gang targets same jewellers twice gran canaria

Gang targets same jeweller’s twice in Gran Canaria rampage

Masked gang strikes at El Mirador shopping centre

National Police are on the trail of a four-strong gang of robbers who stormed a jeweller’s at the El Mirador shopping centre on Tuesday night. Wearing balaclavas and armed with sledgehammers, the thieves used bags to stash their haul before fleeing in a dark grey Cupra Formentor. Officers are investigating whether the same individuals are responsible for a series of violent robberies that have shaken the island this year, with particular focus on an attack at the Las Terrazas shopping centre directly opposite El Mirador just one month ago.

Same modus operandi: fire extinguishers and stolen cars

The method was identical in both cases: athletic-looking men with their faces covered. On each occasion, the attackers deployed a fire extinguisher to create a thick white cloud, hampering identification and aiding their escape. There are two other striking similarities: the targeted business belongs to the same jewellery chain, and in both incidents the robbers fled on foot before switching to a car that had been stolen in the days beforehand.

Police are now cross-referencing security camera footage and recordings from witnesses to compare the physical characteristics of the perpetrators and track them down. With Tuesday’s heist marking the sixth violent robbery of a commercial premises on Gran Canaria since February, detectives are pursuing multiple lines of inquiry to tighten the net on those involved.

Six violent robberies since February

The gang’s alleged spree includes a robbery at a shopping centre in San Fernando, a jeweller’s in Carrizal, a gaming arcade in Telde, another jeweller’s in Las Terrazas, and one in the Cita shopping centre. This does not include the two raids suffered by another jeweller’s at El Mirador a year ago. Of all these cases, arrests have only been made in one — and that was because the robbers crashed their car into a building site during a police chase.

Officers are also tracing the stolen jewellery, having completed inventories with the managers of all affected businesses. They hope to recover the items through second-hand shops or online marketplaces.

Staff in shock as sector grows uneasy

Twelve hours after the robbery, the targeted jeweller’s in El Mirador opened its doors only to allow three shop assistants to assess the damage. One of them had been present during the attack. She would only say that she was still in a state of shock. The rest of the shopping centre’s businesses opened as usual, although the closest ones chose to pull down their shutters early last night.

At the jeweller’s on the ground floor, staff still vividly recall the two robberies they suffered in 2025. In one, the criminals took advantage of a Real Madrid versus Arsenal match to slip into the shop and make off with jewellery after a confrontation with a security guard. The first heist yielded far more pieces; the second, while the haul was smaller, caused more serious damage. Between stolen goods and repairs, the total bill came to nearly €200,000.

Since those experiences, the store has beefed up its security cameras and removed the most valuable items from display. One shop assistant lamented that such incidents are no longer exceptional. “They’re becoming routine,” she said. In her view, operating inside a shopping centre is not as straightforward for thieves as targeting a street-level shop. She pointed out that El Mirador has only two exits, adding: “If you’ve got them covered, it’s easy to catch them no matter how fast they run.”

The employee acknowledged the growing unease across the sector. “You can’t work feeling safe. There’s been one robbery a month so far this summer,” she said, adding that the perpetrators “no longer care whether they strike during the day or at night, even if the shopping centre is packed with people.”

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