Caught because of information from Icelanders
Icelandic passengers’ information regarding stolen items from their suitcases at the airport in Tenerife have been usefu to police in their investigation. The information about the timeline when valuables disappeared from suitcases was especially useful.
Before the weekend, the police in Spain reported that 14 employees at Teneri-fe South Airport were arrested and seized. About 20 employees at the airport are also under investigation.
Harpa Rós Júlíusdóttir has been helping Icelanders who have been the victims by the looters in Tenerife for some time and she passed information from Icelanders on to the local police. She worked at the airport in Tenerife for seven years but is now moving back to Iceland.
A number of people were involved in the theft
Júlíusdóttir told mbl.is that she knows nothing more than what has been reported about the investigation and doesn’t want to comment much on the matter. She confirms, however, that the tips she continued to share from Icelanders gave the police the most information about what was going on at the airport.
Many Icelanders travelling to Tenerife have been victims of theft at the airport. AFP/Desiree Martin
She says the case is a major one and the police are investigating it.
The main issue was to find out at which time valuables disappeared from bags and to match it with who was on duty at that time. Clearly a number of people were involved in the planning and execution at the airport to make sure everything went well.
Increased after the pandemic
As mbl.is has covered in recent years, a number of Icelanders have discoverend that their valuables have been missing from their bags bags on their way to and from Tenerife. Then, Sigvaldi Kaldalóns, Svali, who runs a tourism company in Tenerife, said that after the end of the pandemic, the number of valuables removed from their bags increased dramatically.
On the Facebook group Tenerife Tips! Tenerife members exchanged information and advice on how to protect against the threats of exploitation and many had taken up the idea of plasticizing their bags before departing to Iceland.
Tenerife travellers who have been hit by looters in the past few months can contact Júlíusdóttir by e-mail at ros-harpa@gmail.com with information about valuables taken from their bags.