A major wave of robberies has shaken the homes of many elite players this year. Thieves are looking for high-quality jewelry and watches and are now acting with more violence
In five months, four men robbed seven houses before dealing the major blow to the home of a First Division player, according to a thorough monitoring carried out by the Guardia Civil. The homes of the footballers are the big gamblers of these organized and specialized gangs, which in recent years have targeted some thirty of these sports millionaires. The latest Spanish punishment against these criminal groups – one of Albanians with no residence in Spain – reflects the attackers’ earlier route. They started with the theft of an Audi in the mountains of Madrid, went into the house to get the keys and five days later they stole another similar car. It was 2019, the year in which 16 attacks were perpetrated against Real Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Villarreal, Betis and Celta transfer houses. This year 2022 the number will rise to eight.
They robbed him in his house in Madrid and in his chalet in Almería.
His is the villa in Ibiza where the biggest heist on athletes was committed, with his name on a gang notebook.
He was living with Shakira when a Georgian gang, later captured, entered his home in Barcelona.
The Portuguese had been living in Barcelona, one of the cities with the highest number of robberies, for two years.
The Frenchman played at the Bernabéu and left his house without setting the alarm. They took 12 luxury watches and jewelry.
He was in concentration in Milan for a Champions League game when his safe was broken.
In the derby against Sevilla, they robbed his house and that of his partner William Carvalho.
He was at home with his wife and their two newborn twins when they were robbed at gunpoint.
In two months, they entered his house twice and took about 100,000 euros.
He lived in Ronaldo Nazario’s house in Ibiza over the summer, and they stole three million euros worth of jewelry.
The most violent case so far, the player was attacked in the face to open the safe
The last time he played against Elche, and the last time he was on the pitch against Barça.
Within a few days, four more cars were taken before entering through an open window to steal money and jewelry, including rings, pendants, brooches, necklaces and earrings. This was the robbery that ended a kind of training. They have polished up the way to observe their victims, build trust in the group, view escape routes, know the streets of the residential areas where their targets live, a source said. The cells are made up of three to five individuals, they usually don’t all act at once, and there is always one driver and guard. They move at different times, from noon to sunrise.
On the last day of September 2019, the gang of footballers – due to the history of violent theft whose leader was already being watched by the Spanish authorities – delivered the big blow in one of the most expensive areas of Madrid, Boadilla del Monte. It was the home of Thomas Parley, a midfielder who played for Atlético de Madrid at the time. They are also attributed, although not the cause, the robbery of Isco Alarcón and Álvaro Morata.
In general, thieves are active in several countries, have false documents, live in hiding places and move regularly. Those arrested in recent years were known to be under suspicion and have activated a “countersurveillance” to go under the radar, the National Police said after the arrest this week of another criminal group, made up of three Georgians who specialize in robbing houses by violence.
A World Cup team could be created with the players whose homes have been breached: Gerard Piqué, Casemiro, Raphaël Varane, Jordi Alba, Thomas, Arthur Melo, Samuel Umtiti, Nelson Semedo, Kevin Prince Boateng, Isco, Marco Verratti, Samu Castillejo , Lucas Vázquez, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Joaquín, William Carvalho, Gabriel Paulista, Funes Mori, Iago Aspas, Emre Mor, Ansu Fati, Álvaro Morata, Luis Suarez and Karim Benzema. Zinedine Zidane and president Ronaldo Nazario would be on the coaching staff.
But it could have been more had private security and in some cases family members and neighbors not thwarted the attacks, such as in the cases of Santiago Solari, Suso, Dani Carvajal, Ezequiel Garay and Geoffrey Kondogbia. The booties denounced by those affected range from 100,000 euros recognized by Aspas to three million by Verrati, the complaints said.
They are not random events. The time of the attacks coincided, in several documented cases, with an official party and in June, when another gang of robbers fell on the chalets of these celebrities, it turned out that the National Police had a “book” with names and addresses of their targets. , past and future, most of them footballers in exclusive urbanizations in Valencia, Madrid, Barcelona, Vigo, Sevilla and Ibiza.
“We are an easy target,” Carvajal said earlier this month after the attempted attack on his mansion in a Madrid urbanization with private security and 24-hour surveillance cameras. “They know when we play and when not. There are colleagues who have had a bad time. Quite a few have been involved in a barrage of robberies a few years ago”.
Several other raids on the athletes’ houses have confirmed that the modus operandi is identical thanks to the security cameras. Criminals arrive in a stolen car with changed number plates, wait until there are no witnesses on the street, climb fences and walls, reach the yard, look for or break open windows or doors and enter.
In the mansions they show all their criminal skills. As in Thomas’s house, they searched for the safe, which was in a cupboard, unclipped it and took it away. During the flight, they opened and emptied the safe, after which they threw it into an open field. There were two Rolexes, 2,500 euros, gold garments, diamond rings and UEFA Cup and European Super Cup champion medals and a Champions League runner-up. They also took some Raybans – they have a soft spot for sunglasses of all kinds – and the Ghanaian player’s passport. A big booty.
According to court information, necklaces, earrings, pendants and rings made of gold, diamonds and other precious stones, cash and collections of high-quality watches have been taken from the footballers’ homes. “The public appearances of football players, who certainly buy the best jewelry, can be a claim for the crooks,” said Virginia Bauzá, director of the assessment of the Spanish Gemological Institute. “Looking at the photos will give you an idea of the estimated value by brand or carat. A high quality one carat diamond may have around $19,000 base price, but there may be three carat earrings. In a ring there are a thousand combinations and that can include rubies, emeralds and other diamonds.Football players certainly buy the best, but jewelry is there to show off, such as watches and cars. Displaying them does not justify being stolen from you.
It is common for football players, like art collectors, to insure these properties. “If the value exceeds the maximum limits of the home policies, specific insurance for high wealth must be taken out,” said Eugenio Sainz, Consumer and Motor Manager of the insurance brokerage Marsh Spain. “If the objects are in the policy, the insurer will reimburse that value.”
The most expensive: High-end watches like Rolex, Vacheron Constantin, and Patek Phillippe, or autographed pieces by Cartier, Van Cliff, Cardiff, Lalique, or Tiffany, “greatly increase the value of jewelry,” Bauzá says.
Another criminal organization arrested this summer also consisted of Albanians and the major operation was carried out in Ibiza, in the villa of former Brazilian player Ronaldo Nazario -now owner of Valladolid-, while Italian midfielder Verrati celebrated a barbecue in the garden. Only in one of the thief’s pockets was a diamond watch with a market value of nearly half a million. For their crimes, these organizations carry crowbars, screwdrivers, sledgehammers, walkie-talkies. They usually don’t carry guns, but they do carry drugs. The leader is a “long-term narcotics user”, points out last year’s conviction by the Madrid Provincial Court and was finally resolved a few weeks ago.
The loot is taken to secondary markets. The gang that attacked Thomas Parley had an accomplice in a jewelry store in the capital, although these establishments must comply with a seller’s register that will be provided to authorities. A group of robbers arrested this week took the valuable items to markets in France, Germany and Poland, according to the National Police. They travel by road, hidden in the airbags of rental cars, as confirmed by the operation completed over the summer.
“Watches have numbers and are difficult to convert into other pieces, but they can have a black market, where less than a third of their value is paid,” explains Bauzá. “On the other hand, diamonds, once they come out of their jewels, it is more difficult to identify them unless they have a unique gemstone certificate.”
For violently stealing from occupied homes and belonging to a criminal group, the attackers Thomas and other players were sentenced to between 19 months and three years in prison, the judge ruled. Thomas, whose file was already a millionaire at the time, must be reimbursed EUR 2,500. The robberies committed a few years earlier had given the frontrunner, an old acquaintance of the Spanish authorities, barely 18 months.
Source: La Verdad
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