An investigation into a group of thieves who stole thousands from Morrisons has led detectives to uncover a multi-national criminal network.
The “Morrisons Four” gang were directed to steal from the supermarket by criminal masterminds from Romania, who then resold the goods through a wholesaler and car boot sales.
The conspiracy was uncovered after Rachel Gillett, a crime and investigations manager at Total Security Services (TSS) Ltd, spotted the gang on her first day working for the private security firm contracted by the supermarket to investigate a spate of thefts.
Gillett noticed a pattern of “strange behaviour” by the same four individuals who would appear at multiple Morrisons branches.
Robert-claudiu Alexe and Elena-brindusa Efta were arrested in May last year
Norfolk Police
Gillett told Channel 4 Dispatches: “Someone would go round the store and monitor basically the whole area to work out what they needed to do to get away with the products, so you had [at least] one spotter, and two people taking the products.”
The group were eventually tracked to Norfolk. Two of its members, Robert-claudiu Alexe and Elena-brindusa Efta, were arrested in May last year. They were later jailed for 27 months and 18 months respectively.
In an investigation they called Operation Hemsworth, Norfolk police collaborated with 27 forces across the country.
Police were able to link the group of four to Romanian organised criminals who pay thieves to steal alcohol and high value toiletries, including £500 worth of toothbrushes, from supermarkets and high street shops.
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Several Morrisons branches were targeted across the country
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Upon investigation, detectives found 89 boxes of Strepsils, 108 Sudocreme tubs, 331 packets of Sensodyne toothpaste, and many more ordinary household items at a property.
Retired detective from Norfolk police leading an investigation into the gangs, Duncan Etchells, described a house where the stolen goods were stored as “like a mini Morrisons.”
Efta told detectives she had been coerced into working for the gang by the criminal ringleader, a Romanian citizen called Zeno Gugulan. She said she was paid £50 for each stealing spree. Gugulan has been linked to 54 offences in the UK however remains at large.
Dispatches used social media to track Gugulan to his home in Bucharest, the Romanian capital. They identified that Gugulan was connected to a group of men who had been investigated by Romanian authorities for crimes including loan sharking, human trafficking and tobacco smuggling.
The items were found to have been sold at car boot sales in Romford, Essex, and Nine Elms market in Vauxhall.
Reporters secretly filmed vendors admitting that they knew the products they were selling had been stolen from Boots, Superdrug and Sainsbury’s.
A representative of Prime Value Distribution told a Romanian undercover reporter posing as a thief that the company could distribute his stolen goods “across the globe.” The representative later denied selling stolen goods.