A Guardia Civil operation dubbed ‘black hand’ has rounded up suspects for appropriating the estates of 22 elderly people who died in Alicante, including a Briton, taking advantage of the Covid-19 pandemic.
A woman and seven men have been arrested and three more investigated on suspicion of criminal conspiracy, theft, fraud, falsifying documentation, misappropriation, money laundering, identity theft and illegal possession of weapons, according to a spokesman for the force.
The 22 deceased victims also included two Spaniards, five French, a Belgian, four Swiss, eight Germans and a Finn, most of whom had no known descendants, but the investigation has not ruled out there being more victims.
The first case was opened when it was noticed that someone had removed the judicial cordons on a house in Benissa, where reforms had been carried out and several objects stolen, including a high-end motorcycle. Officers soon suspected two workers at a crematorium in the Marina Alta area of not only stealing jewellery that had not been claimed by relatives, but also of passing on information to burgle the houses of the deceased and obtaining their banking access codes.
Full report in Friday’s Costa Blanca News
