Six people have been arrested in Spain on suspicion of involvement in a gang that plundered cemeteries, stealing mainly bronze crucifixes from graves, grinding them into small pieces and selling them to be melted down.
According to police, the group removed hundreds of crosses from about 20 cemeteries in towns in the central province of Toledo.
Officers seized 90 crucifixes they believed had just been stolen from a cemetery on Saturday morning. They then raided a unit at an industrial estate in the Madrid region and found thousands of euros in cash and pieces of crucifixes weighing around £2,200. According to reports, documents detailing the sale of the stolen metal were also found.
The Guardia Civil police shared images of the operation on X, formerly Twitter:
Police have arrested four people on suspicion of theft and two others on suspicion of receiving stolen goods. None of the suspects have been named.
In an article describing last month’s spate of thefts, the English-language newspaper Sur in English noted that the “desirable” status of bronze burial sites had made them “an easy target for gangs.”
