Thieves arrested with ton of crucifixes stolen from Spanish tombs

Police have so far solved 19 specific cases of theft, after recovering 90 intact crosses stolen from the El Casar de Escalona cemetery during a raid on Sunday on the gang’s operations centre in an industrial area of ​​the Madrid region.

In total, officers found a pile of crucifix parts weighing a tonne as well as a solid silver crucifix, documents relating to the sale of bronze scrap and €17,440 (£14,800) in cash.

The gang used a metal crusher to break the crucifixes into small pieces, after which the material was sold and transported to another site to be melted down.

Milagros Tolón, Spanish government delegate for the Castilla-La Mancha region, praised the police for their “enormous work in a case that has caused understandable social concern.”

The men were due to appear in court on Monday.