police arrested one of the country's "most dangerous" fugitives in raids early yesterday that netted at least 70 suspected members of the the Naples-based Camorra crime syndicate.Officers in the nearby southern city of Caserta said they held Franco Letizia shortly after midnight. He is suspected chief of the Bidognetti crime clan and is accused of running extortion rackets, police said.
Naples sweep follows the capture in the Spanish resort of Marbella Saturday of Raffaele Amato, an alleged Camorra boss who investigators say was one of Italy's top cocaine importers.Amato is accused of several murders dating back to the turf war that left more than a dozen people dead.Pisani said Tuesday's sweep against the Amato-Pagano clan also targeted illicitly gained wealth of Amato as well as other mobsters. Sky quoted investigators as saying assets were seized in Spain, Luxembourg, Germany and elsewhere in Europe.Raffaele Amato, involved in a murderous turf war in the Camorra crime syndicate, was picked up Saturday in Marbella, Naples prosecutor Giovandomenico Lepore said yesterday.Amato is accused of several homicides in a feud dating back to 1991 between two Camorra clans that left more than a dozen people dead. He was a top killer for boss Paolo Di Lauro, who was trying to keep control of the clan from rival Antonio Ruocco, Lepore said.Italian police arrested dozens of suspected members of the Naples-based Camorra crime syndicate, including a leading fugitive, in a pair of raids early Tuesday, authorities said Officers in the southern city of Caserta, some 20 miles (30 kilometers) from Naples, said they arrested Franco Letizia shortly after midnight in a home in a nearby town. Letizia is accused of running extortion rackets and is the suspected chief of the Bidognetti crime clan, police said.Investigators suspect Letizia, 31, took over the reins of the clan after the capture in January of Giuseppe Setola, who was considered the mastermind of a bloody crime spree last year to eliminate rivals as well as punish businessmen who refused to pay protection money to the Camorra.Arrested along with Letizia were two suspected mobsters accused of helping him elude capture. Letizia, who is on Italy's list of 100 most-dangerous fugitives, had been on the run for more than a year. Caserta police said they pinpointed his hideout in San Cipriano d'Aversa after several months of intercepting phone conversations.In a separate operation in Naples, police chief Vittorio Pisani said officers from several police forces were delivering a major blow to the Amato-Pagano clan, which was believed to have emerged victorious in a bloody turf war in the early 1990s with the Di Lauro crime family.
The Amato-Pagano clan is currently "the most powerful clan in the city," Pisani told Sky TG24 TV.Carabinieri paramilitary police say more than 100 arrest warrants were issued, but it was too soon to say how many suspects have been captured because the raids were still continuing.By mid-morning, Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa said 35 suspects had been arrested in Naples and the surrounding countryside. The raids were dealing a "decisive blow against those responsible for hateful crimes, linked to international drug trafficking," La Russa said in a statement.The Naples sweep follows the capture in the
Spanish resort of Marbella Saturday of Raffaele Amato, an alleged Camorra boss who investigators say was one of Italy's top cocaine importers.
UDYCO specialist police unit report for last year shows that there were more than 300 arrests linked to organized criminal groups in Málaga in 2008.173 foreigners were arrested by the unit, with 129 Spaniards and one person who was under-age. The unit is called in to act in cases linked to drugs and organized crime.
The number of extradition orders of people detained in the province remains on the increase.La Opinión de Málaga reports that the local chief prosecutor, Antonio Morales, considers that the times of high corruption on the Western Costa del Sol are now over and considers the UDYCO have become specialists in the fight against money laundering. Over last year they recovered 1.3 million € in cash and also 1.2 million in fake 500 € notes, as well as a large amount of different currencies.Last year the UDYCO report also shows a move into the use of the latest technology by the criminals. GPS transmitters and receivers, satellite communications systems, more laptops and frequency inhibitors, as well as hydraulic tools have all been impounded over the year.UDYCO chief on the Costa del Sol, Jesús Cachiero, who has been in the post for three months, said that it was evident that the criminal had evolved. He said most of his unit’s work was against foreign gangs who intended to spend their time on the costa unnoticed, and he said he was pleased with the successes seen by the unit so far this year also.
Málaga province has registered 300,000 fewer overnight hotel stays in the first three months of the year, compared to last. The number of stays in the province over January to March was 2,468,762, down 624,737 on last year’s numbers. However it should be noted that Easter fell in March last year, but the number is 20.1% down.Across Andalucía as a whole the quarter saw 6.603 million overnight stays, 1.6 million fewer than last year, down 19.5%.
Guardia Civil is investigating the death of a man in his 40’s whose body has been found in a rural area of Pego.
A burnt out car was some 800 metres away and the información newspaper reports that the body showed signs of violence.The forensics unit of the Guardia Civil from Javea are investigating and the case is being instructed by the courts in Denia ahead of an autopsy.The dead man lived in Pego, but is originally from Galicia, and it is thought that those who carried out the crime set fire to the victim’s car to get rid of any evidence to link them to the case. He went missing last Thursday, and his disappearance was reported by his family on Friday. The body was found on Saturday.
It’s not known yet whether the man died at the scene, or whether his body was dumped where it was found.
British pensioner who was attacked by a burglar at his Benalmádena home last month, has died of his injuries. The 65 year old had been in a coma in the Intensive Care Unit of Carlos Haya Hospital in Málaga, and is reported by Europa Press to have died last Friday, three weeks after the attack.The assault took place in a block of flats on Calle Levante on the Alegranza Urbanisation when the victim returned home from a local bar and was assaulted by a man later identified as F.C.J., a 44 year old Spaniard. The suspect set the flat alight before making his escape, leaving the victim inside. He stole items amounting to a value of no more than 30 €.F.C.J. was arrested on Monday last week and is currently being held on remand.
Spanish police say they have arrested three lawyers suspected of laundering money for Russian mobsters.The National Police said in a statement Wednesday the three were picked up in the southern cities of Malaga and Marbella and said they worked for one of the most powerful Russian organized crime gangs.Police said investigators found evidence of bogus financial transactions by a complex network of companies that allegedly transferred proceeds from illegal activities in Russia to Spain for investment in houses, cars and other property.The arrests are part of an operation against organized crime in Spain under the orders of Judge Baltasar Garzon.
In a first phase, police arrested 20 suspected members of the gang last June in nationwide raids.
National Police have arrested a 17 year old in connection with the stabbing to death of a 47 year old man, Miguel Márquez, in La Línea de la Concepción, who was attacked last April 12 when out walking with his wife.The youngster is being held in a youth custody centre in Algeciras and declared before the juvenile court there on Friday. Five other people have been arrested for covering up the crime.The motive remains unclear, but police are reported to think it is some kind of settling of scores, while the youth says it was mistaken identity.
Police opened fire in the early hours on a man in Elche to stop him killing his ex partner.A police patrol managed the save the woman after one of the police shot the man in the abdomen, with both the man and the woman resulting seriously injured. They are now both in the Elche General Hospital. The aggressor had stabbed the victim more than a dozen times.It happened around 4am in a flat in Calle Fray Jaime Toores where the woman in her 30’s was living with a girlfriend.The aggressor, a 44 year old Portuguese man ordered the girlfriend to leave the flat, and it was she who called the police.
There was a distancing order in place against the aggressor according to sources close to the investigation.
Swedish man has been arrested in Torrevieja for allegedly strangling his 66 year old wife to death on Saturday.It happened in the La Fiesta urbanisation in the town, and reports indicate the husband was drunk at the time of the attack. An autopsy will determine the exact cause of death. The couple had been living in Torrevieja for some years, and there had been no previous reports of domestic violence.
Euro extended its fall after having dropped sharply on Monday on a ratings downgrade of Spain by rating agency Standard & Poor's and grim economic forecasts from the European Commission. "The global economy is deteriorating much faster than anticipated. As a result, losses in the banking sector are expanding and we cannot see a bottom to it," said a trader at a Japanese bank."The market is well aware of policy-makers' determination to avert more collapses of financial firms, but a guaranteed rescue is impossible," the trader said.
Spanish police seized 11 tonnes of hashish and arrested two men suspected of drugs trafficking on Tuesday in the southern city of Seville, the interior ministry said.
The operation began with the localisation on Monday afternoon of one of the two men, who was the subject of an arrest warrant, it said in a statement.The man met with an accomplice and police followed the two to a garage in the eastern part of the city where they were caught transporting sacks loaded with hashish.The authorities gave no street value for the drugs but said it was enough to meet demand for Seville, Spain's fourth largest city, and the surrounding region as well as that of several other European nations.Spain is one of the main points of entry of drugs into Europe, from hashish that has been grown in north Africa, to Latin American cocaine, which is often smuggled in via Africa.
Four construction workers, two Moroccans and two Spaniards, were killed when three storeys of the wing of hotel Son Moll in Cala Ratjada in Mallorca collapsed, burying them under rubble. Another four workers needed hospital treatment.About 80 workers had been employed on the site, but at the time of the collapse most were having breakfast or had been in the main hotel building, which was undamaged. Initial investigations suggested the collapse had been set off by heavy rains.Local Mayor Tomeu Alzina said the hotel did not have the necessary works licence; he said the company which owned the hotel, Hoteles Serrano, S. L., had failed to meet a series of requirements in order to obtain the licence, and six weeks earlier the local authority had ordered the paralysis of the works. The works continued nevertheless.
The same day the Guardia Civil arrested the architect, quantity surveyor and works manager on the renovation project on charges of manslaughter, imprudence and contravention of workers’ rights.
Italian police on Wednesday arrested 41 people as they broke up a Rome drug ring operated by Naples' Camorra crime syndicate.The gang brought in cocaine and cannabis from Spain and the Netherlands and supplied markets in Rome and Naples, recycling the profits in Roman property, officials said.Police seized tens of millions of euros' worth of laundered assets including apartments, cars and jewels.They said the operation was further proof of the Mafia's encroachment into the capital, where Mob-owned restaurants and villas have recently been found in chic locations like Via Veneto and the Spanish Steps.An anti-Mafia official said the Camorra had established a ''pact'' in Rome with Cosa Nostra of Sicily, 'Ndrangheta of Calabria and the Puglian Mob to split up turf and do business without stepping on each others' toes.
''Rome has become a crossroads for illicit affairs,'' a top police officer commented.
Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno said the operation was ''a tough blow to the criminal infiltration of this city''.
Five Britons being held in Spain accused of the wholesale trafficking of an amphetamine who have now been charged with money laundering.The move follows the seizure of property, luxury cars and a yacht totalling nearly £11million.Ronald O'Dea, 42, and James McDonald, 39, both of Glasgow, and Stephen Denis Brown, 42, and Brian Rawlings, 63, both from London, were arrested in a series of raids in November on the Costa del Sol and in Tenerife in the Canary Islands.It followed an operation by Spain's National Police and the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency.
The four were all accused of smuggling large quantities of speed into the UK and Spain from Holland.Lorry driver Gerard Mooney, from Dublin, had been arrested earlier when his truck was stopped near Oxford. Police claim he had 70kilos of speed in his vehicle, which he was driving to Scotland.The National Police in Madrid said in a statement the five have now been formally accused of money laundering following further investigations in which detectives uncovered evidence of millions of euros in proceeds from drug trafficking being invested in properties and land in Tenerife, Las Palmas and Marbella on the Costa del Sol.No trial date has been set.
Three Spaniards and a Turk were arrested in a dramatic swoop by police on a group of drug traffickers at a motorway toll area in Ávila. The drugs were found in the boot of a car as the traffickers were heading towards Valladolid.
The group were involved in two different drug importing networks, and police also intercepted a 21.5 kilo highly pure heroin consignment which would have been worth three million € on the open market.
So far this year 485 kilos of heroin has been intercepted by law enforcement officers in Spain.
Spanish banks’ exposure to housebuilding is higher than in the UK, ranging from 25 to 50 per cent of their balance sheets. Some 18 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product is tied up in construction and associated industries. But the real shocker is the number of new homes - more than three million since 2004, half of them on the coast. Some 800,000 were started last year, despite the absence of any obvious demand.Those who bought after 2003 with a view to selling quickly have accepted price falls of up to 40 per cent, say local estate agents. Even developers such as Taylor Woodrow concede that people ‘have had their fingers burnt’. The company has cut prices on three-quarters of its Spanish stock by as much as 25 per cent. However, most estate agents say anyone brave enough to buy a new home now should be able to negotiate further big reductions.As if the new-build oversupply was not enough, there are also homes on the market that have been repossessed and are being auctioned by banks. Two-bedroom flats with balconies typically cost £77,000, according to www.propertyinspain.net. ‘Many are just a few years old on developments with communal pools and grounds, secure parking and close to beaches,’ says website spokesman Kevin Barnett. He says banks ‘want only their loan and repossession legal costs back’.It is hardly surprising, then, that few sellers are able to shift their homes. They are reluctant to cut asking prices because they want to clear their mortgages, but without big reductions they cannot compete with cheap repossessed homes. Briton Richard Netherside put Calquico, the large restored farmhouse he lives in just north of Barcelona, on the market for €945,000 in August 2007. It is a handsome, three-storey property, with a large outdoor pool and extensive gardens. But his timing was bad - just as the Spanish market slumped, a few weeks before the Northern Rock crisis and as sterling slumped against the euro.
He registered with 10 local estate agents, but only two bothered to visit. By May, no prospective purchaser had been to view it, so he cut the price to €830,000. It now stands at €749,000 (£585,000). ‘With the UK market falling away and the local buyers unable to get loans, we accept we are probably in for an extended wait yet,’ says Mr Netherside, who has set up his own website, www.calquico.com, to try to attract buyers. Kevin Sheehan, a Surrey businessman, has been luckier, although he had to work hard to sell his five-bedroom holiday villa near Valencia. It was originally advertised in the summer of 2006 for €420,000, but after a year there had been ‘nothing even remotely looking like an interested buyer’. In August 2007, he took matters into his own hands and spent the month contacting agents across the world in a bid to attract any interest. He sent 32,000 emails, registering the villa with agents and on free sale-by-owner websites. ‘I had a large number of speculative offers of half the price, but I held my nerve. I reduced it to €320,000, but wouldn’t drop further. In the end I sold it for fairly close to that figure,’ he says.Experts suggest these are just two typical examples among tens of thousands. ‘People have stretched themselves too much and developers have built one ugly scheme after another,’ explains Mark Stucklin, a British property analyst who lives in Barcelona and runs a website for buyers, www.spanishpropertyinsight.com.‘On the Costa del Sol, supply has exploded and most homes have been built on borrowed money. The developers have mortgages they’ll never, ever repay. They owe far more than they’ll get from buyers,’ he says.On top of it all, the exchange rate has worked against sellers in Spain hoping to find British buyers. In October 2007 a €150,000 apartment would have cost about £104,000; now it is roughly £119,000 thanks to the strong euro.In the wider Spanish property market, sales are down 31.5 per cent against this time last year. The biggest slump has been in second-hand homes - sales volumes are down by a half.Many areas with new homes look like ghost towns. A planned new suburb of the inland Catalan town of Vic lies empty. It should by now have hundreds of new homes for Spanish professional owner-occupiers, but one developer has filed for bankruptcy and two others have mothballed their schemes indefinitely. As a result, acres of Vic’s building sites are desolate and the show homes are closed. Only the guard dogs remain.
David Mead, 45, of Beckenham, south-east London, Michael Wilks, 34, of Barking, east London, Martin James Veryard, 39, and a Romanian man were arrested in Benijofar and El Garruchal in Murcia. Amanda Goodwin, 48, from Brighton, was arrested after 500 kilos of the drug was found stuffed in compressed blocks in a van at Benijofar, south of Alicante.
Armed officers swooped after discovering the haul, which has a street value of £1.5million. Spanish police suspect it came from northern Africa and was destined for the UK via road with two cars driving ahead to look out for police. All five are awaiting trial in Spain on crimes against the public health.
After obtaining a court order, police searched a property in El Garruchal and arrested two people inside. A stolen luxury car and a Russian gun were found at the property. Two further cars and a motorbike were also seized as part of the operation which followed months of surveillance by Spanish serious organised crime officers.
Spanish police said the operation, codenamed Rostel, started after drug traffickers were caught trying to ship drugs from the Levante coast in the south of Spain to the UK. Southern Spain is a common route for cannabis and other drugs coming into the UK from north Africa.
British teenager who fell six floors from the corridor walkway of a holiday apartment in Spain was in a "very bad" condition in hospital.
The man who fell with her - and who is believed to have been trying to save her - is expected to be released from hospital but 18-year-old Jemma France is thought to be in a much worse condition.Lee Cook, 28, and Miss France were found lying beneath the walkway in a pool of blood by hotel staff at 3am .The pair, who the hotel said are from Ashton-under-Lyne, near Manchester, were on holiday with friends at the Casablanca Apartments in Puerto Rico, Gran Canaria.Hotel manager Antonio Campos said today: "At midnight last night the reception was told that Mr Cook was better and was going home."But the woman is very bad. It's believed she fell down first and the man was behind her and fell on top."Friends of Miss France posted their good wishes on her Facebook social networking page.Aimee Tolen said: "Jemma... you're gonna pull through this... everyone is praying for you. Hope it gets better!"
It is thought Lee Cook, 28, 'was trying to save' Jemma France, 18, but both fell from a sixth-floor corridor outside their rooms on the island of Gran Canaria.
But he has told police he remembers nothing about the fall in the early hours of this morning from the Casablanca Apartments in the popular resort of Puerto Rico.
They had fallen from an outside corridor near room 607 where one of the victims had been staying.Mr Campos said: 'The two injured holidaymakers were part of a group of four people that returned in the early hours of this morning.
'They rang on the bell and a night porter let them in and they headed up to their rooms.'A short time later he heard a tremendous noise and groaning sounds.
'He went to investigate and found the injured man and woman on the second floor where the restaurant is.
'I'm certain they wouldn't be alive today if they hadn't fallen on plastic tables at the back of the restaurant.
'The tables cushioned their fall. It was the best place they could have fallen. If they hadn't landed on the tables, they would have smashed against rocks on the hill the apartments back onto.
'There's no doubt the fall was an accident. Everyone's saying it was an accident, the police, the victims' friends and Thomas Cook, who the injured pair and their friends had been travelling with.
'The woman tumbled first and took the man with her. It may be she tried to grab on to him as she fell and took him with her or he tried to save her and he ended up falling with her.
'The friends are all youngsters and they're very shaken up by what's happened.
'The man is going to be okay and we're just hoping the woman pulls through. She's in a very bad way.'
A spokesman for the Civil Guard in Gran Canaria, which has launched an investigation, said: 'We can confirm two British holidaymakers, an 28-year-old man and an 18-year-old woman, have been injured in a fall from their apartment block.
'We are currently investigating the causes so there is nothing more we can say at the moment.'
A female friend was today at Jemma's bedside. Her parents are thought to have been informed. Lee is thought to have celebrated his 28th birthday on Tuesday on the island. His life is not in any danger.
A receptionist at the apartment overlooking the Atlantic where they fell said: 'No-one appears to have seen anything and so no-one knows what's happened at the moment.
'Police are interviewing the couple's friends to try to get to the bottom of it all. They're all out of the hotel at the moment.'
Puerto Rico, once a small fishing village, is now a popular resort in the south-west of Gran Canaria.
It attracts tourists all year round and autumn is one of its busiest times of the year.
The Casablanca apartment complex is built on a hill half a mile from the beach overlooking the resort and the marina. It is popular with families and couples and most of its guests are British.
73-year-old man was attacked as he was hunting wild boar with his dog in the Aran region of the Pyrenees mountains on Thursday morning, Spanish media said.
The Bear passed within two metres (six feet) of him. He tried to scare it off, but was attacked instead, and finally escaped by firing his rifle into the air, the newspaper El Pais said.He needed stitches in his leg and arm, and was discharged from hospital.Cattle and sheep farmers in the Pyrenees, which straddle the Spanish-French border, resent the presence of the bears.In 2004, hunters on the French side of the border shot dead a 15-year-old female bear, sparking outrage from environmentalists.Local authorities Friday launched a search for the animal involved in the attack, which they believe is a bear known as Hvala and which was brought from Slovenia in 2006.There are believed to be around 20 brown bears surviving in the Pyrenees mountains, eight of which are in the Aran region.One regional official, Francesc Boya, demanded that the bears be captured and withdrawn."Aran and the Pyrenees are not the African savanna, they are populated regions where contact between people and the environment is very direct," he told the regional parliament in Aran.
hamlet of Cho Vito does not meet the requirements of the Ley de Costas, Coastal Law
Bulldozers moved in to knock down a number of properties at the fisherman’s hamlet of Cho Vito in Santa Cruz de Tenerife as the homes do not meet the regulations of the Coastal Law.Crowds gathered to witness the moment as the oldest of the properties, dating from 1939 and owned by the man whose name, Cho Vito, now also refers to the whole district, was demolished. By the end of yesterday only 7 of the 31 homes remained standing and some 60 people had been evicted from the properties.More than 100 people including Guadia Civil and others were needed to enforce the evictions of some of the residents of the property under the judicial order.
United Kingdom and Germany have asked Spain for explanations for what they consider to be abusive expropriations of property owned by their subjects in Spain. Britain has already asked for information from both the Spanish Foreign Minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos, and the Spanish ambassador. The case is highlighted in today’s edition of El País, and looks as homes which now face demolition under the Ley de Costas, Coastal Law, which came into force in 1988, but which has not really been applied to any extent until 2004 which the arrival of Cristina Narbona as Minister for the Environment.Thousands of Spaniards and foreigners who have homes on the front line of beaches across the country now face losing their properties. Under the law they can use them for at least 30 years, but they cannot sell or extend them, and they need special permission to carry out any type of reforms. The paper concentrates on the case of the Briton Cliff Carter and others at the La Casbah urbanisation in El Saler in Valencia.A statement from the Ministry of the Environment says that they have no intention of changing the current legislation.
The British consuls are reported to be recommending British citizens to complain to the Defensor del Pueblo, the Spanish ombudsman, or to take their case to the European Parliament which has already been informed of the problem. Britain says she understands that Spain wants to limit construction along the coast, but they do not share the method by which they are expropriating property, considering that it affects those who have purchased in good faith.The Ley de Costa establishes that the coastline land defined as ‘dominio público marítimo terrestre’ can see no homes or swimming pools, but that those built before 1988 will move into state ownership but will give the owners a 30 year use of the property, which can be extended to 60 years in some cases.
Allegations of corruption in San Fulgencio have ended with the arrest of the Chief of the Local Police.Bernardo Cortijo, who has only been in the post for less than a year after a motion of censure, was detained yesterday in an operation carried out on the orders of the anti-corruption prosecutor and Court number three in Orihuela. It appears that he is linked to the bribery case which has already resulted in the arrest and imprisonment on remand of the independent councillor Manuel Barrera.Barrera is alleged to have accepted 5,000 € in exchange for his support for a building project with 4,600 homes. COSTA former deputy mayor and leading councillor for an expat political party has been remanded in prison without bail after being charged with bribery disclosed by a video recording.Manuel Barrera – former deputy mayor of San Fulgencio and president of the Agrupación Independiente del Mediterráneo (AIM) party – was arrested on Monday and taken in handcuffs to the town hall where police searched his office and then his house in La Marina.
He and his partner were placed in the cells at the National Police headquarters in Alicante.She was released on Tuesday after making a declaration and handing in the 5,000 euros involved in the case.On Wednesday evening Sr Barrera was questioned by a judge for three hours before being sent to prison.The scandal blew up last Friday when a regional newspaper published a video and transcript of Sr Barrera meeting with two businessmen in a restaurant in which he appeared to take an envelope containing 5,000 euros in return for ‘favouring’ a construction project.The meeting took place in Valencia in September and was captured by a hidden camera.Alicante’s anticorruption prosecutor Felipe Briones launched a judicial investigation and ordered the newspaper to hand over the tape.In it, the men claim to represent a Catalan construction firm and say they have between 200,000 and 240,000 euros available.The 5,000 euros is the first instalment if ‘you are our man’, they state.
“I don’t give away my work, because my work is my time; if I take time from doing what I like, which is being with my partner, my boat, my fishing, my sailing, travelling and my dogs, I’m very sorry but this has to be paid for,” Sr Barrera replies.“Then there’s another thing; we are all going to benefit from my knowledge and my experience, and this also has a price.”He subsequently agrees on the quantity and says that large notes are better ‘because they take up less space.’
“As soon as anyone talks, the deal is off,” he adds.
Derek Cowan body was found in his flat in Barcelona this month. The body of Scottish businessman, Derek Cowan, was found bludgeoned to death in a pool of blood by his German business partner.Derek Cowan had been living in Spain for the past seven years.Detectives investigating the murder want to interview a former business associate, William Madley, who was due to meet with Mr Cowan on October 8, the last day he was seen alive.The Foreign and Commonwealth Office have confirmed that they are in contact with the Spanish authorities and a full investigation is underway by the Catalan regional police, Los Mossos d’Esquadra.
British couple in their 20’s has been given a six month prison sentence in Málaga after they were found guilty of insulting and hitting a 42 year old Spanish man, Marco Antonio Nieto, last weekend in Benalmádena. The man had intervened in an argument between the two, asking the woman if she was alright, only to be insulted and kicked by both of them. He suffered a deep gash to his head, a dislocated elbow, and other injuries.The six month prison sentence will be reduced to two months if the couple comply with certain prosecution requests, and pay the victim compensation for the time he will have to be off work.
National Police in Alicante have broken up a gang which gave false residency papers and sexually exploited immigrants. Most of the victims came from Eastern Europe.
There have been eight arrests so far in the case, with most of those arrested also from Eastern Europe, and some of them also in Spain illegally. Their activity was based in Torrevieja were a home has been searched. This was used as a warehouse where stolen goods were kept before being sold on. Many of the goods were top line fashion items, and systems to cancel out store security alarms were also found.
Club Class Holidays, based in Fuengirola, is reported to be taking between 3,000 and 30,000 euros to join holiday clubs offering cheap luxury breaks which buyers claim fail to materialise.The company, which has links to former timeshare salesman Costa Killer Tony King, uses a training manual that teaches staff how to crudely fool customers.In a sales manual for staff, trainees are told to treat customers “as if they have the intelligence of 10-year-olds” and to use “bribery, intimidation and lies” to get customers to the presentations in the first place.Middle-aged and elderly couples are the main targets of the holiday-club sharks, who promise a lifetime of five-star hotels anywhere in the world at knockdown prices.But instead of a dream holiday in the Caribbean, they are being offered low-grade hotels and apartments on the Costa del Sol that can be bought just as cheaply at any travel agent.Other buyers find they cannot choose holiday dates and are committed to annual subscriptions even if they do not go away.In a ruse identical to the timeshare salesmen, many victims are approached while on holiday by sales reps who give them scratchcards saying they have won a bottle of champagne or a free holiday.
To collect the “prize” they must attend a presentation, which turns into a high-pressure sales pitch lasting five or six hours.Consumer watchdogs are so concerned about the hard-sell tactics used by some club reps that they are leafleting UK and foreign airports warning holidaymakers about the one-billion-euro-a-year business.
David and Lesley Sylvester, both 60, from Derbyshire, in the UK, agreed to go on a cut-price £99, one-week holiday to Tenerife.As part of the deal, they had to attend a five-hour sales presentation by agents representing a company called Club Class Concierge - and ended up handing over thousands of pounds.“The next morning we recognised its implausibility and asked for our money back,” said David.But unlike timeshare sales, where clients can cancel within 14 days, the Sylvesters say there was no cooling-off period, and they could not cancel.The couple paid £10,050 to join a holiday scheme called Estrella Dorada Mediterrenees.When they tried a “castle holiday” in Austria, they were taken to a rundown students’ hostel in Vienna.
They have now successfully taken the company to court in Barcelona, where a judge ruled the couple should get a refund.New EU laws recently announced by the European Commission will bring holiday clubs into line with rules that now protect timeshare buyers – but these will not come into force until 2010.Steve Wright, 48, signed a £5,000 deal with a company called Designer Way Vacation Club, after attending a sales presentation in Huddersfield.He said: “I was fortunate because I found out in time and I wrote off the £950 deposit.”British members of the Designer Way Vacation Club, operating in the Canary Islands, were charged between £8,000 and £12,000 for a website “key” giving them access to “huge” discounts.Instead, they mostly got normal online travel agencies whose offers they could have found themselves on the internet.The UK’s Office of Fair Trading reckons 400,000 Britons get sucked into holiday-club scams every year.Sandy Grey, of the Timeshare Consumers’ Association, said: “I would urge people not to go anywhere near these scams.”No one was available to comment at the Spanish HQ of Designer Way Vacation Club.
Both Club Class and Designer Way have close links to timeshare millionaire Garry Leigh, who is the brother in law and former employer of Costa Killer Tony King.
Leigh, who has been operating on the Costa del Sol for over a decade, has a shady past.His companies are well-known to the Office of Fair Trading.
Leigh started making his fortune in the 1990s, when he and his father, Tom, ran a Yorkshire-based pyramid-selling scheme called the FPW Club.
They advertised with the slogan ‘Turn £140 into £600 as many times as you like! It’s as simple as that! No catch, no limits.’Garry and his father reportedly tricked 8,500 investors out of more than £8 million before the Department of Trade & Industry won a court order to stop them.One of his companies, Matchoption Ltd, went bust owing £300,000. His “silent backers” are said to include notorious Costa gangsters Dennis New and Mohammed Derbah, who helped him get his early Spanish scams off the ground.It is a dirty business that saw Leigh’s Málaga offices teargassed in 2002 and Leigh seriously injured by knife-wielding thugs.His Incentive Leisure office in Fuengirola in southern Spain is a large impressive building.Leigh and co-director Kim Bambroffe turn up in luxury Bentley cars.
In a recent investigation, the Sunday Mirror claims workers were told to treat customers as practically subhuman.
The bible of shame instructs staff to “sell the sizzle not the sausage” and refers to customers as “UPs” - industry slang for gullible punters.
Irish gangster based in Spain is believed to have ordered two pipebomb threats carried out yesterday. Detectives were last night working on the theory that the pipebombs, which were viable and packed with homemade explosive, were sent as a warning to a man who was allegedly in debt to the gangster.The man does not live at either of the west-Dublin addresses targeted by the attacker.The gangster is originally from the north inner city and is connected to a former-gangland figure, who was the subject of a major investigation by the Criminal Assets Bureau.
Gardai believe he has been in control of an Irish-linked drugs distribution network in Spain since earlier this year.One of the devices was found at a house in Ronanstown yesterday morning and the other at an address in Ballyfermot shortly afterwards.Both of the pipebombs had been left under parked cars. Army bomb-disposal teams made each device safe and broke them down into component parts before taking them away for forensic examination.The tests confirmed that the devices were viable and contained quantities of homemade explosive. There were similar-ities in the construction of the pipebombs.Last night, the remains were handed over by the army to the gardai.Earlier, an old training grenade was found during a planned garda search at Grove Lane in Coolock. It was examined by an army ordinance team, who established that it had no explosive content.On its way back to barracks from the Ballyfermot incident, the army team was diverted to a fourth call-out at Oliver Bond flats, off Thomas Street.The device, which had been found by Dublin city council workers in a vent in a flat during routine maintenance work, was a hoax.
All of the scenes were cordoned off during the army examinations and several houses were evacuated during two of them.Meanwhile, three shots were fired at a convicted heroin dealer as he drove his car through Finglas yesterday afternoon.Last night, local gardai were trying to find a motive for the attack. The intended target was not injured.Gardai believe the target is a former associate of murdered gangland boss Martin "Marlo" Hyland.
Jock Barker, had been on the run from Strathclyde Police since 1999 when he disappeared while on bail for drug offences. British police tracked him down and extradited him back to Scotland so he could be brought to justice.Barker was convicted of dealing cocaine and amphetamines in Scotland. In March 1999, in a massive surveillance operation, undercover police watched as he accepted cocaine in the car park of Wellbeck Golf Club in Troon. He fled the scene and threw bags of cocaine out of the car window during the chase that followed. The previous year he had been spotted supplying amphetamines in Renfrewshire. The drugs involved in the two incidents were worth £141,000.As he passed sentence at the end of the trial this week, Judge John Morrice told Barker, who was one of the UK's ten most wanted criminals, that drug dealing was evil and a scourge on society.Barker, originally from Irvine, Ayrshire, is just the latest criminal to be brought back to Britain as part of a crackdown on the infamous ''Costa del Crime''.The crackdown, labelled Operation Captura, has been orchestrated by the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) alongside UK charity Crimestoppers and Spanish police.The collaboration was launched in 2006, with Soca appealing for information from ex-pat communities and holidaymakers, publishing "Most Wanted" lists on the Crimestoppers website.
Once Soca has identified the whereabouts of the criminal it contacts Interpol, then the Spanish authorities, who make the arrest locally.Crimestoppers' director of operations Dave Cording said: "Operation Captura has been a great success, with 13 criminals arrested from 30 images posted on our website."These individuals are extremely dangerous and have committed serious crime including murder, drug trafficking and fraud worth millions of pounds. With 'Most Wanted', they have nowhere to hide. Their picture is on the net for all to see."Criminals escaping to Spain is nothing new. It first started in the late 1960s largely on the back of London bank robberies.It was dangerous for criminals to have large quantities of stolen cash sitting around so they started investing in property in Europe, particularly Spain.Extradition was rare, partly due to tension between Britain and Spain over Gibraltar in the late 1970s. Large ex-pat communities gave criminals a cloak to hide under, and the movement away from Britain also meant crooks moved out from under the scrutiny of the British authorities. They were unknown to police on the continent, and the lack of co-operation between European law enforcement agenciesmade it difficult to catch and extradite criminals.Professor Graeme Pearson, former head of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency (SCDEA),
said: "Criminals moving to Spain were relatively safe because of the inability of law enforcement to acquire warrants and gather evidence across Europe."The creation of organisations like Europol, Interpol and Eurojust all helped to change that as these organisations have led to joint investigation teams. "Whereas in the past doing a criminal investigation in Spain was extremely difficult, the new organisations have enabled law enforcers to work together and co-operate internationally."Prof Pearson also said that the Barker case shows criminals no longer have safe havens in places like Spain.He said: "Perhaps in the past Barker would have been safe in Spain, but now it is much easier for the authorities to catch criminals based in one place. "Law enforcement still finds it difficult to move as fast as the criminals but the creation of European arrest warrants has made it easier to bring criminals back to Britain."
European arrest warrants came into force in Britain on 1 January 2004 and have been used 43 times between Scotland and Spain since then. Mungo Bovey QC, an expert in extradition law, said: "The introduction of the European arrest warrant now makes the process of extradition much faster than it used to be."This makes it very difficult for criminals associated with the 'Costa del Crime' to hide in Spanish beach towns, and the days of criminals lurking in Spain evading the authorities are now becoming a thing of the past."British fugitives living the high-life on the Costa del Sol has been a source of fascination since those believed to be behind the £6 million Security Express robbery in 1983 moved to Spain. Ronnie Knight, former husband of EastEnders star Barbara Windsor, spent a decade on the run there.
Another notorious criminal who fled to Spain was Kenneth Noye, who laundered proceeds from the 1983 Brinks Mat gold bullion robbery.The area has long been a haven, not just for "retired" criminals, as highlighted in gangster films such as Sexy Beast and The Business, but also used as a base for drug running. In the past, criminals have used the coast to ferry cocaine from Africa and Colombia.
Prof Pearson said: "The British police found it difficult to investigate from a distance, as did Customs and Excise, as they were rarely able to gather evidence.
"Spanish law enforcement was focused on its own national priorities, which did not include the British crime families."At the same time the criminals were building up financial empires capable of being protected by white-collar professionals abroad, as well as corruption. It was only once the drugs arrived on the streets of Britain that officials could see the harm it caused. But linking that back to the organisation behind it, located in Spain, and thereafter generating investigative action, was frustratingly difficult."Detective Chief Superintendent Gavin Robertson, of the SCDEA, said living abroad was no longer any protection for criminals.
He said: "Where drug traffickers or other serious organised criminals from Scotland elect to live abroad, either in the hope of continuing with their criminality or living off the proceeds of their illegally obtained wealth, let me be clear that they are not beyond our reach."We will take all lawful measures to locate them and ensure they face the consequences of their actions. Scotland's communities expect and are entitled to nothing less."
Spaniards spend 50 million € a day on prostitutes according to latest estimates with Andaucía the region of the country with most prostitutes in Spain, followed by Valencia and Madrid.The southern region has no fewer than 18,200 involved in the oldest profession of the world according to the official numbers. Official estimates say that there are just over 100,000 prostitutes in the country, while some other estimates have tripled that number. Many studies indicate that 6% of the population are regular users of prostitutes and that the industry moves some 18 billion € a year, based mostly in roadside ‘alternative’ night clubs. These venues are ‘inspected’ on a periodic basis by the Guardia Civil and it is from these inspections that a rough official number is obtained.Prostitution is considered is second most profitable business in the world, behind only arms trafficking, but ahead of drugs.In Sevilla the City Hall has started a poster campaign against prostitution with the slogan ‘Are you worth so little that you have to pay? – Prostitution exists because you do pay.
Málaga Chamber of Commerce has said that the local construction industry will be at a complete standstill in two months time, as work is completed on those sites where it is already underway. The declaration comes as there are still some 85,000 people whose work in the province is linked to construction. A call has been made for more public works as a way of keeping some of the jobs alive.
Spanish girls turn to prostitution
Brothels and clubs such as this one are mushrooming due to lack of legislation. And for the first time in many years, they are showcasing their Spanish girls as the main attraction.The boom of foreign prostitutes that took place in recent years had all but relegated Spanish girls to the most marginal markets such as industrial parks outside small towns.But now, newspaper and local television ads are screaming out their presence. Sometimes they go as far as to specify the region the prostitutes are from: Catalan senoritas, Andalusian chicas and others.According to Laura, the owner of a massage parlour in downtown Valencia, "each day there are more national girls offering their services".Laura, a middle-aged woman who used to be a prostitute, is also Spanish. "I fell into this because of serious money problems," she explains. "Years ago, Spanish girls could work as go-go dancers at nightclubs or whatever, but now the economy is real bad.""Besides, right now clients are paying more for them," she adds.It was the other way around years ago when the first sculptural foreigners arrived in Spain courtesy of international mafias. But now, even specialised websites stress whether an advertised girl was born in Spain.
Amaranta Foundation, a religious non-profit group that helps women caught up in prostitution and crime, confirms that there has been a rise in the number of Spanish-born prostitutes working in private apartments. In the case of telephone and internet contacts, sex takes place on the street or inside the client's car.
"They are girls who want fast money in a specific way. They see prostitution as a way to make things change for them," says Pilar Casas, the director of Amaranta.
"In most cases they are teenage girls with dysfunctional social and family backgrounds. They have a varied history of abuse, a lack of culture and social skills, and no self-esteem."Casas says that they are "girls for whom it is very difficult to be part of the system and its demands, especially now with the economic crisis."Even though 85 percent of prostitutes in Spain are foreign, Spanish girls now make up to 30 percent at apartment-based brothels, according to Amaranta. This trend is often linked to alcohol and cocaine use."It is becoming more common. Most Spanish girls are already hooked before becoming prostitutes, and when they start working they go completely under," says Laura, the owner of a massage parlour.
A study conducted by Carmen Meneses, of the Catholic university, Universidad Pontificia de Comillas in Madrid, shows that of all the prostitutes who were interviewed by researchers, the Spaniards had experimented with cocaine before resorting to prostitution, while the foreigners had not.
Alcohol and cocaine allow them to put up with an activity that they generally abhor, the study concludes."Consuming drugs can lead to unprotected sex with their clients and becoming the victims of attacks," reads the report.Added to all this is the fact that many young prostitutes owe money, either to banks to pay off a mortgage in the case of Spaniards, or to the mafia in the case of the foreigners. They have to share profits with pimps and club owners, and sometimes even pay for plastic surgery, an especially common occurrence in the medium- to high-end sector.One in four pays for sexAs for how many women sell their bodies in Spain, official government figures have placed the number at slightly higher than 100,000, while non-official estimates have often floated around 300,000. However, much higher numbers are also thrown around. Government experts speculate that business turnover is between around EUR 50 million a day.A study by researchers from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III health research centre places Spain as the developed country with the highest rate of prostitution; a country where one out of every four men has paid for sex.
Prostitution has been assimilated, and the modern roadside club has been the great provider. But even that model is drying up, it seems.
"It appears to be changing," agrees Esperanza Casals, a sexologist and the director of the applied psychology group Espai.
"Prostitution has been assimilated as a form of massive consumption for entertainment purposes that is separate from morals. And it happened through the use of these establishments as weekend resorts or for stag parties."
Un motorista ha fallecido hoy en Marbella (Málaga) al salirse de la vía con su vehículo cuando circulaba por la A-7, según han informado a Efe fuentes del servicio de emergencias 112.
(EFE)En la imagen, vuelco de un camión que transportaba cristales, en la autovía A-7 a su paso por la localidad malagueña de Marbella.En el accidente, que se produjo en las inmediaciones de la salida hacia Cabo Pino, no se ha visto implicado ningún otro vehículo, han añadido las fuentes.
El suceso se ha producido esta madrugada, sobre las 4.10 horas, cuando por causas que todavía se desconocen, el hombre, de 30 años, se salió de la calzada en el kilómetro 195 de la citada vía.
British National was arrested today at the Gibraltar airport on suspicion of obtaining property and services by deception and theft.J. K. born in Rainhill on 16/7/1947 had been flown back to Gibraltar escorted by RGP officers after a European Arrest Warrant obtained in Gibraltar in 2007 was executed in the UK in June 2008 and was arrested by RGP Financial Crime Unit officers on arrival. The whereabouts of J. K. were discovered after extensive enquiries in the UK revealed that he was serving a prison sentence in relation to a car he had stolen in the UK and which had been seized by RGP Financial Crime Unit officers in October 2007. The case for which he has been extradited dates back to September 2007 when J. K., posing as a wealthy property investor, stayed at a top local hotel running up a large bill by deceiving the hotel with regards to his ability to pay. He also befriended a local businessman and similarly obtained property to the value of over £30,000, including a high value car, which was later recovered in Spain, by playing a similar deception over a period of two weeks. J. K. has been charged with one count of obtaining services by deception, two counts of obtaining property by deception and two counts of theft, and will appear at Magistrates Court on Monday morning.
Hundreds of British tourists appear to have been affected by a sickness bug at the Holiday Village Hotel complex in Benalmedena on Spain’s Costa del Sol. Travel law solicitors from Manchester law firm Pannone LLP report they have already taken on a number of cases and that reports from guests staying at the hotel point to the possibility of hundreds having been affected.
Andrew Morton who heads Pannone’s team of travel law solicitors said “This looks like a serious outbreak of illness, probably due to contaminated food and or water. Families spend thousands of pounds on a summer holiday and should be able to expect reasonable standards of hygiene to apply at their hotels. Sadly too often this is not the case and many people have to resort to legal action against the tour operator in order to receive compensation. We are thoroughly investigating the complaints on behalf of the people who are seeking to claim compensation for their ruined holiday.” Anyone who stayed at the Holiday Village Club in Benalmedena and was affected by illness is advised by Mr. Morton to speak to their doctor in the UK upon return. They are also advised to save any receipts for medicines purchased and copies of complaints they may have made to their tour reps. Finally, if complaints to their tour operators prove fruitless, they should seek specialist legal advice.
Morton concluded, “Fortunately for British tourists seeking compensation, they have the benefit of powerful consumer legislation in the Package Travel Regulations 1992. These regulations entitle them to claim for compensation against the tour operator in the UK, under UK law.”
Around a year ago one Friday the early morning tranquility of Guadalmina Baja in Marbella was broken by a heavily-armed eight-man squad from the National Police raiding David Klein’s sumptuous villa.
The reason for the anti-racketeering and anti-Mafia police to take such a drastic step was Klein’s shady business activity selling dodgy international driving licenses. Klein sold licenses with few or no questions asked to the sort of people who inevitably end up in police custody. International criminals in Marbella were being arrested and their documents checked. The fingers were pointing at Klein. He advertises his licenses in many local English language publications. Look at the local press for Klein’s advertisements even today for his dodgy licenses: 610868748
The police search warrant covered fraudulent and forged passports, driving licenses and identity documents. Klein, his long-suffering wife and their housekeeper were sat on straight-backed chairs and told to keep quiet (difficult for motor-mouth) as the house was ransacked.
The police took away many papers and documents and Klein himself. Klein was then held in the cells, dungeon actually, of the Marbella Comisaria of the National Police for seventy-two hours. He was refused access to a lawyer.
Klein was released on bail and scuttled down to Gibraltar to draw out 8,000 euros to pay his lawyer.
Until recently Klein was reporting to the Marbella court twice a month as a bail condition. Due to the state of his health (dodgier than his licenses) his lawyer has now persuaded the court to drop the requirement to sign on at the court. Whereas the rest of him ceases to function unfortunately Klein’s mouth keeps going.
Klein’s trial will take place in due course. He is unlikely to be given a custodial sentence due to his age and infirmity, but the fine will be painful.
Facebook and Bebo were used to invite teenagers to a party that resulted in a £4.4 million mansion being wrecked. The British-owned Marbella house was wrecked after 400 teenagers were invited to the party via Facebook and Bebo. The party was hosted by the owners' 16-year-old daughter.Jodie Hudson had posted details of the party on the Facebook and Bebo sites, inviting any teenager across the Costa del Sol, saying: 'Theres gone be a lot of alcohol an amazing DJ [sic]'. The invitation sparked rumours that the house could be trashed because Jodie's parents were getting divorced.£6,000-worth of jewellery and clothes was taken by partygoers, and the televisions, tables and chairs were thrown into the swimming pool. Amanda Hudson, Jodie's mother, called the police at midnight.
Jodie Hudson wrote on her site after the party: 'There’s so much damage and clothes stolen. A lot of broken doors. people caight [sic] having sex.'The £4.4 million villa, in the El Paraiso development, was to be rented out during the summer for £4,000 per week. It is now uninhabitable after Jodie Hudson posted an invitation to her party on Facebook and Bebo
The owner and manager of a mattress factory in Casablanca were detained Sunday after at least 55 people were killed in a fire which broke out in the factory, Morocco's official news agency MAP reported.
Firefighters evacuate a victim of a fire that broke out in a mattress factory Saturday, April 26, 2008 in Casablanca, Morocco. Factory owner Adil Moufareh and his son Abdelali, the factory's manager, have been detained for questioning. Poor safety measures and locked doors which trapped workers were blamed for the tragedy, during which at least 55 people have been confirmed dead and six others were hospitalized, local police said. The blaze broke out in the morning at 10 a.m. (1000 GMT) on Saturday in the first floor of the Rosamor Ameublements factory in the Hay Hassani neighborhood of the North African country's economic capital as well as the largest city, the report said. About 60 of the 150 workers, recruited by the factory, were on site when the fire erupted, according to MAP. Some 100 fire fighters were deployed to control the blaze, believed to be the deadliest in the country since 2002 when a fire in a prison left 50 people dead.
Morocco has seized 3.477 tons of hashish on a rubber boat apparently bound for Europe on the Mediterranean coast, state MAP news agency reported on Wednesday.
In one of the biggest hashish hauls of the North African country, the Moroccan marine on Tuesday night intercepted the tons of hashish arranged in 128 parcels and put in an inflatable boat with three strong engines, local authorities was quoted as saying. None of the boat occupants was arrested, as they managed to flee when the marine agents raided in, the report said. Morocco is one of the world's major providers of hashish. Tons of the banned substance are seized each year mostly in northern port cities, with the bulk destined for Europe.
Spanish police arrested Mohamed Ouazzani, a Moroccan national also known as "El Nene" ("The Baby") in Ceuta, a Spanish enclave in northern Morocco, as he was driving around the city centre .
Police caught one of the world's major drug traffickers in a Spanish enclave in north Africa, police said , after guards helped him escape a Moroccan prison in December. "This is extraordinary news," Khalid Naciri, a Moroccan government spokesperson, said. Rabat had been mounting pressure on Spain to extradite him, a security source said. In December 2007, Ahmed escaped Kenitra high-security prison 40 kilometres (around 25 miles) north of the capital Rabat, where he had been serving an-eight-year prison term since 2004, for drug trafficking.
Until his escape, the suspect was being detained in a comfortable three-room cell equipped with a television, air conditioning and Internet. He would regularly go out to nearby bars and restaurants. Notorious in Morocco and Spain, "El Nene", was born in a poor Ceuta district and later joined gangs. He acquired an estimated 30 million-euro (around 47 million-dollar) fortune from drug dealing, a Spanish police press statement said.
Hi there,
I am a researcher for Channel 4's A Place in the Sun. We are currently producing
an hour-long special about buying property in Spain, for transmission in around
a month's time.
One story we are interested in covering is that of illegal build, Ley de Costa
and land-grab in Spain (particularly in the Valencia region but also in other
areas).
Our aim is not to sensationalise but to present an informative and balanced
report of the current situation, using case-studies to highlight specific
dangers.
This item would obviously offer whoever we choose to feature a fantastic
opportunity to raise awareness of their situation back in the UK.
If you are a victim of any of the above, please do contact me asap on my email,
which is nicka@fftv.co.uk.
We will be filming between 22 and 29 February so if you are interested in
speaking to us, you would need to be available at some point during this
period.
Kind regards,
Nick Adey
A Place in the Sun
Spanish police are investigating possible links between a massive cocaine seizure along Spain’s southeastern coast, la Costa del Sol, on 5 February 2008 and the murder of Irish drug dealer Patrick Doyle. Authorities arrested eight men, including one Irishman, following the seizure of 115kg of the drug near the location of the murder. Spanish officials say the men in custody may have links to the murder. Officials also believe that Doyle’s death was the result of rival drugs traffickers in Spain, rather than an Irish gangland feud.
Detectives in Spain probing the murder of a convicted Irish criminal are waiting to quiz two men seen with him at the time of the attack.
Investigations are continuing into the killing of 27-year-old Patrick Doyle, who was gunned down in a car in a gangland style ambush on the Costa del Sol. Doyle, from Portland Row in Dublin's north inner city, was shot dead as he travelled in a car in the Cancelada district of Estepona, around 10 miles south of Marbella.
Dublin criminal Gary Hutch, the nephew of former crime crime figure Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch, was driving the vehicle. He was injured in the shooting but escaped. It is thought he fled the scene with another man, Freddy Thompson, who was not hurt in the attack.
HITMAN for one of the country’s biggest drug trafficking gangs was shot dead in Spain. Patrick Doyle, 27, from Portland Row in Dublin, was gunned down after the car in which he was a passenger was ambushed. Doyle, who had been travelling in the car with Gary Hutch and Freddie Thompson, two Drimnagh gang members also well known to gardaí, was shot twice in the head in what had all the hallmarks of a professional assassination.
Garda sources said they suspect the killing was part of a violent Dublin feud, but have not ruled out the theory he may have been targeted by a foreign drug gang. Gardaí fear the shooting will lead to further violence in the Crumlin-Drimnagh feud, which has already claimed at least nine lives since 2001. Gardaí were already on alert following the assassination attempt on crime figure Martin Foley on January 26. Yesterday’s gun attack happened in broad daylight in the town of Cancelada, in the resort area of Estepona, on the Costa del Sol at 2.15pm, Spanish time. Gary Hutch, the nephew of a former Irish crime boss, was driving the car. Another car pulled up beside them and its occupants opened fire. It is understood there were five shots. Four hit the windscreen and a fifth hit the passenger door. Doyle was in the front passenger seat. The driver struck a lamppost, with reports suggesting he received injuries. All three men got out of the car, but Garda sources said the attackers ran after Doyle and shot him twice in the head. The other two escaped. The victim was himself a suspect for two of the murders in the Crumlin feud, that of Joseph Rattigan in July 2002 and Noel Roche in November 2005. He fled the country after Roche’s murder. He is thought to have killed Roche after the rival gang shot dead his close friend Darren Geoghegan, and another man, Gavin Byrne, days earlier. He was described by Garda sources as a violent and vicious individual. Gardaí said Doyle had established himself as a significant drug trafficker in Spain and was involved in shipping large quantities of cannabis, cocaine and heroin from Spain into England and Ireland.
drug fugitive Scott Coleman Coleman, 33, is wanted by Grampian Police for supplying heroin. He was arrested in Aberdeen in 2003 and charged with possession with intent to supply almost 3kg of the drug.Police want the public to help them trace Coleman and nine other fugitives thought to be living in the Costa del Sol region of southern Spain.Details of all 10 men have been posted by Crimestoppers on a “most wanted” website targeting the region.The Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) and the Spanish police authorities are also involved in the move, codenamed Operation Captura.Coleman, who was born in Liverpool, is described as 6ft 2in tall, of medium build with short brown hair and blue eyes.He has a tattoo of a bulldog on the centre of his back, the Liverpool FC crest tattooed on his right leg and has lips tattooed on his buttocks.Operation Captura identifies serious criminals wanted by UK law enforcement agencies for crimes committed in the UK.Crimestoppers and SOCA work closely with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office staff in Madrid, British and Spanish law enforcement.
Radlett man thought to be behind a major drug-trafficking operation David Alfred Andrews, 66, was born in the village and is accused of being behind the importing of cocaine from south America.Crimestoppers and SOCA have issued new appeals for information concerning Andrews and nine other British men thought to be on the run in the Costa del Sol region of Spain. He allegedly conspired to import large amounts of the drug by using corrupt Heathrow Airport employees.Operation Captura was originally launched in October 2006, and eight of 20 fugitives have so far been brought to justice.Bill Hughes, director general of SOCA, said: "British crooks who thought they could enjoy a yachts and villas' lifestyle in Spain have received a nasty shock. Many of them are now experiencing a rather different lifestyle at Her Majesty's pleasure."Andrews is 5ft 11in tall, has grey, collar-length hair, large build and is usually clean shaven.
Mickey Green, 62, is said to have £10 million in cash buried in hills above Spain's Costa Del Sol.Greene is said to have fled back to Spain where he owned a villa. One accomplice says he had 1m cash in French francs in a box buried under the villa's flower-bed.The truth is probably somewhere in between these figures.Green during the 90s lead a spectacular life on Spains Costa del Sol with runners arriving from all parts of the world. One who new more than the others and had a history dating back to the early days of the wembley mob,who had been on the run in Las Vegas with him confined that Mickey in the 90s was heavily using his own product and could not remember the exact location of the money.They had travelled around in Mickeys new porsche sports car trying to locate the site but to no avail.What had seemed like a good idea at the time,the police had just injected Freddie Foreman and whisked him off to jail in the U.K, seemed in retrospect not such a wise decision.Green has always stayed one step ahead of the law, leaving behind speedboats, yachts, Rolls-Royces, a Porsche, a Ferrari, gold bullion, cash and cocaine in his haste to get away.So somewhere in those golden sierras lies a fortune just waiting to be found.
Mickey Green, a British national who lived in Ireland for a number of years and who lost his palatial properties there following a money laundering probe, is named as the second richest drugs smuggler in the world.His last home was Rod Stewarts old pad in Beverley Hills. estimates to his worth to be up to 280 million
Green is now thought to be living in England, having spent some time posing as a legitimate businessman before being unmasked by an informer. He went underground
Irish Police Chief Superintendent Felix McKenna, , described how Green quickly moved to save his antiques from seizure before members of his bureau were sent in to seize them.These antiques were collected in removal vans by a well known longfirm operator from Marbella who lived as a neibours not far from Mickeys villa. Although Green was able to clear the antiques from his houses, the Police was able to seize and sell off his properties.
Chief Supt McKenna claimed, as many before and after have, that Green has managed to evade jail time by, in part, corrupting officials, saying: “He was high into corrupting officialdom. That’s part of his forte all over the years when you read about him in police investigations.
Mickey Green, also known as the Pimpernel, a multi-millionaire criminal who has been on the run for more than 20 years and is believed to be one of the most senior figures in the British underworld. A successful armed robber during the Seventies when he ran a gang called the 'Wembley Mob', Green, now 60, moved into the drug trade after leaving prison in the early Eighties. He now owns bars and property in Wembley, West Hampstead, Dublin and Marbella. In the past he has had a string of detectives on his payroll and has had close connections with the notorious Adams family, the powerful London gangsters. He was named Europe's most wanted drugs baron and nicknamed 'the octopus' for the tentacles of his ever-expanding network.
But Green has always stayed one step ahead of the law, leaving behind speedboats, yachts, Rolls-Royces, a Porsche, a Ferrari, gold bullion, cash and cocaine in his haste to get away. He has worked out of Morocco, France and the US, where he consorted with the Mafia and flew in and out of Colombia before his arrest in Beverly Hills, where he was living in Rod Stewart's former house. FBI agents arrested Green as he lounged by the pool. He lived up to his nickname by escaping the charges.
South Wales TV presenter has solved the mystery of her court no-show – she’s stripping in Spain.Former BBC and Sky News reporter Tara Stout has been on the run in the Spain’s balmy Costa Del Sol since failing to appear in court to face harassment charges.The 36-year-old, originally from Gwaelod-y-Garth, near Cardiff, said she had missed birthday parties for her mum and sister at home in Wales as she could not come back to the UK.Tara said she had been pocketing some extra cash at a strip club in the southern Spanish bolt-hole popular with ex-pat criminals. “There’s lots of criminals here. They think I’m on the run and they think it’s hilarious.“One famous robber gave me 200 euro. It was at a strip club where I’ve worked a couple of times – but I wasn’t even stripping.”Tara is accused of sending multi-millionaire Crystal Palace football chairman Simon Jordan lewd messages and a raunchy video.
She said she fled to Spain in December as she thought she was going to be jailed for six months for breaching a restraining order – although she claims it was wrongly imposed.She said: “I don’t trust the courts any more. I’ve breached a restraining order.“Even though I could prove it should never have been put on, I was going to go to jail for six months for breaching it.“I had a choice between going to Holloway Women’s Prison and the Costa Del Sol.
“ I’ve been to Holloway three times and I’m bored of it. So I thought – the Costa Del Sol!”Tara who has appeared in court wearing a series of raunchy outfits was convicted in 2006 of harassing Mr Jordan, a self-made businessman who cashed in on a budget phone business he set up in the ’90s.Divorced Tara, who was living in Clapham, south London, once had a three-day relationship with Mr Jordan.In 2006, she appeared in court accused of sending him more than 100 messages a day, billing him for shopping trips and sending him her underwear.Representing herself, she told the court that he had sent her rude and insulting messages but was given a restraining order preventing her from contacting him again.The former BBC reporter has also been linked with Gary Lineker.
Gas Natural, the company responsible for taking piped gas to our homes, continues its scheme to expand throughout the province of Malaga. Last year another 6,000 new customers were connected to the gas mains after the municipality of Alhaurín el Grande joined the network. Now the firm is focusing on the western Costa del Sol, explained Andrés Membrillo, director general of Gas Natural in Andalucía. In 2008 it is expected that mains gas will reach Marbella and Estepona, as well as the municipality of Cártama in the Guadalhorce Valley. Nevertheless the company has not abandoned its progress along the eastern Costa del Sol, its next objective being Torrox.Membrillo stressed the importance of the future construction of a new pipeline along the east coast of the province of Malaga and continuing as far as Almeria to eventually join up with the Medgas, a new connection which will take gas up to Spain’s Levante area. So far two of the three sections into which this pipeline has been divided have been approved: from Cártama to Nerja and from Adra to Almeria.Nevertheless this pipeline could take another six or seven years to construct. Meanwhile Gas Natural plans to supply Torrox and Nerja by means of liquid gas tanks, a system they are currently using in Vélez-Málaga.West coastIn the case of Marbella, the regional director of Gas Natural announced that the service is about to be made available in San Pedro Alcántara and an agreement with the Town Hall is due to be signed shortly to enable piped gas to be distributed to homes in Marbella itself, the only town with more than 100,000 inhabitants that is still not connected. It is also expected that piped gas will be available to homes in Estepona some time in 2008, as well as Cártama. With these new additions Gas Natural will have fulfilled its objective, set initially for 2006, to supply the majority of towns with more than 20,000 inhabitants.The company’s targets for the 2007-2013 period are to reach 80 per cent of all municipalities with between 10,000 and 20,000 inhabitants, especially those on the Andalusian coastline.
Last year Gas Natural spent 13.7 million euros in the province of Malaga and extended its distribution pipes to a total of more than 600 kilometres. So far in the province some 68,619 households have decided to use the piped gas service.
Andrés Membrillo pointed out that a similar sum would be spent in 2008 with the aim of attracting another 6,000 customers. He also explained that thanks to an agreement with the Junta de Andalucía and local authorities in the province, all new subsidised housing will be built with pipes for mains gas already installed.
The director added that to equip an average home to receive piped gas normally costs between 300 and 400 euros although credit facilities are available.
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