A travelling criminal gang that terrorised luxury homes in Marbella has been dismantled after a major international police operation.
The group is accused of carrying out at least four violent robberies in 2024, targeting high-end villas where residents were threatened, assaulted and forced to reveal the location of safes, cash and valuables.
According to the Policia Nacional, the robbers struck dressed in black, wearing balaclavas and armed with firearms. Three men would storm the property – usually between 7pm and 2am – climbing walls or forcing doors and windows, while a fourth accomplice waited outside in a getaway car acting as lookout.
Victims were beaten and intimidated during the terrifying raids.
Based in Catalonia, operating across Europe
Investigators established that the gang was based in Catalonia, but had infrastructure and collaborators in Malaga and along the Mediterranean coast.
They moved constantly across Spain and other European countries.
To avoid detection, they used high-powered luxury vehicles bought abroad with false paperwork or registered under third parties.
Licence plates were repeatedly swapped using plates purchased online – sometimes using up to nine different plates matching the same make and model.
They avoided leaving digital trails by:
- Using walkie-talkies with hidden earpieces instead of mobile phones
- Paying cash at petrol stations
- Frequently changing phone numbers registered under fake identities
The stolen goods – mainly jewellery, exclusive watches and large sums of cash – were hidden in remote mountain ‘zulos’ (stash sites).
Arrests in Albania, Italy and Barcelona
Once the suspects were identified, the operation unfolded in two phases.
In September 2025, police carried out four house searches in Albania, arresting one suspect. Another gang member was tracked down in Italy under a European arrest warrant.
The second phase took place in January in Barcelona, where two more men were arrested after police searches uncovered:
- More than €10,500 in cash
- Four luxury watches
- Designer handbags worth over €50,000
A further suspect based in Benidorm was also arrested and extradited to Italy.
Five detained, two behind bars
In total, five people have been arrested on suspicion of belonging to a criminal organisation, violent robbery in occupied homes, assault and document forgery.
Two of the suspects have been remanded in custody by court order.
The takedown ends a months-long investigation into a gang that brought fear to some of Marbella’s most exclusive neighbourhoods – and operated with military-style precision across borders.
Read more Andalucia news at the Spanish Eye.
