The Valencian Association of Farmers (AVA-Asaja) has made public the report of four robberies committed in barely a month at irrigation facilities in the region of l'Horta Sud, all of them with one common element: the criminals focused on tearing out the copper wiring from transformer centers, control panels, hydraulic pumps and other electrical equipment. The agricultural organization links this situation to the rise in the price of copper, whose price has rebounded by 25% in the last year.
According to details in a statement, the most recent episode took place this very week in sector IV of the Júcar-Turia canal, within the municipal district of Picassent. Early in the morning, the farmers checked that the doors had been forced open, several installations were dismantled and scattered on the ground, the cables had been cut and all the devices had been left out of service.
AVA-Asaja specifies that, in addition to the material damage, valued at around 60,000 euros, there is the concern over the paralysis of irrigation in hundreds of plots until the functioning of the damaged infrastructure can be restored.
As for the other three assaults, the entity explains that one took place in another sector of the Júcar-Turia Canal and the remaining two affected irrigation motors located several kilometers apart from each other. The geographical proximity of the four robberies and the short time interval in which they have been recorded make it possible to suspect, the association warns, that they could be due to the action of the same organized gang, which "demonstrates extensive knowledge in installations with a high risk of electrocution".
In the face of this "wave" of robberies that is hitting the Valencian countryside, AVA calls on the Government delegate in the Comunitat Valenciana, the newly appointed Roger Llanes, to strengthen police presence both in agricultural holdings and in the points of reception of goods likely to come from robberies and in other possible channels of the copper black market.
Likewise, the organization insists on the need to effectively apply in rural areas the Law on Multiple Recidivism, with the aim of toughening the penalties for thefts in agricultural holdings, and demands sufficient resources and greater coordination between the security forces and the administration of justice.