The Guardia Civil arrested four men from Eastern Europe in connection with stealing fuel from an oil pipeline in Utrera (Sevilla).

Besides the arrest of these suspects from Lithuania and Latvia, the police also recovered two containers containing 1,000 litres each.

The police operation also included carry out a thorough inspection of a distribution company in Espera in Cádiz, as well as home searches where they confiscated nanometers for measuring pressure, hoses, tools for carrying out perforations. The gang even had high night-vision equipment and radar detectors.

An investigation was opened in November when an illegal perforation was detected in a section of pipeline with difficult access near Alcalá de Guadaira. Technicians had detected 2,300 litres of fuel missing.

The police soon worked out the modus operandi that the crooks were using and realised that the gang was highly organised. The people tasked with perforation, for example, were termed “surgeons.”

(News: Utrera, Sevilla, Andalucia)