Fake Ferrari makers hit police roadblock
Police in Spain have shut down a gang of criminals which produced cheap fakes of high-end vehicles for a fraction of the price of the real thing.
Ferraris are out of reach for most people, but one group of Spanish criminals recently came up with a novel way to get around the problem: make cheap copies.
The Valencia-based gang knocked up their own 'luxury' vehicles in two custom workshops, planning to flog them off online.
The price? Around €40,000 ($53,000) against €200,000 for the real deal.
According to Spanish police, the gang set about producing their vehicles by adding homemade fibre glass panels to cheap 'bases' of other cars.
By doing so, they managed to create copies of top-of-the-range vehicles like Ferraris and Aston Martins.
When they couldn't produce the piece themselves, the criminals shipped in genuine panels from England or even from the Ferrari factory in Maranello Italy.
The finished products were "almost perfect" both in terms of external and internal appearance, Spanish police said in a statement.
Clients of the gang knew they were buying rip-offs, said the police, adding that some customers even handed over their specifications.
But Ferrari Spain got wind of the scheme and tipped the authorities off.
Raids on the black-market car makers then turned up 17 copies of the iconic classic cars including F 430s, F430 Spiders and F458s.
Two 'Aston Martins' were also among the captured booty.
Eight people were arrested in the wake of the raids — five in Valencia and three in Madrid.
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Ferraris are out of reach for most people, but one group of Spanish criminals recently came up with a novel way to get around the problem: make cheap copies.
The Valencia-based gang knocked up their own 'luxury' vehicles in two custom workshops, planning to flog them off online.
The price? Around €40,000 ($53,000) against €200,000 for the real deal.
According to Spanish police, the gang set about producing their vehicles by adding homemade fibre glass panels to cheap 'bases' of other cars.
By doing so, they managed to create copies of top-of-the-range vehicles like Ferraris and Aston Martins.
When they couldn't produce the piece themselves, the criminals shipped in genuine panels from England or even from the Ferrari factory in Maranello Italy.
The finished products were "almost perfect" both in terms of external and internal appearance, Spanish police said in a statement.
Clients of the gang knew they were buying rip-offs, said the police, adding that some customers even handed over their specifications.
But Ferrari Spain got wind of the scheme and tipped the authorities off.
Raids on the black-market car makers then turned up 17 copies of the iconic classic cars including F 430s, F430 Spiders and F458s.
Two 'Aston Martins' were also among the captured booty.
Eight people were arrested in the wake of the raids — five in Valencia and three in Madrid.
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