Lionel Messi and Rafael Nadal were identified as 'targets' after Marco Verratti's £2.5 million villa was robbed.
The gang accused of breaking into Italy midfielder Marco Verratti's £2.5 million holiday home in Ibiza was also said to be targeting PSG teammates Lionel Messi and Rafael Nadal's mansions.
The crime organization accused of breaking into PSG star Marco Verratti's holiday home for £2.5 million had their sights set on Lionel Messi and Rafael Nadal's mansions, it has been revealed.
Police confirmed last week that they had arrested seven suspects in connection with the raid on the former Brazilian international Ronaldo's villa in Ibiza, which Verratti had rented for his summer vacation.
Investigators made the arrests public after recovering the majority of the stolen property when they detained two men as they disembarked from a car ferry that had arrived from Ibiza in the Costa Blanca port of Denia. They also confirmed that evidence linking the gang to another 15 burglaries at luxury villas in Alicante, Malaga, and Murcia had been discovered.
On Tuesday, a local newspaper in Ibiza published excerpts from handwritten notes found at one of the suspect's homes, which included the names of Messi and Nadal, as well as Real Madrid legends Guti and Fernando Hierro and former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar.
The notebook, which was mentioned in a police report leaked to respected Ibizan newspaper Diario de Ibiza, said: 'PortoCristo. Nadal Mallorca,' referring to the stunning £3 million beachfront home where the tennis star lives with wife and soon-to-be mother Mery Perello.
Messi's name was written in the notebook, but no address was given. According to Diario de Ibiza, the handwritten notes seized from the home in Malaga of a Spaniard said to have been working with several Albanians who allegedly carried out the raids read: "Can Rimbau (Guti) Ibiza and Talamanca. Ibiza (Hierro) although both had been crossed out in the notebook."
The word OK had been graffitied against two areas of Ibiza - San Jose, where Verratti vacationed, and Es Cubells - in a message that detectives interpreted as a sign that the robberies were successful.
Last week, Spanish police released video footage of them surrounding an Audi at gunpoint and ordering the two men inside to exit before handcuffing them as they lay on the ground. The car contained cash, jewelry, and other valuables stolen from Verratti's vacation villa in the early hours of June 26. Following that, five arrests were made in the province of Malaga.
"Officers have smashed an itinerant criminal organization specialising in breaking into luxury villas following a robbery at the house of a well-known footballer," Spain's National Police said in a statement confirming the arrests.
"Seven members of a criminal gang of Albanian origin who allegedly stole £2.5 million in designer watches and jewelry have been arrested." The items stolen during the raid on the footballer's villa were discovered in the car that two of the gang's suspected members were driving after they were apprehended.
"Three searches were later conducted in Malaga and one in Ibiza, and evidence was discovered linking the gang to another 15 raids on luxury villas in the provinces of Alicante, Malaga, and Murcia."
The statement was issued before the names of Lionel Messi and Rafael Nadal became public. The police have not yet officially responded to the latest reports. Because of an abdominal injury, Nadal had to withdraw from this year's Wimbledon before the semi-finals.
Messi spent the summer in the Balearic Islands with his family and friends, including ex-Liverpool striker Luis Suarez, staying on a £250,000-per-week private island called Sa Ferradura off the north coast of Ibiza. He still owns a home in Castelldefels, close to Barcelona. The mansion was purchased for £3.5 million by the seven-time Ballon d'Or winner and his wife Antonela Roccuzzo in 2009, and they have spent more than £5 million on renovations.
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