Spanish cash machine gangs broken up with 14 arrests

Criminals used homemade explosives and dressed as police officers to commit violent robberies across country

Spanish police have arrested 14 people and seized guns, satellite trackers and several police uniforms after breaking up two gangs whose members used homemade explosives to blow up cash machines and who dressed as police officers to carry out violent and meticulously planned robberies across the country.

The nationwide investigation began in autumn last year after the same gang used explosives to rob three banks in Málaga and Valencia. Investigators traced members of the gang to Madrid and Málaga and discovered that the group had its own bomb-maker who built the explosives by filling metal capsules with gunpowder from fireworks.