The Mossos d’Esquadra have arrested a gang of 24 suspects from Romania who persuaded tourists to hand over their wallets and identity documents by posing as police officers. The Mossos said in a statement on Monday that they generally targeted tourists from the United States and Asia and are believed to have carried out at least 80 robberies in this way, obtaining proceeds of some 80,000 €.
The Catalan police force are seeking another 14 suspected members of the gang.
They used rented cars which appeared similar to those used by the Mossos and acted in groups of three or four people, with one of them playing the part of a tourist to strike up a conversation with bona fide visitors to the Catalan capital. Other gang members posing as police would then approach the group and ask each of them for their documentation. The true tourists usually followed suit when the false tourist obeyed the officers’ instructions.
EFE reports that some were even persuaded to hand over their credit cards and their PIN numbers when the fake officers said they needed them to verify the information.
It was only later that they found out they had been robbed.
