AN ORGANISED criminal gang who burgled pop-rock icon Shakira and her FC Barcelona husband Gerard Piqué in June has been caught and disbanded.
Detectives say the 15 suspects are behind at least another 20 break-ins across the province of Barcelona and were highly professional.
They even used publictransport to get about when robbing homes, to avoid arousing suspicion.
Police say the group, all originally from and citizens of the former Soviet State of Georgia, had €13,000 in cash and a huge haul of gold jewellery and top-of-the-range electronic devices hidden in their rented properties in the Barcelona area, all of which was found and seized during extensive raids.
They broke into Shakira's and Piqué's villa in Esplugues de Llobregat – which the celebrity couple shares with their two sons, Milan, five and Sasha, three – during a thunder storm, knowing they would not be noticed due to the noise and heavy rain.
Shakira, 41 and Piqué, 31, and their children were out at the time.
Organised crime investigators say the number of burglaries in the Barcelona metropolitan area has dropped significantly since the gang's arrest.
