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Matthew Vella
A Maltese national has been reported to be under arrest by the Spanish Guardia Civil for his role in a criminal organisation which dressed up as police officers and used false signs to foreign drivers and rob them.
The announcement was made by the Guardia Civil. The Maltese, whose name could not be revealed by a Cantabria government spokesperson, was arrested along with two Iranians earlier this week by the Cantabria military corps.
“We are not able to reveal such information more than has already been disclosed,” spokesperson Fermin Mier Laguillo said. “We are not authorised to reveal the identity of the prisoners.”
Late on Friday evening, the Maltese embassy in Madrid claimed its honorary consul in Cantabria had spoken to the chief of the Guardia Civil, who said there were no Maltese being held in custody by the Spanish police.
But the spokesperson for the Cantabria government said the Maltese national was still under arrest although the necessary identifications were being made to confirm his identity.
The three men were reported by the La Rioja press as forming part of a criminal group which would identify themselves as police officers, using fake police signs, along the Cantabria A8 motorway.
The men are also suspected of being part of an organised group which used at seven different vehicles all around Spain to rob foreign drivers using the ‘false police’ method.
Another 15 people related to the group were also arrested in Córdoba, Alicante, Valencia, the Catalunya coast, Vitoria, Toledo, and Madrid.
mvella@mediatoday.com.mt
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