Chain of crime

As the culmination of a major investigation sees a group of Romanian criminals jailed for a series of jewellery robberies across the country, Police Professional examines the prominence of Eastern European organised gangs and the steps being taken across Europe to combat them. On Friday (March 17), a gang of six Romanians was sentenced to a total of 47 years in prison after orchestrating the theft of in excess of £3 million worth of watches and jewellery over a ten-month period in raids spanning nine English counties. The case began as Operation Ferry, a Staffordshire Police investigation into a jewellery robbery in Stoke-on-Trent, but was expanded after DNA found at the scene linked the crime to incidents in Milton Keynes, Blackburn and Oxford. Once the Romanian link was established, in late spring 2016 a member of the West Midlands Regional Organised Crime Unit (ROCU) met with an attaché at the Romanian embassy and made an official cooperation request. From there, with the help of Europol, a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) staffed by the ROCU and Romanian police and prosecutors was established. The JIT came into operation on July 26, 2016 and will run for a year. Five other forces (Thames Valley Police, Lancashire Constabulary, Hampshire Constabulary, Kent Police and Warwickshire Police), which had experienced similar offences, agreed to share information with the JIT. The UK side of the JIT was labelled Operation Commission and led by Detective Chief Inspector Ricky Fields from Staffordshire Police.Overall, the gang, a highly-organised and sophisticated syndicate believed to be linked to the notorious Piatra Neamt crime ‘academy’ in Romania, was responsible for the following thefts: •November 21, 2015 – Fraser Hart, Milton Keynes; •December 31, 2015 – Goldsmiths, Oxford; •February 9, 2016 – Chris Shan Jewellers, Lancashire; •March 10, 2016 – Beaverbrooks, Stoke-on-Trent; •April 7, 2016 – Beaverbrooks, Basingstoke, Hampshire; •June 20, 2016 – Breitling store, Bluewater, Kent; •July 26, 2016 – Ernest Jones, Portsmouth, Hampshire; •August 5, 2016 – Montblanc, Bicester Village, Oxfordshire; •August 23, 2016 – Ernest Jones, Derby; •August 25, 2016 – Fraser Hart, Peterborough; and •September 7, 2016 – Poel Jewellers, Stratford-upon-Avon. Speaking to Police Professional, Det Chief Insp Fields said: “The JIT provided a two-way flow of intelligence and an important link with the Romanians which enabled us to access their databases and obtain intelligence, as well as information regarding DNA and convictions. “We would not have been where we are now without the JIT and the information they provided.” Through the coordinated approach made possible by the JIT, investigators conducted telephone analysis, scanned automatic numberplate recognition (ANPR) footage and were able to track one of the group’s leaders to an address in Birmingham. After a covert operation, a suspect whose DNA matched that from an earlier scene was arrested. Later, following the arrest of the remainder of the gang after the Stratford-Upon-Avon theft – the only one conducted in daylight hours – DNA matches were found across the ten different scenes. Through collaboration with their Romanian counterparts, UK police were then able to obtain DNA profiles of offenders not on their files and piece together a more comprehensive picture of the gang. “Because we knew there was a potential international link around this and we’d seen a series of crimes developed up and down the country, we went to Europol to try to set up this flow of information,” Det Chief Insp Fields added. “Romanian Police have been fantastically cooperative. Throughout the whole process there has been great cooperation and a great working relationship.” The majority of the goods, with the exception of some stolen watches from the Poel theft, which were being sold in Birmingham’s jeweller