5:30pm Monday 28th May 2012
By Ian Craig
ELEVEN men have been charged with conspiracy to steal railway power cable from the North Cotswolds area between November 2011 and May 2012.
The suspects, who are all Romanian, were arrested as part of Operation Distillery, a major investigation by British Transport Police (BTP) into theft of railway cable between Evesham and Moreton-in-Marsh between November 3 2011 and May 17 2012.
The arrested men are Stefanel Ruset, 19, Mihai Mihart, and Chris Toader, both aged 24, along with Florin Cojocararu, and Adrian Nae, both aged 25.
Mihai Binta, 27, Adrian Volnescu, 28, Alexandru Tofaleanu, Costinel Mijloc, Gabriel Mijloc, all aged 29, have also been charged, along with 36-year-old Jan Trofin.
Trofin, Mihart, Cojocararu and Binta were arrested on Wednesday May 23 after police stopped a suspicious vehicle near to a railway line in Church Lawford, Warwickshire.
The other seven men were arrested the next day when BTP officers carried out search warrants at five addresses in the Handsworth and Smethwick areas of Birmingham.
All eleven men appeared at Birmingham Magistrates Court on Friday May 25 and were remanded in custody to appear at Birmingham Crown Court on Friday June 1.
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