The Civil Guard and the National Police have arrested two men who allegedly conned 58,800 euros and jewelry worth 250,000 euros from 16 people after making more than 100 calls posing as police officers.
Both police forces have reported in a joint note that Operation Estelham began in October last year, when the Almería Provincial Police Station and the Alhama Civil Guard barracks in Almería began to receive complaints about these scams.
The victims reported how someone phoned older persons making them believe that their son, or a close relative, was in detention for running over a person or causing a serious traffic accident.
They were then asked for bail to prevent their entry into prison, so that one of the scammers pretended to be an agent of these bodies, telling him that a partner would come by his home to collect the money.
The Civil Guard and the National Police stress that they sometimes exerted "a lot of pressure" on the victim, ensuring that the admission to prison would be immediate, so that they sometimes received jewelry instead of money because they did not have the necessary cash at that time.
Thanks to the information provided by the victims and the analysis of the traffic in calls, it was possible to identify the alleged perpetrators with the support of technological means. The first arrest took place when the National Police surprised one of the suspects in Granada, where he had moved to carry out one of the scams.
The second arrested was captured in the city of Almeria after he allegedly carried out another of these scams in a housing block. The officers conducted a "door by door" search until the victim was located and followed the alleged perpetrator to the hotel where he was staying, after finding that the money had been handed over, and arrested him.
Thus, it has been verified that a total of 16 scams have been carried out in the localities of Almería, Alhama de Almería, Granada, Fuengirola, Seville, Cadiz, Murcia and Córdoba, bringing the total value of the swindled to 58,800 euros in cash and jewels valued at 250,000 euros.
In addition, the officers check that the perpetrators have carried out more than a hundred attempted scams that did not succeed. Detainees are also given a record of other property offences.
The proceedings conducted by the Civil Guard and the National Police have been brought before the Court of First Instance and Instruction No. 6 of Almería.
