They stole heavy machinery in the neighboring country and sold it in Albania, two Albanians suffered badly

The Police of Ioannina in cooperation with the Police of Agrini and the Department of Stilidas disclosed the thefts of high value project machines that occurred since last September in different regions of the country, after it was discovered that they were the work of a criminal organization composed of from two Albanian couples. On Friday morning, the two men were arrested in Ioannina, while the two women are being sought.

The perpetrators have stolen the construction machines they found on the construction site, loaded them into trucks with trailers and transported them to other areas, where they hid them in order to take them out to Albania to sell them whole or as spare parts. During transport, women led two cars to alert their co-workers of any roadblocks.

The investigation revealed that the perpetrators were involved in at least five thefts and attempted thefts of construction machinery. The last one, which targeted two machines of the project with a total value of 245 thousand euros, happened in the early hours of last Tuesday, when the perpetrators entered a construction site of the INTRAKAT company in the area of ??Achinos Stylidas, stealing a massive machine of type Caterpillar 318E and tried to steal an excavator without success, after it was found that it had been moved to an olive grove.

On November 23, in the area of ??Kardamitia in Ioannina, a dirt track machine, worth 100 thousand euros, was stolen, which was found three days later loaded in a truck in the area of ??Paramitia in Thesproti, approximately 60 kilometers from the place where was located stolen. The fingerprints and the genetic material found in it have led the officers of the Ioannina Police to identify the perpetrators.

On October 18, bandits entered a construction site that opens the Vonica-Lefkada road in the Agios Nikolaos area of ??Aitolakarnania and "stripped" a crawler excavator, dismantling its entire cabin and engine with a total value of 300 thousand euros.

As part of the investigation, the tractor and two trailers used in the thefts in Ioannina and Fthiotida, two cars that served as headlights, four mobile phones, a GPS tracking device, clothing, work gloves and keys and various tools were seized. A criminal complaint was filed against four foreigners for criminal organization and grand theft and the two arrested were sent to the Prosecutor's Office of Plimmeliodiki of Ioannina.