most wanted Vallejo-Guarin is suspected of having transported many tons of the drug to Florida and Europe,has a US$5 million reward posted

Spanish police have arrested a suspected Colombian drug trafficker listed among the most wanted by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the police force said in a statement Friday.Acting on a tip from the DEA, police tracked Edgar Vallejo-Guarin to a luxury hotel in Madrid, police said Friday, confirming a U.S. Embassy statement.
Vallejo-Guarin, 47, who has a US$5 million reward posted for information leading to his capture, was arrested Thursday, the embassy statement said.Vallejo-Guarin, also known as "Beto el Gitano," has a history of violence, money laundering and corruption, the police statement said.In June 2001 the South District of Florida accused Vallejo-Guarin of being one of the principal sources of Colombian cocaine in the United States between the years 1990-1999, the statement said.
Vallejo-Guarin is suspected of having transported many tons of the drug to Florida and Europe, and is also under investigation for possible involvement in several murders, the statement said.The United States has asked for Vallejo-Guarin's extradition, the embassy statement said, adding that the suspect was using a false identity at the time of his arrest.The police statement said Vallejo-Guarin had a house in Sant Cugat del Valles, near the northern city of Barcelona, but had been staying at many hotels in Spain and Venezuela to avoid capture.Spanish police said Friday that they have arrested top Colombian drug lord Edgar Guillermo Vallejo Guarin, also known as "Beto the Gypsy," from outside a luxury hotel in central Madrid.Spanish police said in a statement that Guarin's arrest was carried out with help from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and added that he was carrying false identity papers when arrested."Vallejo Guarin has an extensive history of violence, money laundering, and the corruption of high-level government officials," the statement said. "He is responsible for the shipment of a multitude of tons of cocaine via ship to the United States and Europe."Guarin is wanted in many countries, including the U.S., on various drug related offenses and is also suspected of being responsible for various assassinations wordwide.Guarin figured in the U.S. State Department's Most Wanted list and the American government had offered a $5 million reward to anyone who helped bring about his capture.

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Málaga police have arrested a man who is accused of trying to strangle a woman in a lift

Málaga police have arrested a man who is accused of trying to strangle a woman in a lift in a building in the central Calle Larios in the city. The victim was on her way to work in a lawyer’s office when the attack took place and told police that she had never seen the alleged attacker before. Her screams alerted people in another lawyer’s office at 10am yesterday morning, and they managed to catch the attacker who was handed over to the local police.

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Murder-suicide pact British couple have been discovered in their holiday home

Bodies of a British couple have been discovered in their holiday home in the French Basque country, in a case which authorities have described as a murder-suicide.
Officials believed that 76-year-old Jon Ortuzar strangled his wife, Carlotta, 60, then drowned himself in the pool at the villa in Urrugne, near the Spanish border.
According to eitb, a Basque news channel, the bodies were discovered by a cleaner on Tuesday morning. the husband was found in the pool, weighed down with a sports bag. The wife was discovered dead in a bedroom with bruises on her face and a cord around her neck. A hammer was found next to her, and a letter, believed to have been written by Ortuzar. Its contents have not been revealed, but a local official described the letter as “explanatory”.The French newspaper Sud Ouest said Ortuzar was the son of a senior member of the PNV Basque nationalist party who had fled from Franco’s regime in the 1930s and come to the UK.Born in London, Ortuzar was a businessman in the City of London for most of his career, the newspaper reported. Later, he and his wife moved to Madrid, but retained their British nationality. They did not have children. Ortuzar and his brother both bought homes in Urrugne, where the two families were well known.Odile de Coral, mayor of Urrugne, told Sud Ouest: “I went to the house straight away to offer my support to the brother and the nephews of the victims, who have also made Urrugne their second home. Jon and Carlotta came very often to the Basque country, where they bought this house just after the war.”Police found no evidence of a struggle at the house, and nothing appeared to have been stolen, leading them to the murder-suicide theory. A friend of the couple, Daniel Poulou, said: “They were charming people, who loved having guests round and knew how to treat them.”

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Tattoo on the right hand of a naked body found in Orihuela Costa

The tattoo was on the right hand of a naked body found in Orihuela Costa in August.
The Guardia Civil has asked for help from the public in identifying a strange tattoo found on the body of a man, thought to be aged between 25 and 35 whose body was found on August 19 between the Cano de Punta Prima and Roig in Orihuela Costa.
The tattoo is on the right arm of the body and consists of a text written in Spanish copperplate lettering. The Guardia Civil say the body was found naked and is of a muscular man, about 1m 85 tall, who removed the hair from his legs.

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Nikki Beach shooting in Marbella Two Iranians arrested

Two Iranians have been arrested by the UDYCO Organised Crime Unit of the Marbella police, in connection with the shooting seen at Nikki Beach in Marbella last Saturday August 23.Judicial sources told La Opinión de Málaga that neither of the two men actually carried out the shooting. One of the two has now been released after making a statement to the police, while the other is still being held.
It’s understood they took part in trouble between a group of Iranians and a group of Britons which broke out in the discotec ahead of the shots being fired. One 42 year old man needed surgery in the Costa del Sol hospital after being shot in both legs.

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2.2 tons of hashish recovered gang brought the drugs into the Campo de Gibraltar area from the north of Morocco.

Guardia Civil have made 22 arrests, a policeman on practice duty in Los Barrios among them, and recovered 2.2 tons of hashish in the breaking up of a gang which brought the drug into the Campo de Gibraltar area from the north of Morocco.A statement from the Civil Guard said that their investigations started in May and ended with the arrests made last Friday. The case was being handled by Instruction Court Four in Algeciras.The operation was codenamed 'Congreso' and also saw the impounding of two boats, two outboard motors, a trailer, motorbike and 11 vehicles, three of which are known to have been stolen.

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Orihuela Police have detained two people for growing cannabis in their garden.

Orihuela Police have detained two people for growing cannabis in their garden. The plants were thriving in plastic boxes on the patio of the house. A man of Arabic origin was also detained after a chase of two hours around the fields of Los Dolores, when found to be carrying 4.7 kilos of hashish. The detainee was carrying an imitation gun, with which he tried unsuccessfully to intimidate police.

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Drug trafficking gang used Torrevieja port as a point of entry into Spain

National Police have uncovered an international drug trafficking gang which used Torrevieja port as a point of entry into Spain. Eight people were arrested in the raid, which uncovered 2,500 kilos of hashish. Three of the detainees were traveling onboard a yacht and the rest were arrested on land. The gang was multinational, with members from Lithuania, Morocco, Italy and Spain. The investigation started before the summer when drug trafficking activity was detected among recreational boats transporting huge quantities of drugs. After months of hard work the leader of the ring could be identified and the arrest was planned.

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Nine people were injured when an apparently mentally unstable driver deliberately drove into a pedestrian zone in the southern Spanish city of Malaga

Nine people were injured when an apparently mentally unstable driver deliberately drove into a pedestrian zone in the southern Spanish city of Malaga, police said Saturday.They said the 50-year-old kept driving through the Costa del Sol city's busy precinct until officers stopped him. The injured included two Italian and two German tourists.Nine people were injured and two German and Italian women tourists, aged 62 and 42, are in a critical condition in hospital after a driver, a 42 year old man from Alhaurín el Grande, named with the initials A.B.M., took his black Rover car down the pedestrianised central Calle Larios in Málaga on Saturday just before noon, it seems by error. All the other injured are recovering well. Witnesses say the driver went down the street and then reversed back. He has been arrested by the National Police after his way was blocked by a refuse lorry and public pounced on the car to get him to come out. He is being attended to by a psychologist after giving a statement to police which reports indicate ‘lacked sense’.

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Refusal of people to demolish their illegal homes in Mijas is leading some of them to see their assets embargoed.

refusal of people to demolish their illegal homes in Mijas is leading some of them to see their assets embargoed. El País reports that at least 20 people have been affected so far out of the estimated 8,000 irregular homes in the municipality. Some 2,000 owners have been served with demolition orders, and if they do not comply they face a fine of 10% of the value of the property.Most of the demolition orders have been issued against rural properties, often handed down in inheritance.
The socialist Mayor of Mijas, Antonio Sánchez, called an extraordinary meeting at the end of July to discuss the problem, with those affected demanding that the fines be suspended until the new PGOU Urban Plan is drawn up for the municipality.
Last Wednesday the Mayor agreed that working groups be set up to investigate the problem, but PP spokesman in the town, Angel Nozal, described that as a smoke screen.

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Grupo Mirador construction group charged

A judge has charged the Grupo Mirador construction group after the company held on to deposits paid for properties which have not been constructed. Under Spanish law such monies should have been kept in a separate bank account. El País reports that the judge was responding to a new denuncia placed by a group of six clients of the company, each of whom paid between 32,805 € and 48,600 € as first payments for properties at the Mirador de la Fortaleza in Vélez-Málaga, which according to the contracts signed in 2004 and 2005, should have already have been completed but where in fact no construction has started. They are claiming fraud. The company has other promotions in Benalmádena, Rincón de la Victoria, Villanueva del Rosario, Fuente de Piedra and Loja in Granada.

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Judge Francisco Javier de Urquía, who had presided over Marbella's second court, was found guilty of bribery and dereliction of duty

Judge Francisco Javier de Urquía, who had presided over Marbella's second court, was found guilty of bribery and dereliction of duty in a case stemming from Operation Malaya, a far-reaching police investigation that led to the arrest of former mayors, councillors and businessmen in the Costa del Sol resort in 2006.The Andalusian High Court concluded that Urquía had accepted EUR 73,800 from Juan Antonio Roca, an urban planning aide at Marbella City Hall, in exchange for legal favours, including assisting Roca in preventing a local television station from airing a report about his vast - and illicitly earned - wealth.In the same trial, Roca, who confessed to paying the bribe money "in two envelopes," received a one-year prison sentence and was ordered to pay a fine of EUR 73,800 - the same amount as the bribe. Prosecutors had originally sought a three-year sentence but lowered their demands to one year in the wake of Roca's surprise confession in July. Arnaud Fabrice Albouhair, a French associate of the two men who apparently acted as an intermediary in their illicit dealings, was acquitted.Urquía, who had been struggling financially, accepted the money from Roca as payment toward a house in Marbella. After Roca was taken into custody in March 2006, the judge enlarged his mortgage, changed the payment conditions and reversed his decision to stop the TV documentary from being broadcast in a bid to cover his tracks.

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2,500 Kilos hashish have been seized from a launch in Torrevieja.

2,500 Kilos hashish have been seized from a launch in Torrevieja.
The hashish traffic international network used the Torrevieja marina as a entrance point for the drugs into the country. The operation finalised with the arrest of eight alleged drug dealers and the seizure of 2,500 kilos hashish.
Among the people arrested, there are people from different nationalities, i.e. Spanish, Lithuanian, Italian and Moroccan. After several investigations and wire taps, the operation was started after it was known a several tones drug cargo was coming this week. The agents stopped the boat when it docked in the Torrevieja marina. This way, 2,500 kilos hashish were seized and eight suspects were arrested on board and another five in solid ground, where they were providing the other ones with coverage.

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French cosmetic surgeon accused of having mutilated or endangered the lives of dozens of patients has been arrested in Spain.

French cosmetic surgeon accused of having mutilated or endangered the lives of dozens of patients has been arrested in Spain.
Michel Maure had gone missing after standing trial in Marseille in June, accused of false advertising, deception and causing involuntary injury.He was arrested in Rosas, north-eastern Spain, on Tuesday. An international arrest warrant had been issued for him.Prosecutors called for four years' jail and a 75,000-euro (�59,000) fine.
He was struck off the French medical register in January 2007 after numerous complaints about his procedures. He had practised illegally since 1995, investigators say.There were 96 complaints from former patients against Dr Maure, 59, including allegations that he had carried out painful procedures under local anaesthetic, in a dirty clinic.He had claimed to be "one of the best plastic surgeons in the world".
The verdict was planned for September and he was subject to a French court order restricting his movements. He had been told to report to police every week. He now faces extradition from Spain.

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13.8kg of cocaine was discovered concealed beneath a false suitcase bottom.

27-year-old German man was arrested at Barajas airport in Madrid yesterday after 13.8kg of cocaine was discovered concealed beneath a false suitcase bottom. The man arrived on a flight from Lisbon. A Guardia Civil spokesman explained that the drugs were found using a hand-held scanning device.

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Amy Fitzpatrick:Revealed a camera could have recorded Amy on the track she is thought to have taken on New Year's Day, the day she disappeared

Revealed a camera could have recorded Amy on the track she is thought to have taken on New Year's Day, the day she disappeared.
Amy Fitzpatrick disappeared on the evening of New Year's Day 1st January 2008 at approximately 10pm when she left her friends house in the tourist resort of Riviera Del Sol on the Costa Del Sol, Spain to take the 10 minute walk to her house.
Amy was 15 at the time of her disappearance; on 7th February Amy turned 16, Amy has black/Brown hair, blue eyes and has a pale complexion. She is 1.65m tall and was wearing brown crushed velvet tracksuit bottoms and a black T-shirt with the word "DIESEL" in various different colours when she was last seen. She had no money, phone or passport. Amy is originally from Clarehall Dublin but was living in Spain the last few years. Tuesday 26th August 2008 Amy will be 34 weeks missing. We have discovered a sighting that was reported to Christine Kenny Amy's Aunt of Amy in Portugal was never followed up that Christine reported to both the Spanish and Irish police. Christopher Fitzpatrick Amy's father needs to raise funds to hire a private detective to help with the search for Amy. To be honest not for one second did he ever think he would need to trouble anybody for help with funds but Spain is so far from Ireland and the costs to get anything done is crazy. Please note this is the first time Christopher has asked for help with funds and it will only be used to hire a private detective and any funds left over will go to the missing organisation in Ireland Miss.ie to help other families going through this situation.

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Nikki Beach Club man shot twice in the legs

Nikki Beach in Marbella in the early hours of Saturday morning. Two people were injured in the incident which happened at 0205, with one of them, a 42 year old man, being shot twice in the legs. There are no details as to the extent of the other victim’s injuries.

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Peter Mitchell was shot outside a bar at the Aloha apartment complex in Puerta Banus near Marbella. A masked gunman fired at least five shots

Peter Mitchell (39), who is originally from Summerhill in Dublin's north inner city, was wounded when a masked gunman opened fire outside a bar on Thursday night. News of the shooting reached gardaí in Ireland yesterday. Mitchell was shot outside a bar at the Aloha apartment complex in Puerta Banus near Marbella. A masked gunman fired at least five shots at Mitchell wounding him twice in the arm and shoulder.
Two other men, one in his 40s and a pensioner, also sustained minor injuries in the shooting. It was unclear last night if the two injured men were with Mitchell or if they were shot in the crossfire during the suspected gangland attack.
However, the Garda's inquiries with Spanish police indicate Mitchell was the target of the shooting and the incident is being treated as an attempted murder. The Irishman was taken to hospital after the attack and he was still undergoing medical treatment last night. His injuries are not life threatening and he is expected to make a full recovery. The nationalities of the other two injured men had not been established by gardaí last night. It is understood Spanish police have already spoken to Mitchell about what happened. Mitchell had been running a bar in southern Spain until it closed recently. In 2004 he was questioned by police in Holland in connection with the discovery of heroin and ammunition in an apartment in the city. Mitchell was one of a number of young criminals who worked for John Gilligan before their gang was targeted by gardaí following the murder in 1996 of crime journalist Veronica Guerin. Mitchell left Ireland shortly after the murder of Ms Guerin and the inception of the Criminal Assets Bureau. However, he had bought a number of modest properties which were targeted by the bureau in its early days. He has until recent months kept a relatively low profile in Spain and seldom returns to Ireland. Mitchell was named in court as a member of Gilligan's gang during Gilligan's original drugs trial and his subsequent appeal. The Supreme Court in a judgment in 2005 held there was evidence before Gilligan's Special Criminal Court drugs trial to justify its conclusions that Gilligan, Charles Bowden, Paul Ward, Brian Meehan, Shay Ward and Peter Mitchell were "a gang" engaged in drug trafficking; that Gilligan was the "prime mover" in the importation of cannabis resin into the country; and that he was the "supreme authority" among the gang members and "the largest beneficiary" of the proceeds of the sale of cannabis resin. Once known as a playground for the rich and famous, Puerto Banus still attracts plenty of wealthy tourists, but these days it is also home to Russian oligarchs, Arab royalty and a number of west Dublin drug barons. Billed as Europe's answer to Las Vegas, the port complex, which is located some 6km outside of Marbella on the Costa del Sol, was built by local developer Jose Banus in 1970 as a luxury marina and shopping haven for the jet-set and super-rich. Over four million people are estimated to visit the resort of Puerto Banus every year. But while it once attracted the likes of King Juan Carlos of Spain, Hugh Hefner and Julio Iglesias, it has now lost much of its glamour and with it many of the celebrities who used to flock to the port. In recent years, Irish, British and Russian gangs have vied with local Spanish criminals for command of the lucrative drugs trade which has flourished in the Costa del Sol, with much of it based in or around Puerto Banus.

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Spanish connection in a cocaine trafficking case shootout

37-year-old man involved in a cocaine trafficking case was killed in a shootout Wednesday at dawn in Voula, Athens while attempting to avoid arrest. The victim, who was the recipient of 4.5 kilos of cocaine, was fatally wounded by police while trying to get away. The case came to the attention of the Greek Police when a 40-year-old Bulgarian national, who arrived in Athens from Romania, declared his luggage lost in Athens' "Eleftherios Venizelos" International Airport. His suitcase was later found in the airport in Romania and Romanian police discovered 4.5 kilos of cocaine hidden inside. The Bulgarian was arrested in Athens and confessed that he had undertaken to deliver the cocaine, which came from Spain via Romania, to a Greek. The shootout happened when the man arrived in a prearranged place in Voula to supposedly pick up the drugs and realized that he was being trapped by police. He was fatally injured by police gunfire while trying to speed away in his car.

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Cannabis Palm in Orihuela Costa

National police have arrested a man in the Vega Baja who was selling cannabis which he had grown himself. The man had tried to hide his small plantation of 119 plants by placing palm trees in the same area where he had also installed a sophisticated automatic watering system. He is also said to have improved the quality of his crop by using specialist fertilisers and fungicides.The 37 year old Spaniard has been named with the initials S.V.R. and will appear shortly in court in Orihuela.

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Arsonists in Lago Jardin

Peugeot 405 SRD Turbo was burnt out at around 7.30am in the quiet secluded streets of the urbanisation – just metres from an occupied home. The owner was visibly shocked and upset by the events as she awoke to find thick dark smoke billowing outside her bedroom window. She was one of many residents who quickly contacted the fire department whose prompt response undoubtedly prevented further disaster.
The car was parked between two others – one received some damage whilst the other, thanks to the quick thinking action of two African gentleman who managed to move it and locate the owner, remained intact.
One resident told us, “They are saying the fire was down to an electrical fault, but the car was parked there just after midnight and an electrical fault does not take seven hours to ignite in to flames – it was a deliberate attack – you can see the accelerant used on the bonnet.”It is not the first time cars have been targeted on this pretty, yet divided, urbanisation and residents are coming together to make a stand against the vandalism. “It is simply a thoughtless act of violence by someone with a very sick mind.” Another resident added, “If that car had exploded the results could have been so much worse. Why do they do it and what do they hope to prove?
Residents in Lago Jardin I are now being asked to be on the look out for suspicious activity in the area and to be aware of the spate of attacks.

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Benalmadena ,Daniel Whelan died at the weekend

Daniel Whelan died at the weekend while in Benalmadena on the Costa del Sol.
Early reports suggested that the 18-year-old, who was celebrating the end of his A-level exams, had been struck down by meningitis. But the Health Protection Agency has now said it was unlikely his death was caused by the infection. Hugh Lamont, a regional spokesman for the agency, said: “We understand there is currently no evidence the illness was caused by an infection of any sort. We are awaiting the results of further tests." It is understood Daniel was taken ill while on a night out with friends on Saturday. They took him back to where they were staying in the resort and called an ambulance when his condition deteriorated. He died later in hospital. His friends, all pupils at Bolton School, flew home on Monday.
His parents, Mike and Catherine Whelan, who live in Culcheth, have flown out to Spain. Daniel was due to beginning studying at Loughborough University in the autumn.

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Lewis Hamiltons driver was cleaning the wing mirrors when two men ran up to the open boot and pinched a rucksack and leather holdall

The World Championship leader was leaving the Malaga Palacio on the Costa del Sol with girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger, of music group Pussycat Dolls, when two men snatched a pair of bags from their car."Lewis's driver was cleaning the wing mirrors when two men ran up to the open boot and pinched a rucksack and leather holdall," an onlooker told the English media."The one carrying the rucksack dropped it but the other guy kept hold of his."Hamilton, 23, had attended an MTV concert in Malaga at which Scherzinger, 30, performed.The Formula One season resumes after a break this weekend with the European GP in Valencia. Hamilton is five points clear of Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen in the drivers' standings.

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authorities seized 80 bundles of cocaine on board the fishing boat RÍo Manzanares, registered in Venezuela but flying no flag

The boat was intercepted in the mid-Atlantic off the Canaries and there were eleven arrests. The total weight of the cocaine was 2,500 kilograms or 5,506 pounds.
The investigation was part of Operation Hurricane, said the head of the police’s organised-crime unit, Eloy Quiros.
“We’re talking about an organised group that already has much experience; about communications in code, via Internet; about continual changes in telephones and use of foreign telephones to make the police work harder,” said Quiros. In all, authorities seized 80 bundles of cocaine on board the fishing boat RÍo Manzanares, registered in Venezuela but flying no flag, making the vessel a so-called “pirate boat,” and on which were five crew members, who were arrested.
The shipment was unloaded at the Las Palmas Military Arsenal..
Quiros said that the seizure of the drug was the first phase of the operation and that the second phase ended in the north-western Spanish region of Galicia, where another six people were arrested, including both high-level traffickers and people involved with transporting the cocaine.
The “narco-transporters” who were arrested include four Galician businessmen and shipowners linked with the fishing industry.
“They own companies and boats whose ultimate aim was the importation of fish and they used them (for drug smuggling) because they’re going through serious economic difficulties. That means that they were tempted ... with quick and enormous profits” in exchange for supporting the drug operation with their infrastructure, “ Quiros said.
Among the drug traffickers who were arrested were representatives of South American cartels, the police official said.
Quiros did not rule out more arrests in South America as the operation continues.

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Bombs had been placed in Guadalmar, Benalmadena and on a highway linking Malaga to its international airport.

Two small bombs blamed on Basque separatist group ETA exploded at tourist resorts in southern Spain yesterday. No injuries were reported, but more than 10,000 people were evacuated from a harbour area. It is the height of the summer tourist season in Spain. The first blast occurred on a beach in Guadalmar and a second device exploded at a tourist marina parking lot in Benalmadena Costa. Both towns are around 550km south of Madrid in the Costa del Sol resort area on a stretch of coastline popular with foreign tourists, especially the British.A caller who said he spoke in the name of ETA warned the fire department in the beach resort of Benalmadena that three bombs would explode, the ministry said. He said bombs had been placed in Guadalmar, Benalmadena and on a highway linking Malaga to its international airport.

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Guardia Civil in Huercal Overa have arrested two local residents for dealing cocaine.

Guardia Civil in Huercal Overa have arrested two local residents for dealing cocaine. The attention of the Guardia Civil was drawn to the unusual number of people from outside the area coming and going from the home of the two suspects. Agents watching the dwelling observed the transit of various people to and from the house, where they stayed only brief periods of time. They also observed the suspects frequently leaving the house for brief periods and deduced from the behviour that the dwelling could be a distribution point for drugs, using a method commonly known in Spain as ‘Tele-coca’, that is, ordering cocaine by means of telephone calls between the dealers and trusted customers.As a result of investigations, one of the two suspects, identified by the Guardia Civil as Pierre Pablo H.V., was stopped in the street and, when he was found to be in possession of seven wraps of cocaine, with a total weight of 5.2 grams, he was arrested on suspicion of drug dealing. His partner, identified as Francy E.D., was arrested while waiting for him outside their home. As a result of their arrests a search warrant was granted and, in the couple’s home, agents found wraps of cocaine ready for sale with a total weight of 20.1 grams, together with precision scales and 1,800 euros in cash.

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Portuguese businessman was detained in Spain accused of being the “main supplier of super-boats” to organized drug trafficking rings

Portuguese businessman was detained in Spain accused of being the “main supplier of super-boats” to organized drug trafficking rings following a joint effort between Spanish and Portuguese police.An investigation carried out by the Guardia Civil de Pontevedra (Galiza, Spain) and the GNR of Valença (Portugal) resulted in the detention of the man who is believed to have supplied powerful boats which were used to ferry drugs between the Iberian Peninsula and Northern Africa.Four Spanish citizens were also arrested in connection with the investigation.
Identified as Carlos A.P., the Portuguese businessman has a factory in Cerdal, Valença, and is also believed to be involved with supplying vigilance transportation used during the trafficking and its respective distribution.During the year-long investigation the individual, who has no previous criminal convictions, was responsible for producing and supplying 25 vessels.Equipped with four or five engines, the speedboats were designed to travel between Morocco and Barcelona, at high speed, generally carrying up to three tones of hashish.

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Caught ‘red handed’ with 73 packages of hashish, almost 5 million individual doses, that were to be delivered to Spain.

Judiciary Police arrested three men suspected of drug trafficking in Silves last week, in connection with two tonnes of hashish seized, in the ‘Dom Rodrigo’ operation.According to Judiciary Police, the men, caught ‘red handed’ with 73 packages of hashish, almost 5 million individual doses, that were to be delivered to Spain.Three cars were also seized from the three foreign individuals in their thirties. The men had connections with Seville and were responsible for bringing the hashish into Portugal for distribution throughout Europe.
The three detained were still in custody after their first interrogation in Lagos.

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Spanish police have arrested D.O.M Team five people suspected of hacking into or outright disabling thousands of Internet pages

Spanish police have arrested five people suspected of hacking into or outright disabling thousands of Internet pages, some of them run by government agencies in the U.S., Latin America and Asia, authorities said Saturday.The National Police said the suspects belonged to one of the most active hacker groups on the Internet and said two of the suspects are 16 years old. The others are 19 or 20.
On the Internet, the group calls itself D.O.M Team, police said.One of the group's techniques was to infiltrate Web sites and insert a page of its own, police said.
The group attacked some 21,000 Web pages over the last two years, police said in a statement. The five were arrested this week in Barcelona, Burgos, Malaga and Valencia.The statement did not identify which government Web sites the suspects are accused of tampering with.The Spanish newspaper El Mundo reported in March that the group had infiltrated NASA's Web page. A police official said Saturday she could not confirm this, and she refused to specify which sites had been hit. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with department rules.The newspaper said the group also hacked the Venezuelan national telephone company's page and that of the Spanish telephone operator Jazztel, among others.El Mundo said it had contacted the group in March and that members described themselves not as delinquents, but as computer-lovers who raided Web sites to show system administrators the pages' vulnerabilities.The Spanish investigation began in March after the Web page of a Spanish political party, Izquierda Unida, was disabled shortly after Spain's general election March 9.The five suspects did not know one another personally, but rather just over the Internet, police said. They were in contact with other members of the hacking group, mainly in Latin America, police said.

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"Fat" Freddie Thompson has been disguising himself against assassination

"Fat" Freddie Thompson has been disguising himself against assassination.
Thompson has been wearing a wig based on Oasis star Liam Gallagher’s distinctive mop, sources said. Separately, gardai said today they seized four Glock handguns when they stopped two cars in Dublin. The automatic pistols, which are becoming increasingly popular among city gangs, were found in a search by officers in Clondalkin. Officers said the find was unconnected with recent feuding in the city.
Meanwhile, sources today told how Freddie Thompson, whose associates have been involved in the murderous feud in the capital, has also been wearing the wig around his Spanish hideaway. The unusual Oasis-style wig has caused much bemusement in Garda ranks. “He has been keeping what’s left of his hair completely cropped so it’s easier to wear the wig and look anonymous,”said a source today. “He can wear what he wants on his head, but there is no mistaking his face,” the source added.
Gardai were first alerted to the strange dress up routine when they stopped Thompson and one of his hoods in March 2005. Officers noticed a passenger and his driver wearing bullet proof vests while travelling close to the Dail on Dublin's Kildare Street. On closer inspection, gardai realised that the passenger was in fact Freddie Thompson.
Gardai described Freddie as a "Noel Gallagher look-alike" with a heavy wig and dark glasses.
Since then he has been spotted on further occasions donning the Oasis-style look.
Thompson is living in constant fear of his life from other crime rivals in the Crumlin/Drimnagh feud which has so far claimed 13 lives. Thompson left Ireland following a flurry of gangland tit for tat style incidents. Garda intelligence shows that a number of attempts had been made on his life. His name was also regularly appearing on 'hit lists' of rival gangs.
Thompson was travelling with his associate Patrick Doyle when he was murdered in Marbella on February 4 this year.
Since that date Thompson has remained in Spain where he is surrounded by friends and fellow criminals.
Recent gun and grenade attacks on the home of his grandparents in the Coombe and on the homes of a number of his partners-in-crime have contributed to his decision to remain in Spain. Rumours of his death last month were quashed and described as an "elaborate ploy". The gang boss was later pictured alive and well in his Spanish retreat.

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Cocaine was found in a van near a Barcelona

According to the police, cocaine was found in a van near a Barcelona. shopping center. It's the third major cocaine bust of the summer in Spain. and the biggest carried out in the country on land in all of 2008.
Authorities say the drugs would have fetched up to $120 million if peddled by street dealers, or $68 million if sold wholesale.
Spanish authorities said last week they seized 2.5 tons of cocaine in a high-seas raid in international waters of the Atlantic on July 26th and arrested 11 people. Spanish police acting on a tip-off from U.S. authorities have seized 1.4 tons of cocaine and arrested eight South American suspects, officials said Tuesday.
The drugs were found in a van near a Barcelona shopping center, in the third major cocaine bust of the summer in Spain and the biggest carried out in the country on land in all of 2008, the National Police said in a statement.
The investigation began in June when the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration told Spanish authorities about a drug trafficking gang that wanted to smuggle cocaine from South America to Spain, police said.
Spanish agents tracked two members of the ring that traveled from Venezuela to oversee delivery of the drugs.Earlier this month, authorities seized the cocaine and arrested four people as they tried to collect it. The other four suspects were arrested in a Barcelona hotel, the police statement said without giving any dates.
Six of them are Colombian and the other two are from Venezuela, it added.The drugs would have fetched up to euro80 million ($120 million) if peddled by street dealers, or euro45 million ($68 million) if sold wholesale, the statement said.
In another big drug bust, Spanish authorities said last week they had seized 2.5 tons of cocaine in a high-seas raid in international waters of the Atlantic on July 26 and arrested 11 people.

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Discovered a major factory producing illegal drugs near Barcelona

Spanish police said they had discovered a major factory producing illegal drugs near Barcelona, and arrested six people from three countries.It said the lab, in the northeastern town of Hospitalet de Llobregat "had a major production capacity since, in one single day" for example, "they had sent 24 000 euros" (about R276 000) in profits to Colombia, police said in a statement,It said the six people arrested were from Colombia, Morocco and Bolivia.Officers seized 4,2 kilogrammes of cocaine, 120 kilogrammes of hashish pollen and a "lot of equipment for producing the drugs," the statement said.

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Spanish police have freed around 600 Russian sex slaves during a series of raids on brothels across the country

Spanish police have freed around 600 Russian sex slaves during a series of raids on brothels across the countryThe women had been lured to Spain by human traffickers promising lucrative work as fruit pickers, but instead had been forced to work in the sex industry, police sources said.“They were fooled into believing they were coming to work in the greenhouses or to pick strawberries,” Jose Nieto, chief inspector of the specialized immigration and criminal networks unit of the national police, told the Spanish newspaper El Pais.But once in Spain, the girls were put to work in the brothels. “The girls were told that the ring would go after their families in Russia, and also put the false notion in their heads that the Spanish police had been bought off and would laugh if they filed a complaint,” said Mr Nieto.
Under Operation Zarpa, the biggest police operation against prostitution to date, 26 establishments were raided, the majority in the Almeria region of southern Spain, and 99 people were arrested.But sources told local media that the busts were the “tip of the iceberg” and that the crime ring possibly had as many as 10,000 women working against their will.

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Three Spanish men have been arrested on suspicion of burglary in Guardamar del Segura .

Three Spanish men have been arrested on suspicion of burglary in Guardamar del Segura .The Guardia Civil have been on their trail for some time . Jewellery , audio equipment , money were all taken on July 4.During a search of the premises in which they lived , many stolen items were discovered , including a plasma screen TV.
They also discovered some quantities of hash and cocaine as well as equipment for preparing the drugs .The police believe that the thefts and the drug business were inter linked .

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50 year old man died after suffering indigestion when swimming at Cabopino near Marbella

A 50 year old man died after suffering indigestion when swimming at Cabopino near Marbella, and a 75 year old drowned on a beach in Mojácar, Almería. In this last case the efforts of his son who was with him on the beach and of the Protección Civil could do nothing to save his life.A body, thought to be of a four to six year old was found on Saturday floating off the Carchuna beach in Calahonda Granada, but decomposition was such that the child’s sex could not be confirmed.An 11 year old boy drowned after rescuing his younger brother who had fallen into a irrigation pond in Orihuela, Alicante, and a seven year old boy drowned in a swimming pool in a summer camp at San Martín de Valdeiglesias in Madrid.

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Allen Heard appeared before magistrates in the U.K.

A British man has been charged with the murder of his wife, 58 year old Patricia Heard, who was reported missing in Olivia, Valencia in July 2006.63 year old Allen Heard appeared before magistrates in Nuneaton today charged with perverting the course of justice and was remanded to appear in Crown Court in Warwick on August 15.
British and Spanish police have been working together on the investigation. The couple had moved to Spain at the start of 2006.Allen Heard is accused of murdering his wife Pat, who disappeared two years ago.Heard, who used to live in The Raywoods, Nuneaton and also in Leicester Street, Bedworth, before emigrating with his wife to Spain, is also charged with perverting the course of justice. He appeared before magistrates in Nuneaton for the first time yesterday. The couple emigrated to Oliva, near Valencia, in 2004 and Mrs Heard was reported missing two years later. A massive public appeal was launched to find her but no trace was found.Now detectives in England and in Spain, who are working together on the case, believe her body may be buried in a shallow grave near Valencia.Allen Heard made a brief appearance at the Nuneaton Justice Centre yesterday afternoon.Heard, who returned to England from Spain recently, was arrested after voluntarily walking into a police station in Warwickshire.He faces charges of the murder of his 58-year-old wife Patricia on or before July 30, 2006, and perverting the course of justice by reporting her missing and concealing her body in a grave.He was remanded in custody to Blakenhurst Prison to appear again at Warwick Crown Court for a plea and direction hearing on August 15.
Heard, wearing a suit, spoke only to confirm his address in Spain and his date of birth.Neil Bannister, prosecuting, said he would oppose any application for bail.
He said: "The police still have a number of inquiries to make in England and Spain and now, of course, the most important one is to recover the body and repatriate it for a post-mortem examination. The police have a delicate and sensitive task to recover the body."No application for bail was made.Mrs Heard's disappearance in 2006 shocked her family and friends in the Coventry and Bedworth area.Before they moved abroad Mrs Heard had been popular at the Black Horse pub in Exhall where she was a member of the ladies' darts team.At the time of her disappearance in 2006, an appeal for information was posted on a website run by the UK charity Missing People. It read: "Her family and friends are extreme-ly worried for Patricia's welfare as her disappearance is completely out of character. They just want to know that Patricia is okay and urge her to make contact with someone to reassure them of her well-being."In a desperate attempt to find out what had happened, Mrs Heard's daughter Linda Jones, of Nuneaton, also spoke to the Telegraph. She described her mother as "confident and sociable". She said: "We just want to know she is safe. This is completely out of character... She has missed two grandchildren's birthdays - that's the bit I can't get over, I just can't see why she's done that.
"We've got in touch with everyone we know but there might be other friends we're not aware of. Someone may be talking to her not knowing she is missing - it's our last chance. We don't know what else to do."Today, murder squad detectives in Nuneaton were liaising with police in Valencia as a grim search for a body was continuing.

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Discovered 137 kilograms of very pure cocaine at a luxury house in Sotogrande’s Rivera del Emperador zone

Guardia Civil Organized Crime and Drugs Squad (EDOA) agents from Algeciras discovered the 137 kilograms of very pure cocaine at a luxury house in Sotogrande’s Rivera del Emperador zone. It was part of an ongoing EDOA operation based on a long-held suspicion that recreational boats were being used to smuggle cocaine into Spain via Sotogrande’s port. Investigators believed the drugs were then stored in luxury properties close to the port’s moorings.
The theory would seem to have been borne out by the raid, in which the cocaine haul was discovered inside the house in numerous bags. Officers also seized a Gibraltar-registered yacht, the ‘Esprite’, in the belief that it was used to transport the drugs. No arrests were made and the Guardia Civil have stated that the people involved are believed to be on the run. Officers have not ruled out the possibility that arrests will be made in the coming days.
These drugs raids have again brought unwelcome attention to the luxury urbanizations that make up the Sotogrande area of San Roque. Last summer there was much alarm amongst residents, many of whom are British, after homes in the area were targeted by Eastern European gangs who carried out numerous robberies.
In December of last year the Spanish government set up a special police squad, Greco, to tackle the mafias operating on the Costa del Sol. At that time the Socialist Deputy, Salvador de la Encina, confirmed that the spotlight would also fall on both Sotogrande and La Alcaidesa in La Línea, where it was believed many of the gangs were laundering money through real estate

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British woman was detained in Torrox Park on Sunday, accused of stabbing her 61-year-old husband.

A 54-year-old British woman was detained in Torrox Park on Sunday, accused of stabbing her 61-year-old husband. The victim, also British, was taken to hospital in Vélez-Málaga where he was treated for 11 stab wounds. Police were called to the El Pino camp site by a security guard at 21.50 on Sunday night and arrested the woman who, they reported, was carrying a blood-covered kitchen knife and showed signs of intoxication. She was immediately transferred to the Guardia Civil headquarters in Torrox where she was detained. The couple, who live in a bungalow on the camp site, are well known in the neighbouring bar where a local Portuguese resident said that it was, "an unusual day which didn't end with them drunk". They are also said to have had frequent arguments and a loud discussion between them was reported to have been heard prior to the stabbing on Sunday evening.
This episode of domestic violence is another blow in a quiet area where recent thefts of a DVD player and around 100,000 euros worth of jewellery have disturbed residents. Some expressed concerns about the lack of security, while others demanded more frequent patrols by local police and Guardia Civil officers. The injured man was reported to be in a serious state in hospital following the attack.

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Dublin crimeboss Freddie Thompson was tracked to a gym near Puerto Banus in Marbella, an area that has become a haven for drug gangs

Rumours that Dublin crime kingpin Freddie Thompson had been murdered in his Spanish hideout have been found to be false after he was spotted leaving a gym on the Costa del Sol.'Fat' Freddie had been told by gardai that his life is in danger and he fled the country after it is believed several criminal gangs and individuals got together to plan to have him murdered.Several plans have been made in recent weeks to shoot and bomb Thompson and his leading associates, and his grandparent's home in the Coombe has even been targeted by gunmen in one of many attacks and shootings.Thompson is known to be at war with a rival criminal drugs gang in the ongoing Crumlin/ Drimnagh feud, as well as with a suspected INLA member.
The Thompson/INLA feud developed out of the Crumlin/ Drimnagh feud which began in 2001 and has now claimed 10 lives in tit-for-tat killings.
Others believed to be out for blood in a €100,000 contract include Martin 'The Viper' Foley, after Thompson's associates were believed to be behind the fourth attempt on his life when he was gunned down outside a gym in January.
Thompson was tracked to a gym near Puerto Banus in Marbella, an area that has become a haven for drug gangs."There are some days you could go into that gym and meet every major player operating in the Costa region. Criminals from different gangs are all training together and discussing business while pumping iron," said one source.
But while Thompson may be far away from the Irish hitmen who want him dead, he also knows the dangers that face him in Spain and is said to be paranoid about his security.Last February his trusted hitman Paddy Doyle was murdered in what many believe was an attempt on Thompson's own life.Thompson fled Ireland after massive tensions between his own gang and the gang controlled by a suspected INLA member in recent months.
Both mobs have been using bombs, bullets and fragmentation grenades to try and wipe each other out on Dublin streets. The heat was taken out of the feud when the INLA suspect was arrested recently and is in custody on charges of being a member of an illegal organisation.

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Costa del Sol drug gang arrested

National Police have broken up a gang of medium-scale drug traffickers whose modus operandi was to rob other drug gangs. Nine arrests, most of them Spaniards, have been made with the group acting mainly in Madrid, although also in Málaga, Torremolinos and Marbella.The specialist and violent crime UDYCO police unit took part in the operation which also saw the search of five premises resulting in the recovery of some firearms and drug related equipment.The group sold the drugs they stole in Málaga, Marbella and in Morocco.

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Spain police have made their biggest heroin seizure when drugs with a street value of more than 54 million euros

Spain police have made their biggest heroin seizure when drugs with a street value of more than 54 million euros ($89.6 million) were found in the Mediterranean port of Sitges.The 316.5kg of heroin were taken from a US-flagged ship and loaded on a van with a Dutch licence plate, police said in a statement. Five men, four of Turkish origin and a Romanian were detained.The drugs were in 633 packages.It is one of the biggest heroin busts in Europe and it is the first time that smugglers have been caught by Spanish police trying to bring the drug into the country by ship, the police statement said.
"We have managed to discover and dismantle a method of introducing heroin, by sea, which was unknown to date, even at the European level, which is especially dangerous," the statement said.Police said they began their investigation in February by monitoring a Dutch national of Turkish origin who was arrested in 1994 for being the leader of a group that smuggled 118kg of heroin into Spain.
He was one of the five men detained on Thursday.Spain, with its extensive southern coastline, is Europe's main point of entry for Moroccan cannabis and for cocaine from South America, mostly from Colombia, the world's top producer of the drug.

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Robert Andrew Spiers wanted in connection with the fatal shooting of two boys in a Manchester pub has been caught in Alfaz del Pî.

BRITISH national wanted in connection with the fatal shooting of two boys in a Manchester pub has been caught in Alfaz del Pî. National Police say they have arrested a man who fits the description of the killer, who is said to be armed and dangerous. Robert Andrew Spiers., 40, fled to Spain in March 2006 after a shoot-out in a pub in the northern city in which two youths aged 19 and 20 were killed outright.The victims had allegedly been hired by their killer to murder the ringleader of a known crime racket. But their target, although injured, survived the attempt on his life, a fact that police suspect could be the motive for the boys’ death.
After killing the youths, the murderer is said to have gone to watch a football match, police reveal.Two other men arrested in Alfaz del Pi with links to the crime have been sentenced to life imprisonment. If found guilty, the accused will be extradited to the United Kingdom

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nutritionist in Barcelona accused of monitoring his patients' bathroom habits with the help of a hidden camera.

Police have arrested a nutritionist in Barcelona accused of monitoring his patients' bathroom habits with the help of a hidden camera.The suspect, identified by police as Jorge I. P., is accused of violating the privacy of his clients, who included the prominent Catalan politician Joan Puigcercos, top motorcyclist Jorge Lorenzo, and even the sister of former Barcelona soccer star Ronaldinho. The camera was found by a cleaner hidden behind a radiator in the toilet of his clinic. The device was connected by wire to his computer, which is being analyzed by police to determine whether he recorded any of the illicit footage.Jorge I. P. told officers after his arrest that he had installed the camera in an attempt to catch clients stealing from the clinic, a claim that prosecutors have rejected.If found guilty, the suspect could face between one to four years in prison.

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Armed Robbery at McDonalds restaurant

Two men armed with handguns stole €40,000 euros in an attack on a McDonalds restaurant in Alfas del Pi (Alicante) during the early hours of yesterday morning. The attack occurred shortly before 2am as staff were getting ready to close up for the night. Nobody was injured as the two men fled as soon as the cash, which represented several days' takings, was handed over. They made their escape in a car driven by the third member of the gang. According to eye-witnesses, the two men who carried out the raid, seemed to be Spanish.

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Body of a man whose identity has not been confirmed, was spotted floating next to a lorry tyre

The body of a man whose identity has not been confirmed, was spotted floating next to a lorry tyre by the passengers of a pleasure yacht off Almería's Sabinal coast earlier today. A maritime salvage vessel, the 'Denébola', has been dispatched to the scene to recover the body, which is said to be dressed in a black suit

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875 kilos of hashish on a wooden launch on the Tuburón beach in San Roque close to Sotogrande

The Guardia Civil have found 875 kilos of hashish on a wooden launch on the Tuburón beach in San Roque close to Sotogrande. The drugs were hidden in a secret compartment and the boat was found complete with its outboard motor and some food in its interior. Officers took the boat from the Club de Playa area to Sotogrande port.

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Bobby Spiers identified as a notorious member of the Manchester gangland, was arrested in Benidorm

Bobby Spiers identified as a notorious member of the Manchester gangland, was arrested in Benidorm on Tuesday. Spiers, 40, was arrested by National Police on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder under a European arrest warrant and is being held in custody until a formal extradition can be carried out.The arrest follows extensive enquiries by Greater Manchester Police who were investigating a shooting in a pub in Salford in March 2006.Spiers is alleged to have been behind an attempted execution which led to the murder of two hit men.The gunmen were arrested but Spiers, from Prestwick, Greater Manchester, had been on the run since.Police began looking in Spain after several sightings were reported following a BBC1 Crimewatch programme that made an appeal in July last year for information on the whereabouts of Spiers.UK and Spanish police have been working in collaboration since these reports were received and have been searching for Spiers mainly on the Costa Blanca.

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‘Gordo’, has admitted that he killed the Italian tourist, Federica Squarise in the early hours of July 1 in Lloret de Mar.

28 year old Uruguayan waiter, Santiago Victor D.S. known in the press as ‘Gordo’, has admitted that he killed the Italian tourist, Federica Squarise in the early hours of July 1 in Lloret de Mar. He told the court in Girona that he had consensual sex with the woman who then threatened to charge him with rape, and so he decided to kil her by putting clothes in her mouth and then suffocating her with his hands. The magistrate ordered jail with no bail. Under Spain’s penal code he faces between 15 and 20 years in prison for the murder, and between 6 and 12 years more for the sexual aggression.

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Body of a woman found on waste ground

Police are investigating what is an apparent killing following the discovery of the body of a woman on waste ground close to the CT 32 service road to the new industrial park at Los Camachos in Cartagena.The body, which showed signs of violence, is thought to have been there for some days, and had been partially covered with branches.The unidentified body has been described as robust, and was wearing a dark grey tracksuit with a green shirt and has now been taken to the Legal Medicine Institute in Cartagena.
An autopsy is to be carried out to try to determine cause of death.

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Burnt bodies of two Spaniards have been found in a forest in Morocco

Burnt bodies of two Spaniards have been found in a forest in Morocco. The Spaniards are both of Berber origin and were found close to the border with Melilla in a place called Mariguari, according to police sources. One of the two was identified by an ear-ring, but their identity has not yet been released by police. An autopsy is to be carried out, but it’s believed the two men in their 20’s went missing from their homes in Melilla last July 12.

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Torrevieja Danish mans body found by his driver in his luxury villa in the Los Balcones urbanisation.

Judicial Police of the Guardia Civil are investigating the death of a Danish man in Torrevieja, with the first data appearing to confirm a settling of criminal scores.
The body of the victim was found by his driver in his luxury villa in the Los Balcones urbanisation. The body showed signs of violence and seems to have struggled with his aggressor(s) before meeting his death. Police sources also say that the body was manipulated after death. The victim had rented the villa from German owners and had been in residence there for some 12 days.

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Torremolinos explosion on the paseo marítimo in the La Carihuela district

An explosive device went off on a beach in Torremolinos in the early hours of this morning without causing any injuries.The small device went off at 20 minutes past midnight on the paseo marítimo in the La Carihuela district in the top tourist destination in Málaga province, between the Aloha Puerto and Timorsol hotels. The police, as yet, have not confirmed who they think may have placed the device, but it is almost certainly to be the work of Basque terrorists ETA. They have already claimed responsibility for four small and similar devices which exploded on the Cantabrian coast in the north of the country a week ago.

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Freddie Thompson assassinated in Spain?

Freddie Thompson, leader of one of the feuding Drimnagh/Crumlin gangs, was alive or dead after rumours spread throughout Thompson's associates that he had been assassinated in Spain.Senior garda sources said last night there had been no reports from Spanish police of a murder. Thompson left Dublin last weekend for Spain amid reports of a growing threat to his life. He has been warned several times by gardai about threats to his life.The sources said that there was no evidence of a murder, or disappearance, but did confirm that Thompson's associates believe he is dead. Intelligence reached gardai early yesterday that Thompson's gang were unable to contact him and that it was completely out of character for him to lose contact with his gang.
Thompson, 27, was in Estepona in southern Spain in February when one of his close associates, Paddy Doyle, also 27, was shot dead. The murder has not been solved but Spanish police indicated to gardai that they suspected Doyle -- and Thompson -- had run foul of Turkish drug traffickers.Thompson was on the scene shortly after the murder, though it was not absolutely established if he was travelling in the car in which Doyle was shot, though Spanish police believe he was. A short time later Spanish police seized a car in a nearby car park and found 110kg of cocaine.
Thompson travels between Dublin, Amsterdam and the Costa del Sol. He was arrested in Rotterdam in October 2006 when police seized seven kilos of cocaine, six handguns and ammunition at an apartment he had been used. He evaded prosecution on a technicality when the case came to trial in February 2007.
Thompson is also an associate of Martin Foley, who has been the target of several murder attempts -- the latest in January when he survived being hit by five bullets.
The feud in which Thompson and Foley are caught up began in 2000 when a gang of young drug dealers from the Drimnagh-Crumlin area fell out after gardai seized cocaine in the Holiday Inn in Pearse Street. The gang split and the violence started with the murder of one of the gang in 2001. Since then there have been nine more murders, dozens of attempted murders and hundreds of violent incidents.
The intelligence reaching gardai about Thompson's disappearance come after an upsurge in activity from his enemies, who carried out at least one known assassination attempt early this month and were planning another murder last week.
The spread of Irish gangland violence to Spain is not new and six known Irish criminals have been murdered there in the past four years. In 2004, the leaders of the Westies gang, Stephen Sugg and Shane Coates, were murdered and buried in a secret grave in Alicante. John McKeown, 48, said to be a major figure in international drug trafficking, was shot dead in January last year in Torrevieja. Sean Dunne, 32, from Coolock, was shot dead in September 2005, also near Alicante. And, the body of Cork man Michael 'Danser' Ahern was found stuffed into a freezer in Albuifera, Portugal, in September 2005.
Gardai who know Thompson said last week that the murder in Spain of his friend Paddy Doyle had badly affected him and he had been acting in an erratic manner since.
Doyle was Thompson's main "enforcer" and had personally carried out the assassinations of two of Thompson's rivals. Doyle had been living in Spain since 2005.

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The suspect, arrested on July 3rd works in Spain as a cleaner. The suspect hails from Asaba in Delta State

A 26-year-old female suspected drug courier has been arrested by men of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) for alleged unlawful possession and attempt to export 1.050 kilogrammes of substances that tested positive for cocaine at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA) Abuja.
Fourteen (14) of the wraps were discovered to have been stuffed into her private parts while 44 other wraps were ingested by her in a desperate bid to earn 1,000 Euros.Reacting to her arrest, the NDLEA Airport Commander Alhaji Hamza Umar cautioned drug traffickers to stop abusing their bodies. Hamza said that it is dehumanizing for anybody to either ingest or insert narcotic drugs.
“It is amazing the way drug couriers treat themselves with disdain. They must understand that this is sheer cruelty and it has to stop,” the Commander warned.
The suspect, arrested on July 3rd works in Spain as a cleaner. The suspect who hails from Asaba in Delta State is the only female among eight suspected drug traffickers so far arrested at the Abuja airport in July 2008.

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National police have arrested four people who are accused of trafficking in cocaine in the Campo de Gibraltar area

National police have arrested four people who are accused of trafficking in cocaine in the Campo de Gibraltar area. The four are to face charges of committing a crime against public health, and some 3.2 kilos of the drug was recovered in the operation. The four acted in particular during the local fiestas in municipalities in the region.In a separate incident the Civil Guard has arrested a Spanish married couple at the port in Ceuta as they were boarding a ferry for Algeciras. The couple was carrying 25 inflated balloons which they said were for a children’s party, but inside which the police found more than six kilos of hashish.

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Southern Spain cannabis with a potential street value of €1.1 million found at a warehouse in an industrial estate in Blanchardstown.

Gardai and Revenue’s Customs service arrested two men last night following the seizure of cannabis with a potential street value of €1.1 million at a warehouse in an industrial estate in Blanchardstown.The cannabis was discovered in pallets of tiles which had been imported from Southern Spain. The men, aged 39 and 53, were arrested at the scene and are currently being held at Blanchardstown Garda Station under Section 2 of the Criminal Justice ( Drug Trafficking ) Act 1996. They can be detained for up to 7 days.

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Gardaí believe that the 1.5 tonne consignment of cocaine originated in the Medellin region of Colombia

A flavour of the international nature of the investigation into the €440 million drugs seizure can be gleaned from the fact that gardaí travelled to the UK, South Africa and the US, while witnesses attended from South Africa, Spain, Barbados and the UK.Gardaí believe that the 1.5 tonne consignment of cocaine originated in the Medellin region of Colombia and was shipped along an established drugs route through Venezuela to the Caribbean island of Margarita.Meanwhile, the gang purchased a catamaran, the Lucky Day, in Florida for $110,000 on March 7th, 2007, and it was sailed by two Lithuanians to Margarita, arriving there about March 16th-17th, 2007.Gardaí are unsure whether the drugs were transferred to the Lucky Day off Margarita or later, when the catamaran visited Trinidad and Tobago, before heading to the eastern Caribbean and Barbados in May.What they are certain about is that the catamaran was fully loaded with the drugs when it left Barbados on May 25th, 2007, crewed by the two Lithuanians, who had been joined by Gerard Hagan (24) from Liverpool.The State called evidence from Thomas Lopez, an expert with Iridium Satellite Phones. He was able to provide a print-out of calls made from a satellite phone recovered in the waterproof Pele box from the drug gang's Rib washed up in Dunlough Bay.

Mr Lopez was able to show calls in May and June from that satellite phone to another satellite phone that gardaí believe was on board the Lucky Day. He was able to provide co-ordinates for that second satellite phone.

Commander Eugene Ryan of the Naval Service examined the satellite phone records and, tracking the latitudinal and longitudinal references, was able to plot the route that the Lucky Day took when crossing the Atlantic.

He calculated that the Lucky Day would have taken 26 days to travel the 3,300 miles from Barbados to the west Cork coast at a speed of 5.1 knots. It passed close to the M3 weather buoy some 30 miles southwest of Mizen Head at about midnight on July 1st.

Meanwhile, the gang, who had hired houses on Sheep's Head from April 2007 in preparation for the arrival of the drugs, had been plotting their rendezvous point. Gardaí found strong evidence pointing to the M3 weather buoy as the pick-up point; its co-ordinates were found in a hand-held GPS device recovered from the sunken Rib. Gardaí also found a map at one of the rented houses with a line drawn out from shore to the weather buoy.

Gardaí believe the Rib, crewed by Wanden and another man, Steven Brown, left Glengarriff at 9pm on July 1st and rendezvoused with the Lucky Day near the M3 weather buoy at midnight. Here, the drugs were transferred and Hagan came aboard the Rib.

Gardaí believe the gang intended to return to Dunmanus Bay and bring the drugs ashore at a quiet cove there, but one of the gang put diesel in the petrol engines of the Rib, causing it to cut out and drift in Dunlough Bay. The combination of three-metre swells, the heavy load of 1.5 tonnes and a backwash from the cliffs caused the Rib to capsize.

The Lucky Day continued on to Spain where police, alerted by gardaí, detained the vessel at La Coruna. The two Lithuanians were arrested and held for over 40 days while the boat was forensically examined. However, gardaí believe the vessel was washed down with petrol to remove any traces of cocaine or any fibre or DNA evidence that would link it to the gang in west Cork and the Lithuanians were eventually released without charge.

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Police in Spain said Wednesday they had seized 4.2 tonnes of hashish in the south of the country and arrested nine suspected drug traffickers.

Police in Spain said Wednesday they had seized 4.2 tonnes of hashish in the south of the country and arrested nine suspected drug traffickers. The drugs were found in April on two speedboats, one carrying 2.4 tonnes of hashish and the other 1.8 tonnes, police said in a statement. Police also seized 1.2 million euros (1.9 million US dollars), four vehicles as well as several guns and documents during 18 searches carried out as part of their probe of the group which is suspected of smuggling hashish from Morocco. They did not give an estimated street value for the drugs. Morocco is believed to be one of the world's largest producers of hashish. It has vowed to crack down on trafficking and toughened border controls in recent years. Spain, with its extensive coastline, is Europe's main entry point for Moroccan hashish and cocaine from South America, mostly from its former colony Colombia, the world's top producer of the drug.

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Body of a man has been found in the burnt out remains of an A4 car

The body of a man has been found in the burnt out remains of an A4 car on the A-92 road near Gérgal in Almería. The body was on the back seat of the vehicle. Police were alerted at 4am on Friday morning by a driver who had noticed the fire on land next to the road, and then a second driver said that there was a car on fire in the area. The Guardia Civil have now opened a full investigation.
Back in 2005 two people were found at the same spot, in a burnt out vehicle with German registration. Then a settling of scores among foreigners was considered to be the cause.

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French national arrested under suspicion of being involved in drug smuggling

officers have arrested a man of French nationality who was under suspicion of being involved in what was known to the investigating authorities as ‘Operation Envolat’.
The man in question was arrested aboard his yacht, which was flying the French flag, just off the coast of the island of Cabrera. According to Guardia Civil sources, the Frenchman often sailed through these particular waters of the Mediterranean Sea but changed the yacht’s name and flag every so often in order to avoid detection by the authorities.This operation has been ongoing for the last few months and was made more difficult by the fact that enquiries revealed that a luxury yacht was being used to transport the drugs. It was only very recently, due to certain controls carried out, that the yacht in question was regarded as suspicious and boarded. Security forces which form part of the Guardia Civil discovered 66 packets of hashish, amounting to two tonnes in total.

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Elderly couple found stabbed to death at a flat in Moraira town centre shortly after midnight last night may have been killed by burglars.

Investigators suspect that and elderly German couple found stabbed to death at a flat in Moraira town centre shortly after midnight last night may have been killed by burglars. A large kitchen knife was left at the scene and the doors to the couples' safe were found open, and it was empty. The identities of the couple have not been confirmed though it is known that the man was aged 78, and his wife 85.

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Rumanian immigrant was arrested last Sunday evening hours after a woman returned home to find him asleep in her chalet

27 year old Rumanian immigrant was arrested last Sunday evening hours after a woman returned home to find him asleep in her chalet. The woman noticed something was wrong when she noticed that the door of the property had been forced and that one of the window bars had been bent out of shape.
Peering in through the bedroom window, she spotted the man asleep in her bedroom, and immediately called the police. He was captured a few hours later hiding in bushes on the banks of the Guadalmedina river between Casabermeja and Málaga.
During the search, a shotgun wrapped in a blanket was found discarded close to the chalet, which is located in the El Chorro area, not far from the Hermitage of Nuestra Señora del Socorro, on the outskirts of Casabermeja.

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Police are investigating the death of a man whose badly burned body was found in a wooded area of the Garraf natural park

Police are investigating the death of a man whose badly burned body was found shortly after midnight last night in a wooded area of the Garraf natural park near Sitges (Barcelona). It seems that the man was hit over the head before being doused in some kind of inflammable liquid then set alight. The body was discovered after fire-fighters had been called in to extinguish the resulting bush fire.

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One of the two security guards shot in a raid this morning in Viso del Alcor has died at the Virgen del Rocío Hospital in Sevilla

One of the two security guards shot in a raid this morning in Viso del Alcor has died at the Virgen del Rocío Hospital in Sevilla. The 48 year old man died of abdominal injuries before doctors could operate.The other guard was shot five times - in the arm, leg and lower abdomen - and was taken to Valme Hospital, where his condition is described as serious, but not life-threatening. They were shot at around 11am by a man on a motorcycle as they were carrying bags of cash into a branch of the Banco Santander on the calle Real in Viso del Alcor. Their attacker sped off with the cash and remains at large.

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major drugs’ bust in El Médano when three people of different nationalities were remanded in custody after being arrested

A year-long police operation has led to a major drugs’ bust in El Médano when three people of different nationalities were remanded in custody after being arrested when a boat believed to have sailed from Morocco was seized.
Properties were also searched and some 3,000 euros was confiscated, together with a number of items which police believe were being used in association with the drug trafficking. They included night vision binoculars, GPS equipment, mobile phones and cans of gasoline for the return journey back to Morocco.

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Two Colombians (aged 34 and 43) and an Italian (45) were arrested yesterday after a suitcase containing 120,000 ecstasy tablets was found

Two Colombians (aged 34 and 43) and an Italian (45) were arrested yesterday after a suitcase containing 120,000 ecstasy tablets was found in the back of their car.
The three suspects were arrested as the Italian man, unaware that he had been tailed, was handing over the vehicle to the Colombian pair close to where the Summercase music festival is being staged this weekend in Boadilla del Monte (Madrid).
With each tablet fetching between €8-€15, the total market value of the haul is estimated at over a million euros. It seems that the drugs were bought in Holland and transported by the Italian man to Spain by car. The importance of the haul becomes apparent given that, up until the end of last month, only 162,500 ecstasy tablets were seized across the whole of Spain, and that the total for last year was 481,600. Ecstasy, or MDMA, is an illegal, synthetic, psychoactive drug which produces a euphoric sensation of intimacy with others as well as diminished feelings of fear and anxiety, but can be fatal.

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Timothy O'Toole has been jailed for 15 years in Spain updated

A briton has been jailed for 15 years in Spain after police infiltrated a £126m cocaine smuggling operation. Timothy O'Toole, 53, who has Manchester connections, acquired the Atlantic Warden fishing boat to run drugs from Latin America to Europe - not realising the skipper was an undercover Customs officer. The vessel was boarded by police off the west coast of Africa after a three-year operation.
James Carabini, 45, from Dublin, was acquitted.Trafficker Timothy Kieran O'Toole (53), gave his address as Limerick but was using a British passport when he was arrested in May 2005. O'Toole is also thought to have connections with Manchester. He is not known here to any of the garda national units or to senior garda officers in Limerick. However, Dubliner James Carabini (45) was cleared of the charges by the three-judge national criminal court in Madrid. Father-of-two Carabini, of Carnlough Road, Cabra, moved to Spain after he came to the attention of the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB). As a result of a Cab investigation into his actions, Mr Carabini's social welfare payments were stopped and he and a friend had to hand over cash from an alleged overpayment. The Madrid court heard how an undercover international police operation, which had lasted three years, ended with the seizure of 3.5 metric tonnes of cocaine when a yacht was boarded off the Cape Verde Islands off Africa's west coast. O'Toole had supplied the Atlantic Warden boat for the cocaine run from Latin America after meetings with known drug dealers in Britain, Germany, Holland, Portugal and Spain. Those meetings were monitored by undercover police and customs officers from Britain, Spain and elsewhere. The court was told that O'Toole was believed to have been involved regularly in making contacts between South American cocaine barons and organised criminals in Europe. The haul on board the Atlantic Warden was headed for Galicia, on the northwest tip of Spain, from where it would have been distributed to the UK and other countries in northern Europe, the court heard. Several officers from British Customs and police forces in the UK were involved in Operation Warden which first began in 2003 when O'Toole attended a meeting in Hamburg, Germany, at which the acquisition of a yacht was discussed.
Other meetings took place in Marbella on the Costa del Sol; Faro on the Portuguese Algarve; in Holland; and in Britain including at Southampton, where the Atlantic Warden was berthed for a time. Also on trial were three Spaniards and one of them was acquitted of the charges along with Mr Carabini.
Convicted with O'Toole were Daniel Baulo Carballo (44) -- who was jailed for 17 years and six months as the leader of the attempt to bring the cocaine aboard the yacht to Spain -- and Gonzalo Ferreiro Soto, who was given a prison sentence of 13 years, six months and a day. All claimed they were victims of a police sting operation, which is not permitted under Spanish law. But the judges ruled that O'Toole and the two others had not been persuaded to commit the crime by the police, but had instigated the smuggling attempt themselves. What they had not realised was that undercover police and customs officers were monitoring their movements.

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Alicante police have arrested two 29 year old Spanish men, S.S.G. and F.B.H. on charges of computer fraud

Alicante police have arrested two 29 year old Spanish men, S.S.G. and F.B.H. on charges of computer fraud. The two sent spam and used other people’s bank accounts to bet in online casinos in a fraud which allegedly amounted to 280,000 €. Plane tickets and hotel reservations were also obtained by the pair often using the fraud techniques known as phishing and identity theft.
Police say they found the bank details of thousands of people from all over the world on their computer.

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875 kilos of hashish in a false bottom has been recovered by the authorities on the Tiburón beach in San Roque, Cádiz

A patera small boat containing 875 kilos of hashish in a false bottom has been recovered by the authorities on the Tiburón beach in San Roque, Cádiz.
The drug came to light as the five metre boat broke up as it was being removed from the water by members of the local beach club. The drug was found in a false bottom and sides of the vessel.

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Fifteen Russian sailors arrested in Spain for alleged drug trafficking have been allowed to see their relatives

Fifteen Russian sailors arrested in Spain for alleged drug trafficking have been allowed to see their relatives. They were detained two months ago, along with other foreigners in the port of Huelva on the Atlantic coast.
The crew maintains it undertook the extra work of unloading cargo from an unknown vessel while their ship was under repair. Spanish police say they were caught unloading a cargo load which contained four tonnes of hashish.

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Marbella suffering a financial Black hole of 355 million €

Tribunal de Cuentas, has revealed that Marbella was suffering a financial Black hole of 355 million € at the end of 2006. That amounts to 2,699 € per resident of the town, and the court has found as many as 13 financial and economic irregularities.
A new report from the court notes that a large part of the building agreements with the Town Hall included a clause which conditioned the approval of the building to the approval of the PGOU Urban Plan, and that large amounts of monies were diverted to third parties.

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Málaga bank manager has been sentenced to ten years in prison for investing client’s money for his own benefit.

The Provincial Court in the city heard that the man had carried out high risk investment operations in the name of dead people, and had changed currencies without clients knowledge, with none of the movements being reflected in the branch’s official accounting. He also set up three companies in Gibraltar which he used to channel his investments and to avoid detection by Hacienda. The fraud occurred between the years 1988 and 1997.The man was also fined 10,800 € and ordered to compensate several clients to the total of nearly 260,000 €.
The owner of a financial advice firm was also found guilty of collaborating with the bank manager who has not been named in reports.

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Malaga’s Plaza de la Merced stabbing

A man in his forties was stabbed in Malaga’s Plaza de la Merced late on Sunday. Police said that someone had snatched the Spanish flag he was waving and, as he tried to retrieve it, the victim received a wound to his right thigh. It was the most serious incident of the night as thousands of fans filled the city centre to celebrate Spain’s Euro2008 win.

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Guardia Civil officers in Nerja confiscated 2.6 tons of hashish resin

Guardia Civil officers in Nerja confiscated 2.6 tons of hashish resin on the town’s Playazo beach last Friday. A resident of Puerto de la Torre was arrested during the operation. Also confiscated was a seven foot launch equipped with three 200 h.p. motors.

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Romanian woman has been robbed of 1,500 euros

Romanian woman has been robbed of 1,500 euros while waiting at Málaga bus station. Investigators said she was approached by three well-dressed men, claiming to be police officers and showing false identification, who insisted on searching her luggage for drugs. When they finished and left, she discovered the theft of her savings by thieves who, witnesses claim, were also Romanian.

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Police raided two properties in Torrevieja and another in Torrequebrada, seizing a hoard of jewellery, eight designer watches, two televisions, came

highly-organised gang who specialised in night-time burglaries while their victims were sleeping in their beds have been arrested.The Eastern European delinquents were based in a residential complex in Orihuela Costa.
They are known to have committed at least 20 break-ins in the provinces of Alicante, Murcia and Málaga.
The thieves used cars stolen in previous burglaries to carry out future assaults.
A special organised crime squad from the National Police had been tracking the gang since November, 2006 but the criminals, originally from Albania, got wind of the investigation and evacuated their Orihuela Costa home, escaping to Torrequebrada in Málaga.However the officers were able to follow and arrest four members of the gang.
Two of the men from Albania are suspected of carrying out the burglaries and two Spaniards are accused of giving them logistical help and fencing stolen property.
Police suspect there are other members of the gang at large who have not yet been identified.Officers discovered that the burglars had been sending large sums of money to Albania along with other stolen goods by post.
They also found an underground bunker used by the thieves to hide the booty they stole during the break-ins.Following the arrests officers raided two properties in Torrevieja and another in Torrequebrada, seizing a hoard of jewellery, eight designer watches, two televisions, cameras and other objects.

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Police have found 5,000 kilos of hashish Two Britons arrested in Alicante

Police have found 5,000 kilos of hashish in an as yet un-named industrial estate in San Vicente del Raspeig. It’s thought a warehouse there was being used to store the drug ahead of its distribution in the U.K where it would have a market value of about 6.5 million €.Three arrests, two Britons and a Romanian, have been made in the operation so far, and more have not been ruled out in what is the second most important drugs haul in the province this year.
The nearly 5,000 kilos was recovered on Saturday night and those arrested were held on Saturday night in the cells of the main police station in Alicante.
Yesterday morning police statements were taken, and today the three will declare before the judge who will decide between prison on remand or bail.

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Mijas Costa pedestrian bridge collapsed over both carriageways of the A7 motorway

Six people, including a two year old child, were injured, two of them seriously when a pedestrian bridge collapsed over both carriageways of the A7 motorway at the 198 km point in Mijas Costa. The accident happened at 4,55 pm when the busy traffic below hit the fallen bridge. The two seriously hurt are two men who were trapped in their crushed car by the fallen bridge, a 47 year old who was driving the vehicle and a 30 year old who was a passenger. The four others to be injured were a family travelling in the car behind. All the injured were taken to the Costa del Sol hospital in Marbella.Witnesses say that a crane got hooked onto the bridge, causing it to collapse. There were no pedestrians on the bridge at the time.

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Aidan Holly fell 30 metres to his death

23 year old Aidan Holly, had just completed his army training, and was from the small village of Tarbert in North Kerry, and was in the Navarra town for the famous San Fermines festivities which got underway at the weekend.confirmed that a man who fell 30 metres to his death from the ancient city walls in Pamplona on Sunday was Irish.It’s reported that his body lay dead for some hours before being found.

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Manuel Millón secretary for PP mayor of Nerja, has been found shot dead

Manuel Millón, the Jefe de Gabinete, the secretary for PP mayor of Nerja, has been found shot dead below the viewpoint, Balcon de Europa. Reports speak of one bullet wound in the forehead. The Civil Guard was called to the scene at the Balcón just after 7am, and their first hypothesis is that is a possible suicide.
The zone was closed off and access to the Balcon de Europa Hotel was blocked for a time.Witnesses say that Manuel Millón was seen walking down Calle Pintada to the Balcón with his head streaming blood. He appears to have shot himself in the Partido Popular headquarters in that street and then walked down to the Balcón de Europa where he threw himself down a 20 metre drop.The 54 year old was a teacher at a college in nearby Torrox, and have been in Nerja Town Hall for more than ten years. He was married with two children. Locals describe him as a well known and well educated man who had done a great deal for Nerja.

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Lloret de Mar body found of the missing Italian tourist, Federica Squarise

body found in Lloret de Mar has been confirmed to be that of the missing Italian tourist, 23 year old Federica Squarise, who went missing in the town on July 1.
The body was found half-buried and covered with branches.
Mossos d’Esquadra chief, Jordi Bascompte, told the press that it was thought the body had been dead for three or four days, but they had not been able to confirm if death took place where the body was found, in an area of the Caso Zaragoza, just a few metres from the Hollywood disctotec.
The young Italian had only arrived in Spain with a friend the previous Sunday.

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Crocodile Park in Torremolinos Costa Del Sol move for alligator

An alligator is swapping life in Galashiels for the Costa Del Sol after the reptile was seized in the town.The alligator was found with a Western Diamondback rattlesnake during a raid by SSPCA officers, and will move to a the Crocodile Park in Torremolinos.It is alleged they were both being kept without a licence required under the Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976

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The Khan family went sailing off the coast of Morocco and stumbled across suitcases loaded with cannabis

The Khan family went sailing off the coast of Morocco and stumbled across suitcases loaded with cannabis. The British family dolphin-spotting in the Mediterranean came across suitcases containing £500,000 worth of cannabis.Simon Khan, from Witney, Oxfordshire, his partner and their two young sons risked their lives to seize the haul and hand it over to police after spotting the floating cases.They were on holiday in Duquesa, Spain, when they decided to take the boat trip and were 12 miles off Morocco when they saw the first case.Despite being worried the package was awaiting pick-up, sales manager Mr Khan said his family felt 'morally obliged' to seize it and report it to the Costa del Sol police. On their return they collected another five packages.Mr Khan said: 'The captain was terrified and I was worried. The whole way back there were boats criss-crossing backwards and forwards.'
Police took charge of the drugs but did not take the family's names or ask for statements. Mr Khan said: 'I was stunned by the lack of authority involved.'

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Briton arrested in Marbella in connection with 14 counts of sexual aggression against minors carried out in the U.K.

42 year old Briton, named as Peter C. has been arrested in Marbella in connection with 14 counts of sexual aggression against minors carried out in the U.K.
The five victims of the man were aged between 11 and 17, and one of them was his own daughter, with three others some of her friends. He is accused of inappropriate sexual behaviour, and aggression with penetration and rape with the crimes dating back originally to 1989 and 1990, and then later between 2004 and 2006.
The arrest was carried out on a European Arrest Warrant issued by Guildford Magistrates Court last May, and the man faces a possible 10 to 14 years in prison. It comes thanks to the increased cooperation between the Spanish police and the Serious Organised Crime Agency SOCA in the U.K.

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On Thursday, in the Sagres area, the Judicial Police (PJ) seized 199 bales of hashish, weighing around 6,000 kilos.

On Thursday, in the Sagres area, the Judicial Police (PJ) seized 199 bales of hashish, weighing around 6,000 kilos. The drug was being transported by fishing boat, and the four members of its crew were detained. The PJ released a statement saying that the police operation, dubbed “Relampago” (Lightning), was conducted with the support of the Portuguese Navy and Air Force. According to the PJ, the trawler’s movements had been under investigation and when it left its base port, Vila Real de Santo Antonio, last week, the fishing boat’s two-day trip to the Moroccan coast was kept under close surveillance by a Navy corvette and an Air Force aircraft.
The 13-metre long trawler was intercepted near the Algarve coast when its crew members were getting ready to offload the hashish. According to the police, some of those arrested already had convictions for drug trafficking offences.
On Sunday, the PJ confiscated another 2.5 tonnes of hashish in Faro. Officers said that the investigation had begun three months earlier. Some 75 bales of hashish were seized at Estudantes Beach, near Faro’s commercial harbour. This time, police apprehended six suspects, a Portuguese man and five Moroccans, aged between the 45 and 49. “Although the alleged drug traffickers offered no resistance to the arrest, they did try to escape, but without success,” said Faro PJ chief Guilhermino da Encarnaçao.He added that the drugs had been transported from North Africa in a fishing trawler and offloaded off the Algarve coast by two speedboats, which were also seized. The PJ chief stated that when police intercepted the smugglers, the hashish had already been transferred to a minivan with fake Spanish licence plates, so they believe the drugs were destined for the Spanish market.
The third seizure occurred on Saturday as a result of a joint operation between the Portuguese and Spanish authorities. Another 1,000 kilos of hashish were discovered in the Guadiana River when police spotted three crew members on a fishing boat attempting to discharge their illegal cargo on the Spanish side of the river. A Moroccan man was detained but two others managed to escape.
As well as being a main tourist region, the Algarve is also an entry point to Europe for drugs. The authorities are doubling their efforts to clamp down, and the PJ chief said: “It is an continuous battle. We are trying to control it as much as possible.”

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Two men robbed a young Swedish woman as she left a bank in Fuengirola

Two men robbed a young Swedish woman as she left a bank in Fuengirola and stole 2,500 euros from her, which she had just withdrawn. The mugging took place last Wednesday at approximately 2 p.m. on Calle Iglesia, and police believe that the two thieves followed the victim from the bank and jumped her just 100 metres from the building. The money they got away with had been sent to the woman by her family in Sweden to help out with living costs. Police are investigating the case.

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La Nogalera stabbing sentence seven years in prison

Provincial Court in Málaga has sentenced a man to seven years in prison for stabbing another man in the chest and face after he refused to invite him for a drink.
It happened last April in the La Nogalera area of Torremolinos when the man, accompanied by a girlfriend, approached the victim who was reported to be drunk at the time, asking him to buy them a drink. The sentence notes the aggressor is a drug addict. He now has to compensate the victim with a total 67,500 €. His girlfriend was released without charges.

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Valencia policeman is accused of robbing 20 kilos of cocaine

Valencia policeman is accused of robbing 20 kilos of cocaine recovered by the police so that he could keep both his wife and his lover in the habit of taking the drug.The prosecutor in the case has charged two policemen with the theft of the drug which formed part of a 500 kilo haul found by the authorities in Valencia port. The second policeman says that he was not involved and has been implicate by his colleague ‘in revenge for a personal problem’.The policeman who has confessed said that he was in a ‘delicate situation’ and needed money to keep his wife and girlfriend happy. That was why he said he went along with the idea of the fellow officer to take the 20 kilos of the drug which had been left on a temporary basis in a police van. He said he sold three kilos of the drug to a club doorman before he and the other policeman were arrested.Had the accused sold all the drug they could have obtained as much as 600,000 €. One in five Europeans who take cocaine on a regular basis lives in Spain.

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Algeciras cocaine was hidden in five sports bags underneath the bean cargo.

Tax officials and the Guardia Civil in Algeciras have seized 178 kilos of cocaine that was found in a container that officially held dried beans. The cargo was en-route from Callao in Peru to Valencia. Officers decided to search the container that had been deposited in the customs zone awaiting clearance. The cocaine was hidden in five sports bags underneath the bean cargo.

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30 caravans stolen in the UK on Benidorm campsites

Serious and Organised Crime Unit, working with the Guardia Civil, have uncovered more than 30 caravans stolen in the UK on Spanish campsites.
British authorities were aware there were stolen caravans being sold to unsuspecting Britons, but the full scale of the organised crime operation was not uncovered until last week.Undercover police and a UK insurance investigator raided a number of campsites in Benidorm and their findings have been astonishing to say the least.
After checking the registration numbers of 120 caravans last week, they found that 30 of them had been reported as stolen in the UK.
Investigators have estimated the total value of the stolen caravans at one million euros. In the UK 700 caravans are stolen each year, many of which are filtered to the Costas by organised gangs.Checks revealed that none of the 30 stolen caravans had the correct legal paperwork or a receipt of payment.Police have been busy taking statements all week from the owners affected by the crime, all of whom are British expats.

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Civil Guard arrested supplied information to the drug traffickers

The Civil Guard in Ciudad Real have arrested a total of 31 people, including one of their own, in an operation against drug trafficking which resulted in the recovery of 13 kilos of cocaine.The arrested Civil Guard is thought to have supplied information to the drug traffickers in the case which came to light when controls on drug trafficking near schools and colleges were stepped up.The arrests were made in two separate operations carried out in the towns of Almadén and Villanueva de los Infantes. One group purchased the drug in Madrid, while the second group, controlled by Colombians, imported the drug via Barajas airport in Madrid. The Civil Guard uncovered several points of sale in the Ciudad Real area. More arrests have not been ruled out as investigations continue.

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