Belgian couple spot the men who stole their car in Belgium on a Spanish beach

 Sometimes it a very small world. A Belgian couple who had their car stolen at gunpoint in Belgium some months ago could not believe it when they recognised their attackers when on holiday in Alicante. They saw them on the beach in Guardamar, Alicante last Monday, and made no hesitation in calling the Spanish police. While they were waiting for the police to arrive, the couple found their own car parked nearby, and the owner decided to puncture the tyres to ensure that the thieves could not take it again. After the police arrived a search of the car revealed a simulated pistol. The two men, 47 year old L.J. and 20 year old G.C.D., were taken into custody and it’s now known that there was an international search and capture order in force against them. One of them has served time for...

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Major heroin haul in Algeciras

 The second largest ever haul of heroin in Spanish history has been seized at the port in Algeciras, from a container which was on route to the Ivory Coast from Pakistan. The consignment of heroin was found in three hundred cylinders, each weighing half a kilo, which had been hidden in the cargo of iron oxide powder. The Agencia Tributaria Tax Authority had tracked the container until it arrived at the port, where it was searched on Wednesday. There has been no announcement of any arrests in connection with the find as yet. Spain’s biggest ever haul of heroin was in Sitges, Cataluña, three years ago, where more than 300 kilos were seiz...

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Ex Ronda Mayor released on bail in corruption case

 Antonio Marín Lara, the ex Socialist Mayor of Ronda who was amongst seven people arrested on Tuesday in an operation against alleged planning corruption, dubbed ‘Operación Acinipo’, has been released on 150,000 € bail. He was freed on Thursday after questioning by the judge and is charged with perversion of the course of justice, bribery, money laundering, misappropriation of public funds and influence peddling. It’s understood that he has 15 days to pay his bail. Marín Lara left the court in Ronda at around 5pm, five and a half hours after he arrived there under police escort. The six remaining suspects who were arrested on Tuesday have also been released from custody, but all have been charged. Two other people have been questioned at courts in Madrid and Valencia and face similar...

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UK pressure group set up to help Spanish property victims

 While there are similar groups already in existence in Spain, this group is the first of its kind in the UK and aims to raise awareness and pressure the UK Government and MEPs into taking action. Many thousands of Britons are believed to have bought property in Spain and through the actions of various levels of Spanish government, property developers and banks, find themselves unable to enjoy the rights to these properties. The Protection of Property Purchased in Europe (POPPIE) is run by husband and wife team Chris and Angela Beattie, who have first hand experience of the issues that surround buying in Spain. In 2004 they spent €150,000 on an off-plan Andalucian villa that was supposed to back onto a golf course, hotel and villa complex. After a building delay of two years, the house...

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Two British swimmers cross the Strait

 British swimmers, Edward Thedore Cox and Frazer Lloyd-Jones managed to swim across the Strait of Gibraltar on Saturday. A third Briton, Richard Woodrup Skelhorn, had to abandon his attempt halfway, being unable to keep up with the other two. The two successful swimmers, both aged 34, left La Isla de Tarifa at 0910 and arrived at Punta Almansa at 1357, helped by calm seas and weak westerly winds. A Moroccan police patrol inspected the documentation of the participants without any problem on their arrival on the Moroccan coa...

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Arrested man admits to killings on the Costa del Sol

 An alleged serial killer, who has been operating on the Costa del Sol and who is believed to be responsible for the deaths of two women, has been arrested. The crimes were on August 11 and September 10 in Calahonda and San Pedro de Alcántara, and in both cases the women had Spanish nationality but were of Latin American origin, and both were stabbed. Preliminary reports from the autopsies show certain similarities between the crimes. The 42 year old man, who has been revealed to be a foreigner although his nationality has not been announced, was arrested in Mijas, and the man’s mother and girlfriend have also been arrested to determine their possible implication in the crimes. The arrest took place on Friday night in a gymnasium near the suspect’s home in Urbanisation Riviera del...

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FALKLANDS war veteran went on a lavish £1million spending spree after ripping off two gangsters

 FALKLANDS war veteran went on a lavish £1million spending spree after ripping off two gangsters. Ex-Royal Navy officer Dean Priestley had been asked by the crooks to drive the used notes across the Channel to Spain. But instead of sticking to the plan the 47-year-old went on the run and set about leading a life of luxury for six months. Advertisement >> Priestley splashed out on holidays, homes, cars, boats and jewellery as he hid from the villains who put out a hit on him. A court heard the furious crooks, known only as Mull and Steve, vowed to spend £5million hunting him down. The extraordinary case emerged as wife Derry, 48, was convicted of conspiracy to launder money. Her husband was jailed for three and a half years earlier this year after pleading guilty to conspiring...

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Spanish jail-house film shows without on-the-run actor

 A Spanish prison screened a short film made by inmates Friday with one missing ingredient -- a key actor in the jail-house drama is on the run. Inmates spent months making "Guilty", about a murderer haunted by his victim, to show in an annual festival behind bars in Leon, northern Spain, a prison official and media here said. "Among the inmates taking part, there was one in the final stages of his sentence who was allowed out regularly with leave, but who did not come back from one of those leaves," said a prison service spokeswoman. Prisoners completed the film without the missing actor who disappeared at least two months ago, said the spokeswoman for the Secretary General of Penitentiary Institutions. She denied reports he had the leading role. "He may have had some more important...

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Owner of marijuana plantation caused Ibiza fire by negligence

 Spanish man who was arrested for starting the fire which broke out on Ibiza on Sunday night is believed to have started it through negligence while he was caring for his marijuana plantation nearby. Civil Guard sources have told the EFE news agency that the cause is thought to be either a cigarette he was smoking or a fire he had lit to cook food. The suspect had spent the past few days caring for his crop in the area where the blaze broke out. He spent his nights in a home-made shelter and used a nearby cave to dry out his plants. The Civil Guard seized marijuana plants and dried leaves at the site, amounting to almost 6 kilos of the drug. The man now faces additional charges of a public health crime. The fire which began in Cala Llonga and forced hundreds of people to be evacuated...

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Ten Britons arrested in new Ibiza raid against drug traffickers

 The gang dealt in cocaine and designer drugs at the clubs on the island.Britons and an Irishman have been arrested by the Guardia Civil on Ibiza, accused of supplying drugs to discotheques on the island over the summer. The head of the gang was arrested in Manchester where a search of his flat revealed 40,000 pounds sterling and five kilos of cocaine. Information leading to the arrests came from a previous operation carried out at the end of August against other British traffickers on the Baleares, in which there were 13 arrests, nine Britons, three Irish and a Polish man. The Guardia Civil say the groups only operated in the high summer season, and made the use of several homes on the island to store small quantities of drugs which would be distributed within days. The main store...

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Detectives suspect possible serial killer in two murders on the Costa del Sol

 The National Police are working together with the Civil Guard to solve two recent murders on the Málaga coast which La Opinión de Málaga reports officers believe could have been committed by a serial killer. Both victims were women, of a similar age, and were both from South America. They had both taken out Spanish nationality and were both found stabbed to death in properties which were not theirs. The first victim was Susana M.F. from Argentina, whose son found her stabbed to death in a flat in Calahonda, Mijas, on August 11. One month later, on September 10, the body of Maryuru Alice P., a 47 year old woman from Brazil, was discovered in San Pedro de Alcántara, by the owner of the flat where she was found. The autopsy has shown that she died the previous day. Domestic violence...

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Authorities confirmed Monday were captured Saul Solis Solis, aka El Lince, one of the main leaders of the group of Knights Templar.

 The action was carried out by the Mexican Army. The Lynx, is a cousin of Henry Plancarte Solis, also leader of the Knights Templar. The Attorney General's Office offered a reward of up to 15 millions of dollars for information leading to his capture. The action was achieved in the town of Mujica, in the municipality of Nueva Italia, Michoacán. In the raid also arrested Mario Alberto Gallardo Rodríguez, alias El Mayo, and a young chi...

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Gunmen halt traffic, dump 35 bodies on busy downtown avenue in Gulf coast city in Mexico

 Suspected drug traffickers dumped 35 bodies at rush hour beneath a busy overpass in the heart of a major Gulf coast city as gunmen pointed weapons at frightened drivers. Mexican authorities said Wednesday they are examining surveillance video for clues to who committed the crime. Horrified motorists grabbed cell phones and sent Twitter messages warning others to avoid the area near the biggest shopping mall in Boca del Rio, part of the metropolitan area of Veracruz city. 11 Comments Weigh InCorrections? inShare ( no / Associated Press ) - Soldiers and police block off an area where 35 bodies lay under an overpass in Veracruz, Mexico,...

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FIVE HUNDRED MARIJUANA PLANTS FOUND BY BOMBERAS

 Firefighters discovered five hundred marijuana plants on Sunday when they entered a house in Jacarilla to attend a fire. According to sources from the emergency services, the two-storey building was empty when emergency staff arrived at the scene. The Civil Guard is now trying to locate the owner. The marijuana plants were fitted with an irrigation system and lighting for easy cultivation and a spokesman suggested that the flames could have been caused by an electrical short caused by excessive energy consumption. The Bomberas reported that the fire broke out about 2pm on Sundat afternoon and took about an hour to quell the flames and ventilate the building, which had been affected by smo...

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Spanish custom officers seize cigarette packs

 SPANISH customs officers in La Linea de la Concepción seized 2,848 packets of cigarettes last weekend, according to press reports. Contraband tobacco was found hidden in three vehicles crossing the border into Spain from Gibraltar. In a fourth case, the bag of a person walking by the Levante area was searched and was found to be carrying 1,000 packets of contraband tobac...

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Brits arrested for drug trafficking on the Baleares

  The Organised Crime Squad ECO of the Guardia Civil based on Mallorca completed the second part of an operation against drug trafficking on Sunday. The first part of the operation had been started at the end of August. At that time ten Britons were arrested and on Sunday the ECO agents picked up another ten youngsters of the same nationality. Judicial sources say that seven of the ten were sent to prison in Eivissa, on remand, while two were granted bail of 10,000 € and one was released without bail. Reporting restrictions have been imposed in the case. And in a separate case on Saturday the Guardia Civil have arrested a British...

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Mijas Fire NOT arson Bonfire

 BONFIRE not been properly extinguished near a stream in Entrerrios, Mijas, was the cause of the wildfire which started on Sunday (12th September) night destroying a vast stretch of land. This was the conclusion reached by the regional government’s fire investigation unit, Brigada de Investigacion de Incendios Forestales, on Monday (12th September). Remedios Martel, from the Junta de Andalucia, dismissed rumours suggesting the fire was an act of arson. Five homes were damaged, two of which were completely destroyed by the fire. But witnesses say minor damage has affected several other houses in urbanizations including El Soto de Marbella, Elviria, set in a UNESCO designated nature reserve.   Jan Mansi, former president of Phase 2 at El Soto de Marbella Urbanization described...

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Torremolinos shooter pushed wife off Eiffel Tower

 THE man, 79, accused of killing another in Torremolinos town centre served time for pushing his wife off the Eiffel Tower in 1963, according to a Spanish daily. He was 31 at the time, she was 28, and they had emigrated to France and were working in a factory on the outskirts of Paris. Although he denied the accusations, he was sentenced to five years in prison. Last week he was arrested for shooting a man of the same age outside the Entreplazas office building in Torremolinos and has since remanded to prison without bail. Apparently some years ago the victim wanted to sell an apartment and spoke to the other man who found him a buyer, although the transaction did not go ahead at the time, but later, in 2006. The shooter asked for commission and although the victim gave him some...

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Exeter crack cocaine and heroin gang jailed

 Exeter Crown Court was told the LYNC gang boasted of being able to supply drugs in Exeter "all day, every day". The gang used a park at Cowick Barton in the city as its centre of operations. Two men from Greater Manchester - Kevin Newton, 30, and Billy Downing, 22 - were jailed for nine and five-and-a-half years respectively. Three of the gang were from Dawlish in Devon. James Brooks, 32, and 27-year-old John Rowntree were both sentenced to five years, while 22-year-old John Bullock was jailed for 30 months. Cannabis jail supply Lloyd Simpson, 44, from Exeter, was sentenced to six years. James Prince, 22, from Huddersfield was sentenced to 30 months and 28-year-old Anthony McStein, from Liverpool, was jailed for four years. The gang were arrested after being monitored by police...

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West Malling drugs gang sentenced

 gang of four drug dealers have been jailed for conspiring to supply illegal drugs across Kent. Brothers Joseph and Samuel King, Craig Provan and Matthew Newin controlled dealing in towns across Kent from a travellers' site in West Malling. Joseph King, 48, was jailed for 18 years and Samuel King, 47, for seven-and-a-half years at Canterbury Crown Court. Provan, 41, was sentenced to six years, and Newin, 26, to eight years. Joseph King, of Lavender Road, West Malling, and Provan, of The Paddock, Highsted Valley, Rodmersham, were found guilty of conspiracy to supply drugs. King was also convicted of possessing firearms with intent and for possession of criminal property. His brother, of Elm Grove, Sittingbourne, and Newin, of Swanstree Avenue, Sittingbourne, pleaded guilty to conspiracy...

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Expat fraud suspects arrested in Spanish mountain retreat

 According to Spanish local media, police estimate that the couple, known as John and Amanda Treagust, may have netted up to £150,000 by advertising bogus Spanish rental properties, complete with pictures, on their website, Costa Blanca Live. Up to 60 holidaymakers, including Britons, French, Portuguese, Italians and Belgians, are alleged to have fallen for the scam and paid upfront for properties that weren't, in reality, available for rent, or had been rented out to multiple people. The pair ran a blog entitled Life on the Costa Blanca, and boasted of growing their business from a "small project" in 2007 to "a busy and bustling company.....with over five thousand properties managed directly by us, meaning you have the peace of mind that should anything go wrong, or should you have any...

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Thief who swallowed diamond is caught on X-ray

 The theft happened when two British women entered a restaurant in the luxury southern resort of Marbella and one of them left her handbag on the floor by her chair, police said in a statement. "Two well-dressed men came in, one sitting at the bar and the other next to the woman," it said. When the men left, the woman discovered that her handbag, containing 2,000 euros (£1,700) and £400 cash, a mobile phone, a pendant with a diamond worth 12,000 euros (£10,400) and other valuables, had disappeared. Hours later, police stopped a car at a routine checkpoint and found the four occupants had criminal records. Inside the vehicle they also discovered a handbag as well as valuables and cash, which they later identified as belonging to the British woman. All that was missing was the diamond....

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Smuggler Tosses Passengers Off Jet Ski

 Spanish police say a human smuggler trying to sneak two Moroccans into Spain by crossing the Strait of Gibraltar on a jet ski threw them into the water when detected by coastal authorities and that one drowned. A Civil Guard statement Tuesday said the incident happened Sept. 9 near the Spanish town of Tarifa. The Moroccan driver has been charged with negligent manslaughter. One of the travelers managed to swim ashore after being dumped 500 meters from it, but the other did not survive. Spain is a lure for poor North and sub-Saharan Africans because it is Europe's southern gateway. Every year, thousands try to reach the Spanish mainland...

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PORTUGUESE AUTHORITIES SEEK TRIAL OF ALLEGED GIBRALTAR DRUGS DEALERS

 An ongoing investigation dating back well over a year continues after a local man aged 73 was arrested last week and remanded on Friday on the strength of a European Arrest Warrant. On Thursday officers of the RGP arrested Angel Vella of No. 7 Maidstone House. The warrant issued by the Portuguese authorities is for alleged offences of conspiracy to import 6000 kilos of cannabis resin into Portugal. Vella appeared before the Magistrates Court on Friday where he was remanded in custody until September 19. Vella, who was granted legal aid and is represented by Carl Rammage, did not agree to being surrendered to the Portuguese authorities. In court the Portuguese Government was represented by Crown Counsel Karina Khubchand of the International Division EU International Department of the...

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Three Britons face a total of 27 years in prison for drug trafficking

 Málaga Prosecutors’ Office has asked for a total of 27 years in prison for three British men who are accused of trafficking in cocaine. The three, who also face a 3.6 million € fine each, were found with some 15 kilos of the drugs, and one of them is also accused of document falsification for being found with fake passports. The value of the drugs intervened has been estimated at 900,000 €. Europa Press reports that the provisional conclusions of the prosecutor reveal that one of the men was caught by the National Police in Alsasua, Navarra ‘when he was transporting 15 packets of the drug in a rucksack, while driving an articulated lorry. The prosecution alleges that the transport had been agreed with the other two Britons, and the three had intended to sell the drugs to a third party....

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Spanish police said their criminal assets agency was investigating properties worth millions including a holiday resort in Brazil.

 Dissident republican crime gangs in Dublin have split and are feuding in ways similar to the bloody factionalising of the remnants of the terror group the Irish National Liberation Amy (INLA) in the late Eighties and Nineties. Since former Real IRA man Liam Kenny, 53, was shot dead at his home in Chapelizod, Dublin, in June a series of serious incidents including several attempted murders have taken place. Kenny, a former Provisional IRA member had been a member of the Real IRA in Dublin but fell out with other members after it split acrimoniously into two factions in the city. Last Wednesday, an associate of Kenny's, Frank Nolan, 49,...

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Spanish warship rescues French hostage from pirates

 Troops from a Spanish warship stormed a pirate skiff in the Gulf of Aden Saturday and rescued a French hostage missing from her yacht but found no trace of her husband, the EU anti-piracy mission said. As a helicopter kept watch overhead, naval commandos in a fast launch fired on the skiff to disable its engine. The boat sank, but the hostage was rescued and seven pirates were arrested unharmed, the Spanish defence ministry said. "She was the only hostage on board the skiff. Her husband was not on board," EU naval spokesman Captain Paul Gelly told AFP, confirming the rescued hostage was Evelyne Colombo, wife and crewmate of missing sailor Christian Colombo. "She is safe and sound," he said, explaining that Colombo and the detained pirates are now on board the Spanish ship. A German warship,...

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Spanish police have smashed the drug ring that is believed to have supplied Kenley teenager Jodie Nieman with the ecstasy

 Spanish police have smashed the drug ring that is believed to have supplied Kenley teenager Jodie Nieman with the ecstasy tablet that probably killed her. Mark Adrian Whitley, 39 from Croydon, was among 13 suspected drug dealers arrested by police last Thursday in Ibiza where the 19-year-old died in July. Spanish police confirmed the majority of the pills seized in the raids were Pink Rock Star, the same type believed to have killed Miss Nieman. It is thought the dodgy pills were also responsible for poisoning eight other individuals in Ibiza over the summer. Police said the drug ring was the biggest British group operating on the island and had now been "completely dismantled". Officers from Spain’s Civil Guard, supported by British officers from the Serious Organised Crime Agency,...

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Kicking in shop windows. Setting a police car on fire. Clashes with police. Tottenham? Hackney? Brixton? No. Lloret de Mar on the Costa Brava.

 Kicking in shop windows. Setting a police car on fire. Clashes with police. Tottenham? Hackney? Brixton? No. Lloret de Mar on the Costa Brava. Last month police fired rubber bullets – but not at rioting Spaniards but at drunk foreigners. After two nights of riots that dragged on until the early hours, there were 20 injured, including nine police officers, and 20 arrests. Significantly – in a city of 40,000 with 25 discos, 261 bars and approximately a million tourists a year – all those detained were foreigners. Now, it’s only a small minority of Spanish resorts that have this problem with drunk foreigners and for every Lloret del Mar, there are hundreds of other resorts where peace reigns. But we have to remember that it was the British, after all, who created many of the bars...

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The alleged killers of a British teenager stabbed to death at a holiday resort in the Costa Brava have been extradited to face justice in Spain.

Andrew Milroy, 15, died of a single knife wound to the chest in the seaside town of Lloret de Mar on July 17.Police named the suspects only as Remi Romai A. and Jeremy P. - a plumber and a mechanic both aged 21.Andrew Milroy and two friends had tried to break up a 3.30am brawl between a gang of young French tourists. But instead, the youths turned on them in a shopping centre in the resort popular with thousands of British holidaymakers every year, it is alleged.A nearby hotel security guard called police after being alerted by the boys' friends. When ambulance workers arrived, they found Mr Milroy lying in a pool of blood in an alleyway...

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Brit was arrested in Sant Antoni, Ibiza

Local police in Sant Antoni, Ibiza, say that a British man has been arrested in connection with counterfeit money. Named with the initials J.G. he is charged with the crime of falsification of money and was arrested after he tried to use counterfeit notes to pay at a venue in the West End part of the town. Local traders supplied the police with a description of the man who they finally tracked down. They recovered fake notes worth 1,100 pounds sterling and 1,310 €. The Briton has been taken to the local police station in Sant Atoni and is expected to appear in court shortl...

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Two Britons arrested on Ibiza on charges of attempted murder

 The two are accused of stabbing a fellow Briton five times in a drug related argument.Photo EFE Two British men, 30 year old S.D., and 22 year old D.R.S., were arrested by the Guardia Civil in Sant Antoni, Ibiza, on Tuesday afternoon on charges of attempted murder. They are accused of stabbing a 19 year old Briton on Monday afternoon when arguing about a drug-related matter. Initial reports said that the victim was Irish, but he has now been named as Jack McCarthy from Liverpool. One of the five stab wounds punctured the victim’s lung, and a third saw a cut to his cheek. The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office confirmed that it...

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British man shot in Arona hold-up

 British man, aged 58, was injured in an armed hold-up of a currency exchange shop in Arona, on the south of Tenerife, on Tuesday morning. It happened on the Paseo de Las Tosqueras in Playa de Las Américas, shortly before 9am. The injured man is named as Dennis in reports, and it’s understood that he works in the store and was shot in the right arm by the gunman. He is now under hospital treatment with an entry and exit wound in his arm from a 22 calibre weap...

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British couple arrested for holiday rentals scam on the Costa Blanca

 British couple resident in Mojácar have been arrested by the Civil Guard for an alleged holiday rentals scam which is believed to have brought them profits of more than 150,000 €. Europa Press reports that the pair advertised properties available for short term let on the Costa Blanca which were not in fact available for rent but were occupied by their legitimate owners. The couple, who are named as John Anthony T., aged 41, and 37 year old Amanda Jane T., advertised online on several sites with photographs and descriptions of each of the properties. Their victims, which the Civil Guard said could number more than 60 in the UK, Portugal, France, Italy and Belgium, made the bookings online and were then contacted by email by the property management company. There was however no further...

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Irishman stabbed on Ibiza

 19 year old was attacked by two men, thought to be British, in what is thought to be a drug-related attackArchive Photo EFE A 19 year old Irish man, named as Jack McCarthy, was stabbed four times in the back and once below one of his eyes in an attack on Monday in Sant Antoni, Ibiza. It happened at 4pm in Calle Barcelona, and it’s thought that the man was ambushed by two others, thought to be British. One of the stab wounds perforated a lung, and the victim is now being treated in the Can Misses Hospital. The latest hospital statement says that he is making progress and is stable although serious. Tuesday morning the youngster wanted to discharge himself, but the doctors advised the duty Guardia and they have kept him under treatment. The Sant Antoni local police say that they...

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