Six people have been arrested in Spain for their alleged roles in a cemetery robbery ring that saw mostly bronze crucifixes stolen from graves, crushed into small pieces and sold to be melted down.
The group reportedly removed hundreds of crosses from about 20 cemeteries in cities in the central province of Toledo, police said.
Police officers on Saturday morning seized 90 crucifixes that they believed had just been stolen from a cemetery. They then raided a unit in an industrial area in the Madrid region and found thousands of euros in cash and pieces of crucifixes weighing around 2,200 pounds. Documents detailing the sale of the stolen metal were also discovered, according to reports.
The Guardia Civil Police shared images of the operation on X, formerly Twitter:
Police arrested four people on suspicion of robbery and two others on suspicion of receiving stolen goods. None of the suspects were identified.
In an article detailing last month’s spate of robberies, English newspaper Sur in English noted the “wantedBronze status has turned cemeteries into “an easy target for gangs.”
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