, the Naples mafia group, and that they have already participated in other money laundering and drug trafficking operations.
“work” cells
Spanish investigators already know how these criminals work. “They work in cells of four or five people“, they explain. “The thieves arrive in Spain by ferry or by plane to airports with little surveillance; for example, if they are going to dock in Marbella, they travel to Seville”, they add. They carry false documentation, Neapolitan, provided by the organization, like the one shown in this report.
“Sometimes they bring the scooter on the ferry, but the normal thing is that they rent them in Mallorca or Malaga. They put a sticker with half of a false number plate on the real number plate so that we do not follow the trail.”
modus operandi
When the time comes for the robbery, two thieves approach the victim on a motorcycle, usually a man, a tourist, with a wig or a orology deluxe. One of them stays nearby with the motorcycle running. The other gets down and attacks the victim. He twists her wrist and undoes the buckle of the clock He gets back on the bike and they drive off.
Lately they have been perfected so as not to be stopped with loot in hand. A few meters from the scene of the robbery, two cronies are waiting for them in a car, also rented, with its windows open. When the bike passes by, the thief dunk the clock in the back out of the car and everyone goes on their way. It is less and less frequent to see them use a gun, as in the assault on a woman in Marbella which illustrates this report.
the scouts
The victims, most of them mature men with a good watch in sight, are carefully chosen thanks to previous surveillance work. They are made by scouts, elegant Italian women, most of them, from the Naples area.
They are very well dressed and frequent luxury shopping malls, terraces of expensive restaurants, private nightclubs. Over there sign up who has a good watch. “They do not execute, they locate. When they have chosen the victim, they notify the men by mobile and they take care of it,” explains a Spanish police officer.
“Elegant women choose victims in hotels, restaurants and luxury shops. The organization does not want to steal watches worth less than 20,000 euros each”
The scouts work with “responsibility”. “The organization does not want to steal watches that are worth less than 20,000 euros each”, adds this researcher. And they must stick to stealing only three chosen brands: Rolex, Patek Phillippe and Audemars Piguet . “They tend to choose very well. The usual thing is that watches of 120 or 130,000 euros are stolen. In Spain watches of 400,000 euros have been taken. If they steal one that is worth less than 20,000 euros, they consider it a mistake.”
Final destination
If the watch is very good, it immediately “leaves” Spain. If it is medium, wait a couple of days. Many times, the men who take it out, people not registered by the police, even take it put on the doll. Several have been detained in this way in Spanish airports and in Naples. The best known Neapolitan thieves in Spain were the Fiorillo clan, five brothers Neapolitans, who moved in cells of up to 20 people.
“The National Police has already detected the jump of some watch thieves to drug traffickers in Barcelona, Ibiza and Mallorca”
The final destination of the merchandise is varied. Watches stolen in Spain have been found in the territory of Israel, also in Abu Dhabi, even in Switzerland. Investigators suspect that they are also used as payment or bail by the Camorra to finance drug trafficking operations.
In Spain, the National Police has already detected the jump from some watch thieves to drug traffickers, “especially in the area of Barcelona, Ibiza and Mallorca“, assure sources of the UDEV.
Neither casinos nor brothels
The Neapolitans who steal watches in Spain alternate their summer campaigns here with others in the Mykonos Island (Greece). They stay in discreet hostels or tourist apartments.
Unlike other criminals, they do not spend their loot or frequent Spanish casinos or brothels. They only give them away, sometimes, His tattoos. There is hardly a watch thief without tattoos, according to police. Many repeat from year to year, climate change helps them, tourists begin to wear short sleeves, and let their watches be seen, already at Easter.
They are daring. Recently one of them chased by the police in Marbella, threw a stolen watch on the street, next to a doorway. The agents decided to wait to see if she came back for the loot. He did, with a pistol with which he tried to shoot one of the officers. Fortunately, the gun jammed.
other groups
Neapolitans are responsible for three out of four luxury watch thefts in Spain. The rest is run by various groups: one of them is made up of French citizens of Algerian or Tunisian origin. “They are rougher and less organized than the Neapolitans. They are more violent, they see someone with a good watch, they follow him and take it away,” says one researcher. Several are established in Barcelona and some come from Marseille for summer campaigns.
The boom in luxury watches has also attracted groups of Colombian and Venezuelan criminals“act on all in Madridand not with scooters, like the Italians, but with large-capacity motorcycles, “underline police sources. The latest to join this trend of the theft of very expensive watches in Spain are, according to police data, Argentine criminal groups.
Love hugs
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There are also groups of criminals, almost always of Romanian origin, dedicated to theft by “Love hugs”. Unlike in the case of the Neapolitans, the executors here are very affectionate women with the victims. “Almost always it’s elderly people, lonely people. They hug them, tell them four things and take away their watch.” In this case, the victims are old people from all social classes and the spoils are less succulent.
Finally, there is also “national product”, groups of spanish criminals who steal watches, but according to the police they are much less organized and opportunistic. “If they see one with a good watch, they hit him with the stick, but they don’t dedicate themselves to it.” Yet.