A Kosovar-Albanian mafia boss who has stolen from several footballers’ homes recounted his robberies on the El Espanol podcast ‘Sumario Abierto’. He says on-air how he has stolen from Cristiano Ronaldo, Johan Cruyff, and Karim Benzema. However, he tells host Carlos Quilez how he never robbed Lionel Messi. Apparently, the robber who controls an army of over 100 thieves, also stopped other robbers from stealing from Messi on several occasions. The mafia boss goes on to say he’s done it out of love and respect for the Argentina captain.
The newspaper El Espanol have their own podcast named ‘Sumario Abierto’ which recently had an Albanian-Kosovarian mafia boss on their show. He is a high-end home robber who has been doing the work for over 20 years. He also has control over an army of more than 100 thieves. In the show programme that was named, ‘Y ahora Sonsoles’, the mafia boss recounted the footballers’ homes he has robbed so far to the show host Carlos Quilez. The list includes names like Johan Cruyff, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Karim Benzema.
The mafia boss said, “I was the one who robbed Cristiano Ronaldo’s house in Portugal. I was the one who robbed Johan Cruyff in Barcelona. There I stole a watch that belonged to Dennis Bergkamp, some little things from Hermes… and about 20,000 euros of loot. It was a secondary house. It had no security cameras or alarms. When I went in, I realized whose the house was.” He added, “We were also behind the robbery of Cristiano Ronaldo in Madeira, but the loot was not interesting.”
Karim Benzema has been robbed twice. When his house was robbed in 2022, the robbers made some mistakes and were caught immediately afterwards. However, he was also robbed another time back in 2019. Upon asking if he stole from Benzema’s house as well, the mafia boss said, “Not the time they were caught. The time they were not caught, yes.” It seemed that even though he stole from football’s biggest name, he never stole from Lionel Messi. He talked about the reason for that on the show.
The mafia boss also said that he even stopped others from robbing the house of Lionel Messi. He said, “I’ve stopped a few times people who wanted to raid Messi’s house. I have done it and I am proud. Out of respect for Messi I haven’t done it. Because I love him, period.” His words also sounded like warnings when he said why celebrities get robbed. He said, “Social networks are the number one enemy of famous people. They know perfectly well who robbed them.”
Footballers getting robbed is not a new thing. While this programme was concerning, it also brought out many things as to how these crimes happen. Adding to how he works, the mafia boss said, “There is no one who can stop me or anything that can resist me. Once I have located him, I follow him, I chase him, it can take months… until there is no one inside.” His next words were probably the most concerning as he talked about the ‘key’ people to carry out the robberies.
He called them ‘El Santo’. Apparently, these people can be anyone involved in the daily lives of the celebrities. He said, “I can’t locate any target in Spain if someone doesn’t tell me. These people are ‘El Santo’. They are people who look for us, hire us, give us details. It can be a family member, it can be a cleaner, it can be a friend of theirs.” Apparently, these people called, ‘El Santo’ get 30% of the loots in exchange for the information they provide.
