Four people have been arrested, including the Mayor of Alpandeire, Gabriel Jiménez Ruiz, on charges of theft and receiving stolen goods.
Police have seized a number of machines, including a concrete mixer, four dumper trucks, a pneumatic drill and an excavator, the current owner being unable to prove that the items were bought legitimately.
The Mayor of Alpandeire said that he had been tricked and that had he known the goods were stolen, he wouldn’t have bought them.
The Mayor has been arrested on suspicion of abetting a crime as part of ‘Operation Retro’, an investigation into a large number of machinery thefts which took place in Málaga province between 2007 and 2009. The value of the stolen machinery is around €130,000.