The Upper Austrian police, in cooperation with their Slovak colleagues, have dissolved the gang of Slovak thieves which operated within companies and shops dealing in sports equipment. The total value of the goods stolen amounts to €2.7 million, the ČTK newswire reported.
“After a several months-long investigation, six of the 19 members of the gang were taken into custody,” said head of the regional criminal police, Gottfried Mitterlehner, as reported by ČTK.
The group has been active in Europe for 10 years. It organised 11 robberies in Austria between the years 2014 and 2016. In six cases, they robbed warehouses in Upper Austria. The group was also active in Carinthia and Salzburg.
“They focused mostly on expensive equipment, work clothes, sports equipment and bicycles,” said the criminal police’s representative Rudolf Frühwirth, as reported by ČTK.
The group members apparently over-reached themselves when they began transporting the goods on palettes in trucks as far as Slovakia.