Leighton Richardson arrested in Tenerife after his girlfriend was found dying in a pool of blood at her apartment has been released

Leighton Richardson arrested in Tenerife after his girlfriend was found dying in a pool of blood at her apartment has been released from custody after being held since Christmas Eve.Before making his bail decision the judge studied police information which – despite earlier reports – said no baseball bat had been found at her flat.But while investigations continue Leighton Richardson, born in Wrexham and who grew up in Mold, remains a suspect.He has been ordered to report daily to the court at Arona, on the holiday island’s south coast, where the investigating judge in charge of the case is based.Richardson has also had to surrender his passport...

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Family of Lisa McConway are due to arrive on the island early next week to take care of her young son and fly her body home

family of Lisa McConway, the 28-year-old woman bludgeoned to death in Playa de Las Américas on Christmas Eve, are due to arrive on the island early next week to take care of her young son and fly her body home.Lisa McConway died after being attacked with a baseball bat in her apartment in Palo Blanco in the early hours of the morning. Neighbours say they heard a massive row in the apartment before her body was fo...

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Fuengirola Mafia boss arrested

Guardia Civil officers, in collaboration with the Italian Arma de Carabinieri, have arrested a 44-year-old member of the mafia-like criminal organisation, the Camorra, in Fuengirola. The man is an important member of the Clan Mariano of the Naples Camorra, and has had an arrest warrant on him for 17 years.The police operation was launched thanks to information the Guardia Civil received from the Arma de Carabinieri. The intelligence revealed that an important Camorra hitman who had escaped from Italy could be living on the Costa del SolOfficers from the Guardia Civil’s Team Against Organised Crime (ECO) along with Carabinieri officers from Naples...

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Captured Trainer gang which smuggles coke into Spain

The drugs were being smuggled from Argentina concealed inside specially adapted shoes that were worn by a couple in their late fifties who were arrested at Valencia's Manises airport on Christmas Day after stepping off a plane from Buenos Aires in possession of 1.6kg of uncut cocaine. Five members of a gang that has been smuggling cocaine into Spain by hiding it inside training shoes, have been arrested. The couple's two sons and a third individual responsible have since also been detained. It seems that the gang has been operating for some time and also trafficked a variety of other recreational drugs for sale in the Balearic Islands, mainly...

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Paul Hickey is currently serving 15 years at Fontcalent jail, one of Spain's toughest penitentiaries.

Hickey, is currently serving 15 years at Fontcalent jail, one of Spain's toughest penitentiaries.Sandra Conroy said she would block any attempt by Paul Hickey to move to an Irish prison for the rest of his sentence.He was sentenced in November when he admitted battering Celine (26) to death at their holiday home on the Costa Del Sol three years ago. He can apply to be transferred to an Irish prison, but this would have to be approved by both the Spanish and Irish authorities."I'm still in contact with my solicitor, it's still not over for me," Sandra said."I'll keep up the fight if there is any way they can even consider letting him come home. If it's the courts or the Dail, I'll tie myself to the railings if I have to to keep him in Spain."Sandra remains sceptical about claims Hickey (31)...

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National Police and the Guardia Civil have reported that the charred body of a man has been found in a burned out vehicle

National Police and the Guardia Civil have reported that the charred body of a man has been found in a burned out vehicle in inland from Villajoyosa .The car and body were found on a piece of wasteland last Tuesday in an area known as Partida Ripalmes .The identity of the man remains unknown and the police have not released any further details .Both the National Police and the Guardia Civil have joined forces to try and solve the possible crime .It is possible that the death was an accident but it could also be murder .A post -mortem will be carried out this week...

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Guardia Civil are looking for two un-named British people in connection with the disappearance a year ago of the Irish youngster Amy Fitzpatrick

Diario Sur newspaper reports that the Guardia Civil are looking for two un-named British people in connection with the disappearance a year ago of the Irish youngster Amy Fitzpatrick from Mijas Costa. One of the people wanted for questioning is a man, another a woman, and both are said to be in the United Kingdom although it is reported that they don’t know each other. They are under investigation at the request of Amy’s family.Amy’s mother Audrey says in an interview with the paper that it has been the longest year of her life, and that it is impossible to stop thinking about Amy. She says she is living a nightmare but has not given up hope...

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Lisa McConway, who has family living in Dublin, was found unconscious at her home . Irish woman, resident on Tenerife

The 28 year woman, named as Lisa McConway, who has family living in Dublin, was found unconscious at her home near Playa de las Americas in Tenerife.She died this afternoon after allegedly being hit by her boyfriend with a baseball bat, which the aggressor then through out the window.British woman, resident on Tenerife, is the victim of the latest domestic violence tragedy in Spain.Her beaten body was found in Urbanisation Palo Blanco in Playa de las Américas in the south of Tenerife, after neighbours heard the fight and called 091, and reports indicate that she died from her injuries on the way to hospital. The alleged aggressor, also British,...

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Spanish police smashed an international drug ring that trafficked cocaine from Peru to Israel and via several other countries, including Spain.

Spanish police smashed an international drug ring that trafficked cocaine from Peru to Israel and via several other countries, including Spain.Port of Barcelona authorities, as part of a joint operation with Peruvian, Israeli, U.S. and Bahamas police, seized 674 kilograms of cocaine shipped from Peru on a vessel bound for Jordan’s Aqaba port. The drugs had been stuffed into an industrial paper shredder.In early December, Caribbean, Peruvian and Spanish police intercepted cocaine shipments hidden in lead-plated heavy machinery designed to fool airport x-ray security scans.A month prior, Peru’s police drug enforcement unit, Dirandro, carried out four simultaneous raids in Lima’s districts of Miraflores, Ate, Chorrillos and San Isidro, seizing more than half a ton of cocaine. Five people were...

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65-year-old father Robert Orchard had done a deal with drug-traffickers in his home town of Marbella.

65-year-old father Robert Orchard had done a deal with drug-traffickers in his home town of Marbella.He agreed to hide the drugs under the bed on which Cheyrl, of Denny, Stirlingshire, and her eight-year-old son had been sleeping.On Monday a jury at Canterbury Crown Court consisting of seven women and five men found her not guilty of drug importation.Her father pleaded guilty.Innocent Cheyrl was flown out to the Costa Del Crime by her father, but while she was sunbathing the gang was stashing the chocolate-coloured blocks into the camper-van.Robert Orchard cynically took the pair to EuroDisney knowing full well they were sleeping only inches above the consignment.Cheyrl told the court she knew nothing of her father’s plot to smuggle the drugs through Europe to Ireland.After the jury unanimously...

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British man stabbed during shooting incident near Tarragona thought the shooting, which involved four people, was linked to drug trafficking

British person has been injured in a shooting incident in L’Ametlla de Mar in Tarragona today, in which a German man has died. The 33 year old German was shot in the thorax and abdomen and suffered a heart attack.Spanish police think the shooting which involved four people in total was a settling of scores related to drug trafficking. An Italian is seriously hurt after being shot in the neck. He made his own way to the local health centre from where he was taken by helicopter to the Joan XXIII hospital in Tarragona where he has had surgery.The Briton was stabbed in the thorax and treated in a local ambulance. His involvement in the affair is still being investigated and as yet he has not been arrested.It happened at 4,30pm on Monday in a chalet in Calle Rovelló, in the Sant Jordi Alfama urbanisation...

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Santander Europe’s second- biggest bank by market value, may drop after saying its hedge fund unit invested 2.33 billion euros with Bernard Madoff

Europe’s second- biggest bank by market value, may drop after saying its hedge fund unit invested 2.33 billion euros ($3.1 billion) of client funds with Bernard Madoff, who allegedly ran a Ponzi scheme that cost investors $50 billion. Santander’s Optimal Investment Services unit placed money with Madoff through its Optimal Strategic U.S. Equity fund, the Spanish lender said in a statement yesterday. France’s BNP Paribas SA may lose 350 million euros and Swiss private bank Reichmuth & Co. could have $330 million of losses as Madoff’s scheme reaches victims across the Atlantic Ocean. “People are going to take it badly in the market,” said Alberto Espelosin, who helps manage the equivalent of $7.7 billion at Zaragoza, Spain-based Ibercaja Gestion. “It’s not Santander’s own money, and they’re...

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arsonists fire-bombed the home of the family of a Spanish man, Rafael Hidalgo Castro, who has been in jail since December 1st accused of murder

Police are fearing a backlash of reprisals against the family, who were forced to abandon their home several days ago. Nobody was injured last Saturday night when arsonists fire-bombed the home of the family of a Spanish man, Rafael Hidalgo Castro, who has been in jail since December 1st accused of the murder of a Gypsy man, 51-year-old José Reyes, on November 9th. The victim's son is calling for calm and said that those responsible for the attack "are not doing us any favours in our struggle for justice for our father's murder. We are not looking for revenge. If we had, we would already have exacted it." The incident took place in Santiago,...

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Santander Group admitted yesterday that it has €2.3 billion euros invested in the firm managed by Bernard Madoff, who was arrested last week

Pedro Solbes has described the impact of the Madoff investment fraud as "of very little concern for the Spanish market." Speaking to the press following the 'Spain in the IMF and the World Bank: a 50-year relationship' conference in Madrid, Mr Solbes said that, at the moment, the only figures available indicate that the total amount lost by Spanish finance companies may be as little as €38 million euros although he informed that the Spanish stock market watchdog, the CNMV, is undertaking a "specific analysis." According to the Economy minister, the three Spanish insurance companies affected by the scam have lost €2 million euros while nine pension funds have been affected to the tune of €36mn, equivalent to only around 0.04% of their total investments. The total value of the fraud worldwide...

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Mother of missing teenager Amy Fitzpatrick says she won't be celebrating Christmas this year as she continues to wait for news

THE mother of missing teenager Amy Fitzpatrick says she won't be celebrating Christmas this year as she continues to wait for news of her daughter's disappearance.Amy vanished on the evening of January 1 this year, when she left her friend's house in the tourist resort of Riviera Del Sol in Spain's Costa Del Sol, to walk the 15-minute journey home. Mother Audrey Fitzpatrick said: "As well as not being able to do it myself, I don't want to ruin it for my family as well."She said Amy's accent had changed since the family's move to Spain. "Since living here in Spain, Amy has developed a very strong English accent as all her friends are English....

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Man has been arrested after being stopped by a Guardia Civil traffic control in Fasnia for possession of cocaine

45-year-old man has been arrested after being stopped by a Guardia Civil traffic control in Fasnia for possession of cocaine intended for sale. His nervousness gave him away after being pulled over for a routine check, and officers searched his vehicle. They found a bag with 14 grams of cocaine and a weighing scal...

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Spain's largest bank Santander said customers of its hedge fund Optimal have an exposure of €2.33 billion to the alleged fraud committed by Madoff.

Spain's largest bank Santander said customers of its hedge fund Optimal have an exposure of €2.33 billion to the alleged fraud committed Madoff. The bank, Europe's second largest by market capitalisation, also said it had invested €17 million of its own funds in Madoff products. “The exposure of Santander customers in Optimal Strategic is €2.33 billion, of which €2.01 billion is from institutional investors and customers from private international banking,” it said in a statement. Madoff was arrested last week for allegedly defrauding his customers through a giant pyramid scheme, with prosecutors alleging that the 70-year-old, a decades-long veteran of Wall Street, confessed to losing at least $US50 billion ($75 billion) in the so-called Ponzi scheme. Madoff's company, Bernard L. Mr Madoff...

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FORGERY DISTRIBUTION GANG linked to the Italian mafia have been arrested in Alicante

FORGERY DISTRIBUTION GANG linked to the Italian mafia have been arrested in Alicante for dealing and spending counterfeit Euros.The gang are alleged to have purchased the fake cash from the Calabresa Mafia at a price between 30% and 40% of the face value of the notes. They then spent the money in local markets and small shops across the region.The Guardia Civil say they have arrested a total of 20 people in relation to the case, in Alicante, Valencia, Murcia, Málaga, Almería and Lugo, and that the notes were also distributed in Portugal and the North of Africa. 150,000 € worth of 20 and 50€ notes were recovered by the Guardia Civil, in an investigation which started at the end of last year.It’s thought the gang has distributed as much as a million fake Euros since being establish...

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Spanish investors could have up to 3 billion euros ($3.98 billion) of exposure to funds managed by Wall Street trader Bernard Madoff,

Spanish investors could have up to 3 billion euros ($3.98 billion) of exposure to funds managed by Wall Street trader Bernard Madoff, accused of masterminding a fraud of up to $50 billion, Expansion said on Saturday. 'The first estimates suggest both groups (large fortunes and Spanish funds) could have invested more than 3 billion euros in vehicles managed by Madoff,' the financial daily said without naming its sources. Investors in hedge fund Optimal, run by Spain's largest bank Santander, Santander's private banking subsidiary Banif, M&B Advisers Gestion (M&B Capital Advisers) and Spain's second largest bank BBVA were among those affected, the same sources told the paper. A spokesman for BBVA said BBVA customers in Spain were not exposed to the fraud. 'BBVA has not commercialised...

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Daniel Paul Johnston and Keith Burke have been arrested

28 year old Daniel Paul Johnston and 47 year old Keith Burke have been arrested in what is more success for the crimestoppers campaign.Both men were on the top 30 most wanted list, with Johnston found in the Sevilla village of Pruna following a tip-off. He is reported to have been living there as a handyman. He’s wanted for armed raids in Derbyshire in 2004 and 2005 and is expected to return to England for questioning.Keith Burke, known as ‘Tattooed Keith’ because of a devil and swallow tattoos on his neck, is wanted in connection with an attack on a bar near Doncaster in 20...

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Alan Dickson, 37, from Falkland in Fife, masterminded an operation to smuggle over one million pounds worth of cannabis into Scotland from Spain.

Alan Dickson, 37, from Falkland in Fife, masterminded an operation to smuggle over one million pounds worth of cannabis into Scotland from Spain. In 2002 he was caught and jailed for ten years. However, he allegedly fled Castle Huntly jail four years later. This month he was returned to Scotland after being discovered in the Costa Del Sol. He appeared on petition from custody at Perth Sheriff Court accused of walking out of the jail on 28 December 2006 and spending two years on the run. He is also accused of defeating the ends of justice by absconding from the jail while serving a ten-year sentence imposed at the High Court in Edinburgh on 5 March 2002. Dickson made a brief appearance in private and made no plea or declaration in relation to the absconding charge. He was fully committed for...

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Icod de los Vinos Guardia Civil have arrested a 22-year-old woman for possession of 29 bags of cocaine

Icod de los Vinos Guardia Civil have arrested a 22-year-old woman for possession of 29 bags of cocaine amounting to 15 grams which she is presumed to have intended to sell. The woman was caught on the TF5 by a checkpoint, and the cocaine was seized along with 160€ which is thought likely to be the proceeds of previous sal...

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Drug trafficking gang operating in the Canary Islands have been arrested in a series of raids in Fuerteventura and Gran Canaria.

Drug trafficking gang operating in the Canary Islands have been arrested in a series of raids in Fuerteventura and Gran Canaria. According to a Guardia Civil statement released yesterday, the gang had laundered part of the proceeds by investing in local business such as restaurants and bars, and buying property, while the rest was diverted to bank accounts in Morocco and Melilla. A total of 800kg of cannabis has been confiscated, 300kg of which was discovered in a lorry on board a ferry travelling from Fuertventura to Las Palmas while the remaining 500kg was found during a search of a chalet on the outskirts of Pájara in southern Fuertventura....

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Plot to import millions of pounds worth of drugs into the UK was foiled when Spanish police became suspicious of a consignment of five pallets

Plot to import millions of pounds worth of drugs into the UK was foiled when Spanish police became suspicious of a consignment of five pallets awaiting shipment to Cumbria, a court heard. Police in Seville opened the boxes and found more than four tonnes of cannabis which would have been worth £12 million if it had reached the streets of Britain.They replaced the drugs with sand and bricks and sent the load on its way.Then, a jury at Carlisle Crown Court was told, they alerted their counterparts in Cumbria, so they were waiting when the consignment arrived at a cash and carry warehouse in Windermere.The alleged ringleaders were arrested on the spot and charged with various drug-dealing and money-laundering crimes.Further investigations showed that cannabis worth a total of £35m could have...

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Guardia Civil arrested a 50-year-old German yesterday for trying to bring 1,090 grams of cocaine into Tenerife through the airport.

Guardia Civil arrested a 50-year-old German yesterday for trying to bring 1,090 grams of cocaine into Tenerife through the airport. The arrest was made in the arrivals hall when Guardia Civil officers approached the man and asked the reason for his visit to Tenerife. Apparently, he was unable to give a convincing reason, and although a search of his suitcase revealed nothing, he was taken to a hospital centre in Santa Cruz for X-rays where it was established that he was carrying the drugs inside his body. The packets were expelled under medical control, and turned out to be 88 capsules of cocaine amounting to 1,090 gram...

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Police in Spain have arrested two people on suspicion of having swindled a total of 65 million euros from foreigners.

Police in Spain have arrested two people on suspicion of having swindled a total of 65 million euros from foreigners. Around 200 people, most of them Britons, had invested money in non-existent schemes along Spain's Costa del Sol.Twenty people are suspected of money laundering, falsifying documents and fraud after they approached foreign investors through Internet, telephone calls and real estate fai...

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Daniel Paul Johnston wanted for four robberies in Derbyshire now thought to be living in Spain

FUGITIVE wanted for four robberies in Derbyshire now thought to be living in Spain is still being hunted by crime-fighters.Police issued a photograph of Daniel Paul Johnston, 27, in January, along with an appeal for information from the public.But Johnston, who is originally from Matlock and is wanted for four robberies at off-licences in Derbyshire, remains on the run and is still believed to be in the Costa Del Sol.As part of Operation Captura – a scheme launched by the Serious Organised Crime Agency, Crimestoppers and the Spanish authorities – Johnston was named on a list of 20 fugitives police wanted to trace.An agency spokesman said: "We are still making efforts to trace this man and continue to work with colleagues to do so. There are indications that he went to Spain and we believe...

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