The Guardia Civil have run to ground a group of thieves that have allegedly been targeting farms and country dwellings in the Axarquía area.

Aptly named, Operación Apero, rounded up six suspects and charged two more as the band behind 74 cases of burglary and theft.

The word apero means ‘country store shed,’ and it has been using the excuse of building an apero that many locals and foreign residents built themselves country dwellings, more in line with a cortijo.

Using search warrants, the Guardia Civil searched the homes of those involved and came up with a variety of stolen goods, which are being identified and returned to their rightful owners.

Not all of those arrested actually carried out the burglaries and thefts as two of them had the task of receiving the stolen items and moving them on to Morocco for sale there, where controls are not so tight… to put it euphemistically.

According to the Guardia Civil, the police investigation began after a series of break-ins during last August around Torrox, Algarrobo, Nerja and Frigiliana. The thieves did not content themselves with just stealing money, jewellery and valuable decorations, but also went so far as to rip out bathroom fittings and strip electrical installations for the copper.

The Mayor of Vélez-Málaga, Francisco Delgado, will propose before the Town Council a petition to have the Penal Law Code modified so that petty larceny carried out in the countryside should be considered a crime rather than a misdemeanor.

(News: Axarquia, Malaga, Andalucia)