A year on the Costas holiday from prison for U.K. offender

Escape Leyhill Prison after being jailed for breaking into almost 1,000 cars spent more than a year in sunny Spain and then flew back into Britain without being detected, a court heard.Andrew Winter then quickly returned to crime - stealing a £1,500 generator in the latest of his many offences, Gloucester Crown Court was told today.Winter, 32, of Thorsbury Avenue, Matson, Gloucester, admitted escaping from the prison in November 2006 and stealing...

Standing on the track hugging each other.motive of suicide is now almost certain

Two people, both 57 year old women, a Spaniard and a Belgium, have died after being hit by a train on the new AVE high speed line. It happened in the Málaga municipality of Mollina, 2kms. from the Antequera - Santa Ana station at 9,30pm last night according to the Guardia Civil and emergency services. It’s understood that the two women had jumped over fencing to reach the train line, and the motive of suicide is now almost certain, according to the...

Amy Fitzpatrick :Candlelit demonstration

A candlelit demonstration for Amy Fitzpatrick safe return takes place in Mijas this Sunday, to, as Mijas Town Hall said in a press release, keep alive the hope that she will be found. It comes at the instigation of a number of local residents of differing faiths, including Catholic,...

Shooting on Calle Asuncíon Parreño García

Shooting on Calle Asuncíon Parreño García in Elche on Tuesday morning has escaped with his life, despite receiving four bullet wounds. The 48 year old was shot twice in the left leg and once in the neck. The fourth bullet went into his right arm.Doctors said none of the bullets remained lodged in his body and he was expected to be released from hospital shortly. He was shot with a .22 calibre gun and it’s understood none of the bullets damaged any...

Another child kidnap attempt in Málaga

Another child kidnap attempt in Málaga. Following on from an attempt against an 11 year old girl when she was walking home from school in Arroyo de la Miel on Friday, comes news of another incident on Saturday night in Málaga City.A Nigerian man tried to snatch a two year old girl from her grandmother in the Rosaleda Commercial Centre in Málaga CityLa Opinion de Málaga reports this morning that it was only the efforts of her grandmother which stopped...

Morocco-Almeria ferry car theft and forgery of documents

Abdelhak R, has been arrested by the Guardia Civil Port Authorities in Almería on suspicion of car theft and forgery of documents. During routine inspections prior to the boarding of the Morocco-Almeria ferry, Berkane, Guardia Civil officers had reason to believe that documents for a Volkswagen Golf had been tampered with. Subsequent enquiries confirmed that the car, displaying false number plates, had been stolen on January 7 from inside France....

Drunk driver reversed his car into the Police twice

Police vehicle has been smashed into twice by a drunk driver in Fuengirola. Reports say that the accident occurred just 15 metres away from the police station. The police car was making its way out of the station’s garage, when drunk driver reversed his car into them. According to...

extortionists uncovered

Gang of extortionists was uncovered by National Police thanks to an investigation which began at the beginning of the year after an elderly woman in Cadiz reported that a group of people were physically and verbally abusing her and demanding that she pay them 100,000 euros. The investigation led to the arrest of four people, three of them residents of Malaga, and all with extensive criminal records. The suspects, who are aged between 39 and 61, now...

Daniel Hastelow Spanish autopsy reports no defense wounds

Richard Henry Roberts, 35, and Paul Anthony Griffiths, 22, accused of murdering Daniel Hastelow in Magalluf (Calvia) were sent to jail without remand. They are also accused of breaking and entering and may face 20 years in prison. The two attackers confessed to the crime,Roberts,...

Allan Foster aka Sean Wilkinson. new siteings

David "Noddy" Rice, of St Vincent Street, South Shields, was shot nine times by two masked men on the seafront at Marsden.A jury at Newcastle Crown Court heard how he had been lured to the meeting by Steven Bevens, 39, who worked for gunman Allan Foster, a drug dealer originally...

Drug dealers operating out of Málaga's El Palo district.

More than 4kg of the designer drug, crystal Meth , has been seized by National Police officers in Málaga. It was being transported by motorcycle from Madrid for distribution through small-scale drug dealers operating out of Málaga's El Palo district. Six youths aged between 24-32,...

Charged with drug trafficking and bribery

A 50 year old prison officer from Alhaurín de la Torre jail was remanded in custody without bail by a judge at Málaga provincial court at a preliminary hearing earlier today. The Guard, who is charged with drug trafficking and bribery, was arrested at the prison gates last Thursday...

Costa Del Crimes Right to Reply

Costa del Crime allows everyone using the site the right to reply.Our readership is worldwide Comments and personal opinions are just that everyone has an opinion or a comment. As a society we want our young people to be literate, thoughtful, and caring human beings; but we also attempt to control what they read, think, and care about. We feel the need to "protect" children or parents from dangerous or disturbing ideas and information. Of course,...

Four and a half kilos of Hashish

Guardi Civil arrested six eastern Europeans on suspicion of drug trafficking. Police arrested the men on 22 January 2008 in Almería Port, along the southeastern coast of Spain, after they arrived on a ferry from Melilla. Since the time of arrest, the six men have expelled as many...

Dolores Vázquez

The Justice ministry has awarded Dolores Vázquez, who spent 17 months in jail falsely accused of a murder that Tony Alexander King subsequently confessed to, €120,000 in compensation - substantially less than the €4 million requested by Ms Vázquez's lawyers. Ms Vázquez was arrested in 2000, eleven months after the body of 19 year old Rocío Wanninkhof - who went missing from Mijas on the 9th October 1999 - was found on the 2nd November in Marbella....

18 years in prison and fined them 400,000 €

The Provincial Court in Málaga has sentenced two men to a total of 18 years in prison and fined them 400,000 € after they were found guilty of carrying nearly five kilos of cocaine in the false bottom of their vehicle. The case dates back to March 2003 and 3 kilo more of the drugs was found in the house of one of the accused. Two women who accompanied the men at the time of the arrest were found not guilty, with the court considering that their participation...

Fuengirola: Gang of drug traffickers

The police on the Costa del Sol have broken up a gang of drug traffickers who are alleged to have carried out a kidnapping in Fuengirola. Eight people have been arrested.A police statement said that the investigation, codenamed Cleopatra, was opened when police realised the gang had arrived in the area from L’Hospotalet de Llobregat in Barcelona, and that those arrested were moving large amounts of money and drugs.267 kilos of hashish have been recovered...

Arrested six eastern Europeans

The Guardia Civil in Almería Port has arrested six eastern Europeans, all now living in Madrid, on suspicion of drug trafficking, after they arrived on the ‘Santa Cruz de Tenerife’ ferry from Melilla. The officers thought the group was acting nervously, and since their arrest they have between them expelled as many as 630 balls of cling film wrapped hashish from their bodies.It’s estimated that between them the six were carrying as much as four and...

11 year old girl :New Kidnap attempt on the Costa

There has been a kidnap attempt of a child on the Costa del Sol. Diario Sur reports that it happened on Friday afternoon after 2pm, when an 11 year old girl was making her way home after school. She had to walk no more than 300m along the Avenida Inmaculada Concepción to her home in Arroyo de la Miel in Benalmádena when an unknown young man blocked her way at a crossing, got out of his car, put his hand over her mouth, and tried to force her into...

Daniel Hastelow Case: Richard Roberts,Anthony Griffiths Declarations in front of the Judge

Richard Roberts, aged 35, and Anthony Griffiths, 22. The paper gives the victim’s name as Daniel Hastelow.Mr Roberts reportedly told the Civil Guard that he had had a number of arguments with the victim in the past, and had been threatened by him on each occasion. He said Mr Griffiths had no part in the crime, who himself said the two were in the apartment looking for another man who lived there and they thought Mr Hastelow would still be out. He...

David Alfred Andrews

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...

Stephen Johnson

Stephen Johnson, who denies any wrongdoing, has appeared in court in the Canary Islands, accused of fatally stabbing a 25-year-old Moroccan man in the popular resort of Playa de las Americas.He has been released from custody on bail, but is not allowed to leave the country and is believed to have surrendered his passport to the authorities.The 54-year-old dad-of-two, from Elvet Green, Hetton, runs Stepy's Coaches, which has sponsored the Durham and...

Antonio Banderas ordered to demolish a large chunk of his beachfront house near Marbella.

Antonio Banderas became the most famous name to fall foul of Spain's efforts to clean up illegal developments when he was orderedto demolish a large chunk of his beachfront house near Marbella.A court in Andalucía rejected an appeal by Banderas's lawyers against a demolition order...

Los Alcázares

In Spain, powerful investigating judges lead the way in investigating corruption. They have extensive powers and can imprison anyone they wish to interview. Also involved are the National Police and Guardia Civil who have specialist units that the judges make use of. Money laundering...

House Jackings in Valencia

Police in Valencia have arrested six people in connection with a string of 13 break-ins on properties in the Marina Baja, all carried out while the owners were inside.The six detainees, all Albanian-Kosovans, were arrested along with the owner of jewellers in Xirivella, who is accused of buying stolen goods from them.The investigation into the gang’s activities started in October, 2007, when police detected a rise in the number of break-ins in the...

Uninsured Drivers in Spain your time is up !

new computer system linked to a national database will tell officers if a vehicle is insured or not. The force has been equipped with 12 specially adapted vehicles that will scour roads and motorways seeking out insurance dodgers and by summer that number will go up to 50.traffic...

Ojeiwa, who worked in a construction company in Malaga, Spain, confessed to have invested N1.8 million in the drug business.

The Murtala Mohammed International Airport Command of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested two men over alleged ingesting of 146 wraps of cocaine.A statement from the command Sunday said it arrested Joseph Iseimi and Frank Ojeiwa, both 35, for allegedly ingesting 80 and 66 wraps of the substance respectively.The statement signed by the command’s spokesman, Mr. Mitchell Ofoyeju, said the suspects were arrested on January 19...

Scott Coleman Liverpool FC crest tattooed on right leg

Scott Coleman, 33, originally from Liverpool, who is wanted by Grampian Police for supplying heroin. He was arrested in Aberdeen in 2003 and charged with possession with intent to supply almost three kilos of the drug.Coleman, 6ft 2in tall, is known by police to have links to Benidorm. He is described as of medium build, with short brown hair, blue eyes, with a bulldog tattooed on the centre of his back, a Liverpool FC crest tattooed on right leg...

Daniel Hastelow Case Translated from the Spanish Press and Local Press

A more comprehensive translation will be made in the next 24 hoursI was very drunk. Les threatened and insulted several times, but the boys did not respond. Were left sitting without saying anything," explained yesterday two witnesses. That same morning the injured parties to the...

San Miguel de Salinas Armed house robbery

A family in San Miguel de Salinas is recovering from their terrifying experience in the early hours of Monday when a group of eight masked robbers, armed with guns, knives, and a baseball bat, assaulted their home on the Avenida del Prado, and made away with the jewellery and cash the family had in the safe.The wife told the Información newspaper that they had Eastern European accents, and that some of the group held their children hostage in the...

Amy Fitzpatrick and the British-registered Ford Fiesta, with the number plate C955 SLK

The Civil Guard have released the registration of the vehicle they believe Amy Fitzpatrick may have taken that night. It is a British-registered Ford Fiesta, with the number plate C955 SLK. Anyone who may see the vehicle is asked not to touch it to avoid destroying evidence, and...

Antonio Banderas, will lose part of the house he owns in Marbella

It now seems more certain that the Málaga actor, Antonio Banderas, will lose part of the house he owns in Marbella, with a ruling from the Andalucía High Court of Justice, the TSJA, turning down his application for a previous sentence to be declared null. The 2003 sentence ordering...

Mari Luz Cortes anger at the lack of progress

Juan José Cortés spoke of his anger at the lack of progress which has been made, and confirmed that the family will be contracting the services of a private detective agency to help in the investigation. He said two have contacted him, and a third, outside Spain, is ‘interested in...

Mari Luz Cortes vanished massive search by the local towns people and a new website

Mari Luz Cortes vanished on January 13, as she went to buy sweets from a local kiosk in the Spanish town of Huelva, near the border with Portugal. A massive search for the five-year-old is ongoing.A website has been set up by the parents and a full scale search of Spain and Portugal...

James Tomkins, aka Jimbles,Noel Cunningham,

Two London men are among 10 suspected criminals who police say are on the run in Spain's 'Costa del Crime'.James Tomkins, 58, known as Jimbles, is wanted over a murder in Hornchurch in 2006. A £20,000 reward has been offered for help that leads to his arrest.Noel Cunningham, 46, is wanted by the police Flying Squad over an alleged £1.25m armed robbery in Brixt...

Argentine Coke destined fror Spain

Police seized 1.1 metric tons of cocaine destined to be smuggled into Spain by a drug gang led by a retired Argentine military intelligence officer, officials said Saturday. The bust disrupted a US$67 million operation, making it one of Argentina's "most important" achievements in the fight against drug trafficking, Justice and Security Minister Anibal Fernandez told the C5N television channel. Police arrested 18 people on Saturday, including retired...

Allan Foster

Allan Foster has been included in a police hit list of the most wanted criminals hiding on Spain's Costa del Sol.The 33-year-old from South Shields has been on the run since the gangland murder of father-of-seven David 'Noddy' Rice in May 2006.Now detectives have released the photographs...

Keith Brian Burke information to say he was in the Benalmadena region of Spain

Keith Brian Burke, aged 47, originally from Halifax, is wanted by South Yorkshire Police for his role in an attack in the toilets of the Top Club in Edlington, Doncaster, in July 2001.His name is among a list of 10 suspects believed to be hiding on Spain's 'Costa del Crime' whose...

£20,000 reward for information which leads to James Walter Tomkins arrest.

Costa Bounty Hunters are looking for James Walter Tomkins £20,000 reward , Crimestoppers and the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) want to find 10 men believed to be connected to crimes ranging from murder to drug running. The appeals are part of Operation Captura, which has...

Remanded in Custody:Richard Roberts, aged 35, and Anthony Griffiths, 22. arrested for the murder of Daniel Hastelow

Richard Roberts, aged 35, and Anthony Griffiths, 22. arrested for the murder of Daniel Hastelow.in the Mallorca resort of Magaluf on Sunday appeared in court on Tuesday and have been remanded to custody by the judge...

Richard Brian O’Shea My first name or full name is now on dozens of websites in stories about Amy Fitzpatrick

Guardia Civil are still looking for the white car belonging to Richard Brian O’Shea, a 34 year old family friend of the Fitzpatricks. He reported the Ford Fiesta missing shortly after Amy disappeared. Spanish press reports indicated that she knew that the vehicle was not locked and how to start it, but this has been denied by the owner. Richard Brian O’Shea told the Irish Independent that ‘The suggestion Amy used the car is ridiculous. It was locked...

Amy Fitzpatrick in Wexford ?

The Irish police, Garda, have informed the EFE news agency that they are investigating the possibility that the missing 15 year old girl, Amy Fitzpatrick, who vanished from Mijas costa on the night of New Year’s Day, could now be in Ireland. A Garda spokesman said that they had received calls from witnesses which claim to have seen Amy in Wexford, in SE Ireland and close to ferry ports. The spokesman said however that the sightings had not been ...

Richard Henry Roberts, 35, and Anthony Griffiths, 22,

Richard Henry Roberts, 35, and Anthony Griffiths, 22, were being questioned today and are expected to appear before an investigating judge tomorrow.Daniel Hastelow, 26, died after celebrating his birthday during the early hours of yesterday morningTwo men from Liverpool were under arrest today after being stopped as they tried to leave the Spanish islandMr Hastelow had left the UK to build a new life in the resort of Magaluf as a bricklayerHe was...

Three break-ins

Alhaurin el Grande : Three break-ins , all of them apparently carried out by the same gang. The police suspect that the eastern European gangs are moving inland to escape increased police vigilance on the coast. Other towns in the Guadalhorce Valley are affected, with Coín reporting some 30 break-ins in recent weeks, all involving houses in the country just outside town. Alhaurin el Grande town council has asked the Malaga provincial government for...

José Ávila Rojas

Investigating judge Miguel Angel Torres heard how José Ávila Rojas the owner of five construction companies paid the alleged mastermind behind Marbella council corruption 150,000 euros in exchange for the licenses in and around the Costa del Sol resort.The builder added he was “obliged”...

Francisco Javier de Urquia

The Andalucian high court has said there is “absolutely no doubt” that judge Francisco Javier de Urquia took money from former Marbella planning svengali Juan Antonio Roca.The young judge, 29, who worked at Marbella court number two, is understood to have received payments of 63,000...

Maddie McCann Case: DJ Shifty fled from Praia da Luz after being accused of grooming an under-age girl for sex.

British DJ who fled from Praia da Luz after being accused of grooming an under-age girl for sex.Police found the car of Christian Ridout, 32, at Sevilla airport after he fled the Portuguese village where Maddie McCann was snatched in May last year.Known as DJ Shifty, he had allegedly sent lewd messages to a 12-year-old British girl, whose mother found them on her mobile phone. “He was sending my daughter messages offering to pick her up from school,...

National Police officer arrested

The Guardia Civil arrested 62 year old National Police officer as he was attempting to board a ferry to Algeciras after 91kg of cannabis resin or hashish was discovered during a routine inspection concealed in a metal box inside the boot of his car. The arrested officer is stationed in Ceu...

'Marcel's' bar Murder

A 37 year old Spanish man has been arrested for allegedly stabbing one man to death and seriously injuring a second at a Costa Brava bar during the early hours of yesterday morning. The incident occurred when the suspect entered 'Marcel's' bar in the village of Sant Antoni de Calonge (Girona) at around 3am and started a fight with the two victims. After fatally stabbing one of the men - who died soon after at Palamós Hospital - and seriously injuring...

Cherie Hodge

Cherie Hodge, who has lived and worked in Benidorm for more than six years, was brutally attacked around midnight on Sunday, December 30.The attack took place inside Rinconada Real urbanisation, on Avenida Juan Fuster Zaragoza in the Rincón de Loix area.Mrs Hodge, who had just finished work, took a taxi home which dropped her off outside the entrance to the urbanisation.As she walked through the gates of the estate and down towards her front door,...

Daniel Hastelow murdered

The two men were arrested as they were about to take a flight to the UK.Richard Henry R, 35, confessed to the crime saying he did it because Daniel Hastelow had threatened to kill him a previous fight between the two men in a local bar.Fellow detainee Paul Anthony G admitted the facts and confessed to having cooperated in the crime.Other witnesses have described the victim as a regular troublemaker who often got into fights around the resort.The...

Alexander Zakharov,Martin Babakekhyan

Zakharov and Babakekhyan were detained on July 7, 2006 in Marbella. Spain will extradite to Russia on Friday another suspect in the 2002 contract killing of Magadan regional Governor Valentin Tsvetkov. Martin Babakekhyan will be airlifted to Moscow from Madrid in the evening guarded...

Amy Fitzpatrick new lead

The police investigation into the disappearance of an Irish teenager in Mijas, Málaga, found a new lead Thursday when a neighbour testified that his car, which he often lent to the girl, had gone missing on 1 January.The 35-year-old British man told the Civil Guard that he had not reported his car missing until now because he feared being arrested over two old traffic violations. But an interrogation has yielded "several contradictions," police sources...

Mari Luz’s Grandfather, Juan José Cortés, speaking outside his home in the Torrejón district of Huelva

El Mundo newspaper said Mari Luz’s grandfather, Juan José Cortés, spoke of ‘Romanian’ immigrants, who he thought may have kidnapped his grand-daughter out of ‘revenge’ for the family’s refusal to allow them stalls at the Sunday market they run in El Portil.police are in contact with...

Mari Luz Cortes (update)

Mari Luz’s parents, construction firm boss Juan Jose Cortes and his wife Irena Suarez Fernandez, both 39, said: “We are heartbroken, all we ask is that you return our daughter.” Mari Luz’s heartbroken parents yesterday launched publicity campaign to help the search for their daughter....

Amy Fitzpatrick (update)

La Opinion de Málaga reports that two main line of investigations are being followed in the case. Firstly that she left the area with someone she knew, or secondly, she is being held somewhere against her will.The Civil Guard is investigating what they describe a passion motive in the case of the disappearance of the missing 15 year old Irish girl, Amy Fitzpatrick, who vanished from Calahonda in Mijas Costa on the evening of New Year’s Day. This...

Massive Drugs Haul on the Costa del Contraband

Columbians working out of Morroco with high speed motor launchs have been caught landing 100 kilos of hashish on the Huelva coastline, A favorite destination with contrabanistas and narcotraficos with large teenage gangs of unemployed spanish youth helping to quickly disburse the...

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Mickeys Missing Millions

£10 million in cash buried in hills above Spain's Costa Del Sol.Mickey 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...

Bank raid in Marbella

Banestos Marbella Branch was raided by one man. The local police have as yet not managed to work out the amount stolen but early indications are that the man escaped on a motorbike at around 11.30 this morn...

John Charles Currell,sex offender has been fined for failing to tell police when he leaves the country

Sex offender has been fined for failing to tell police when he leaves the country.Property investor John Charles Currell, 46, must give seven days’ notice before he goes abroad.But Cardiff Magistrates’ Court heard he jetted off to Palma, Mallorca, on three occasions without a word to police that he was leaving the country.Currell, of Portland Place, Lisvane, Cardiff, was jailed for 12 months in December 2004 after he was convicted at the city’s Crown...

Stephen Mark CLARE

Location: Last known to have resided in the Newcastle upon Tyne area. Has previously had connections with the Bromsgrove area of West Midlands and Brighton, Sussex. However it is assessed as likely that he could be abroad.Stephen Mark CLARE has failed to comply with the notification...

Hashish siezed in combined op against high powered launch

The Civil Guard Command of Seville and Huelva, in collaboration with the Customs Surveillance Service have arrested two persons for crimes against public health, and have seized 841 kilograms of hashish resin, across the river Guadalquivir.the Civil Guard in Seville, in particular...

El Palmar body

A boat found floating in the sea close to the beach of El Palmar, in Vejer de la Frontera (Cadiz), the corpse of a person in "advanced state of decomposition", which becomes the eighth body found the Cadiz coast during last 2 days. The government representative in Cadiz confirmed...

Police in Huelva said the local girl, from a gypsy family, vanished .

Gangs of child sex abusers based in Valencia and Alicante on the south east coast of Spain.these two areas are said to have links with paedophiles in other countries including Belgium, Portuguese newspaper Diario de Noticias reported. A detective from the agency told the paper: "We cannot discount anything."The news came on the same day police launched a manhunt for a missing five-year-old girl named Marilux abducted in Parque Moret Huelva,a Spanish...

Amy Fitzpatrick brother Dean Fitzpatrick Interviewed by Guardia Civil

Dean brother of Amy Fitzpatrick,who disappeared on January 1 in the town of Mijas Malaga, has been required by the Civil Guard to meet with officers leading the investigation of the case, according to sources close to family. The mother of the girl and her partner last Friday and went to the barracks to meet also with investigators to reconstruct Amys movements during the days before her disappearance. In addition, Amy's friend called Ashley,...