Members of a Spanish gang that targeted the Algarve’s gold shops have been chased and arrested by Portuguese police.
In the past two months around 20 gold shops have been broken into in the early hours and their safes smashed open and stock and money removed.
The Algarve's Public Security Police arrested the gang of four people, aged between 20 and 30, who they say are responsible for the thefts.
The group were rumbled and tried to escape back over the border in a high powered car having broken into gold shops in Faro and Quarteira.
The gang’s hooded members used to strike early in the morning, break into the gold shops, steal what they could and head back to Seville.
While police built up a picture of the gang and its methods, gold shop owners were warned to leave the bare minimum inside the shop overnight to deter the thieves.
This forced the thieves to move their attention to jewellers in the Algarve which tend to have better security systems in place.
