Gang ‘slash tyres then rob tourists in distraction thefts on motorway’

A gang of suspected thieves have been arrested after being accused of targeting hundreds of foreign tourists in Spain by puncturing their tyres and stealing their valuables as they pretend to help them.

Spanish police have released footage of thieves slashing tyres at petrol stations before flagging the stricken motorists down a motorway.

While one accomplice distracts the driver, another creeps into the victim’s car and makes off with the stolen goods.

In shocking footage released by police, one thief sneaks up to a Porsche at a motorway toll ticket booth and slashes the rear tyre with a knife before rushing back to the passenger seat of his vehicle.

Officers said the brazen thieves operated along a 450-mile stretch of the AP-7, from Spain’s north-eastern border with France to Murcia in the south-east.

Police trawled through dash cam videos from victims and detained six suspected members of the criminal gang.

The six suspects were remanded in custody yesterday after appearing before a judge in Reus near Tarragona in eastern Spain.

A police spokesman: ‘We have smashed a criminal gang which targeted tourists in service stations on the AP-7 motorway and arrested the main suspects, six men of Serbian and Kosovan origin aged between 35 and 50.

‘The arrests took place in Reus, L’Ametlla de Mar and Hospitalet de l’Infant in an operation involving more than 100 officers.

‘The criminals’ modus operandi consisted of puncturing their victims’ tyres and then following them before taking advantage of the stops they had to make to steal items from inside their vehicle.

“On other occasions they simply detected the vehicle they wanted to target and got them to stop by indicating there was a problem with the car before offering to help them but stealing from them instead, with one distracting the victim while another took valuables.

‘Some of the detainees were known to police, having been arrested in 2012 for the same reasons.

‘Investigators have discovered they obtained more than €50,000 (£ 42,800) in cash and valuables including jewellery and designer handbags.

‘They mainly chose foreign holidaymakers as victims, because they calculated they would be carrying more money than most other people.’

The nationalities of the victims have not been released, but Brits are believed to be among them because of the sheer number of people police believe were targeted.

Additional reporting from Natalia Penza in Spain