Estonian police has uncovered a gang with a remarkable scope and professionalism, drugging and robbing foreigners.
Iltalehti: dozens of Tallinn tourists robbed with drugs dripped in drinks
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The nucleus of the gang was made up of some five men, wrote Iltalehti. The services of a driver were employed, as well as about twenty women «in ripe age» to lure victims.
Police presume the victims to have been dozens of foreigners, mostly Finns.
The ladies picked out the victims mainly in the popular restaurants in Tallinn city centre. No intimate services were offered, as a rule; however, they struck cosy conversations with men.
At a certain point, hypnotics were dripped into the men’s drinks. Shortly afterwards, they were totally at the gang’s mercy.
The victims were often transported away from city centre. One of the destinations being a sauna bar with a foul reputation. The wallets were emptied, credit card limits sounded. The drugged victims were kept asleep until their bank accounts had been emptied.
The drops dripped into drinks so paralyzed the victims’ senses that they never resisted and told what they were ordered to do. Thanks to such a condition, it was comparatively easy for the crooks to find out the bank card PIN codes.
The accounts were emptied by nearby ATMs. Smaller catches came under €500, some reached thousands of euros. Emptied of money, the victims were transported to vicinity of their hotels.
Waking up next morning, the victims had no memories of last night’s happenings. Some found out of the credit card robbery only when back home.
According to Iltalehti, the police tracked the gang last year, already. For a long time, reports had flooded in of wallets and bank accounts emptied. The investigators suspected the use of some sort of a drug.
Usually, it never occurred to victims to have a blood examination made.
The gang was identified at the onset of winter. By interception of phone calls and monitoring suspects, a good overview was acquired of the criminals’ methods of operation.
In April, it all came together. Yesterday, the police arrested the first suspects.