Trial Set for Pedrola Gang: Dating App Lures Led to Robbery, Murder in Spain

The Pedrola gang, composed of the couple Mohammed A.D., 35, and Hedangeline Candy A.L., 34, and Jose Antonio M.F., lured their victims, usually men looking for relationships, on the Badoo dating site and gave them appointments in isolated places to rob them of their belongings. They are being prosecuted for the murder of a Basque businessman that occurred on September 7, 2019, and for the violent assaults on two other men, which occurred on July 26 and September 4 of the same year, reports La Opinion de Malaga.

In the two assault cases, the woman lured the victims (a 37-year-old Romanian migrant from La Almunia and a 59-year-old Moroccan from Tudela) to the site and then invited them to an isolated place where she and her accomplices tied them up, violently assaulted them, and then robbed them of their belongings, including their bank cards whose passwords they managed to obtain, before abandoning them in the trunk of a car. In the case of the Basque businessman, he would have lost consciousness after being beaten by his attackers who, thinking he had died, would have buried him alive.

The first two cases will be tried by an ordinary court and the third case, which resulted in the death of the Basque businessman, by a jury court. The members of this criminal network, who had targeted the populations of Pedrola, Luceni and Gallur, are accused of murder, kidnapping, threats, violent theft and intimidation, fraud and illegal possession of weapons.