Drugs laboratory was broken in the suburb of Molinos Marfagones

In Puerto de Mazarrón, a major case involves the alleged smuggling of huge quantities of drugs coming in from North Africa. The criminal activities are said to have involved drugs being carried by large vessels sailing up the Mediterranean. The drugs were then dropped off onto fishing boats which brought them into Puerto de Mazarrón. The network is said to have been operated by a Spanish-Moroccan group. In Operation Toroyano a fishing boat carrying drugs was intercepted close to the shoreline. The boat sunk but suspects who dived in the water trying to escape were later arrested suffering from hypothermia. Navy divers have now succeeded in recovering 1,785 kilos of hashis from the sunken fishing boat to bring the total amount of drugs seized in the operation up to 2,600 kilos. Organised crime gangs that attack homes, petrol stations and businesses have been a particular target for Guardia Civil Action. This month a major operation, code named Centry, saw the Guardia break up a gang that had been attacking locations throughout the Costa del Sol. A total of 19 people were arrested and another six are being sought. The suspects are thought to be responsible for more than 300 crimes, including robberies with violence at domestic properties, document falsification, drug trafficking, crimes using stolen credit cards and conspiracy. The Guardia targeted the suspects by studying documentation seized in several raids. The gang was identified as being made up of 14 Algerians, six Spanish, Four Morrocans and one French person. The gang was divided into three cells directed by an Algerian head based in Malaga. In and around Cieza, in Murcia, the Guardia Civil carried out three operations which resulted in the recent arrest of five people thought to be involved in 21 robberies with violence at homes. A major operation took place in Cartagena recently when some 40 officers of the National Police swarmed the streets of the suburb of Lo Campana in an anti-drugs operation targeted at three families said to be drug traffickers in control of a large part of the illegal market. The three families are said to have cooperated closely and offered drugs on a menu system with fixed prices. Additionally, a drugs laboratory was broken in the suburb of Molinos Marfagones. In Muricia City it was the Guardia Civil that was in action again in a big crackdown on suspected drug traders that involved many agents and a helicopter. Again, a clan is suspected at being at the heart of the alleged network. As well as arresting suspects officers also took away a monkey that was being held illegally. Crime committed by gangs from Eastern Europe causes particular concern as their attacks are often very violent and ruthless. They attack homes, bars and businesses with great speed and efficiency, terrorizing the victims. This month National Police agents smashed one gang with the arrest of 15 people. Twelve are Romanian, Two Albanian and one Moroccan. The gang is accused of targeting homes and offices in the provinces of Alicante and Murcia. More than 20 robberies are said by police to have been committed by this gang in each province. A great deal of stolen property, including jewellery, watches, audiovisual equipment, industrial equipment and four vehicles has been recovered.

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Málaga courts for The Malaya corruption case

The Málaga courts are preparing already for the case with the setting up of a new penal section and the employment of more civil servants. The hearing will take place at the new ‘Ciudad de la Justicia’ and so far has 86 accused, bringing with them 100 lawyers. Some 600 witnesses will be called during the duration of the case, which is expected to last for more than a year. The Malaya corruption case is set to see the main hearing open in the Málaga Provincial Court in the spring of next year. The rest of this year will be taken up with the closing of the instruction stage of the case, and magistrates say that any appeals resulting from that should be resolved in six months. Some magistrates have said the case should be heard in the Málaga Congress Hall, given the size of the proceedings, but the Junta de Andalucía has said that the new Justice City currently has 800 square metres not in use, which could see a new large court built in time.

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Pascuale Ferrato, an Italian kitchen cabinet installer, took his own life after killing his 45-year-old Belgian-born wife

49-year-old man died Friday after apparently throwing himself off the second-storey balcony of his apartment in Los Olivos de Adeje in Tenerife where police later discovered the blood-soaked bodies of his wife and two children, authorities said at the weekend.Investigators suspect that Pascuale Ferrato, an Italian kitchen cabinet installer, took his own life after killing his 45-year-old Belgian-born wife, his seven-year-old son and his four-year-old daughter. All three were found stabbed to death in the apartment.

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Roman Stanislaw Szalachowski, a 40-year-old Polish man, to six years in prison for killing one of his five housemates

On Tuesday, a judge in Alcalá de Henares, northeast of Madrid, sentenced Roman Stanislaw Szalachowski, a 40-year-old Polish man, to six years in prison for killing one of his five housemates, the Ukranian Mykola Stelmakh, on April 10, 2004, and hiding the body for almost two weeks before disposing of it.
An argument about who was going to do the household chores ended in murder and the subsequent quartering of a housemate's body for convenient disposal.
According to testimony during the trial, an argument broke out because Stelmakh "did not cooperate in the household chores."Then Szalachowski, who was drunk, "began to punch and kick the victim in the face, head and abdomen."Next he took him to the yard behind the house, where he went on beating him, and tied a cord around his neck, attaching one end of it to an iron set in the wall.
"Szalachowski raised his head from the ground and held it in the air," killing his housemate, in the words of the sentence released on Tuesday. Szalachowski's rage did not end there. The convicted man "moved the body to a tool shed and left it there, covering it with a board." There it remained until 19 April, more than a week after the murder.Then Szalachowski hacked the body into pieces to dispose of it. He separated the head from the trunk, cutting off the arms and the lower part of the legs. During the night of 20 April, Szalachowski "put the trunk in a sports bag, and dumped it in a garbage bin near the house." The next day, at six in the morning, he disposed of the rest, dropping it in another garbage bin about 200 metres away from the house.Six hours later, about noon, two women found the remains in the bin, when they lifted the lid and saw a man's head inside. Shocked, they ran to a nearby cafeteria and called the police.Two days later the police arrested the five housemates of the victim, including Szalachowski, who turned out to be the killer.
During the trial, the man confessed his crime.
The judge gave him a six-year prison sentence after ruling that his intoxicated state was an extenuating circumstance."His intellectual and volitional faculties were seriously impaired due to the previous consumption of alcoholic beverages," was the judge's reasoning.

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Demolition orders are being served on unwitting home-owners across the region.

Antonio Banderas actor and his wife Melanie Griffith have had a demolition order served on their luxurious Marbella beach house.
But it is only one wing of their home La Gaviota, in Los Monteros, that is in for the chop.Their appeal against an original 2003 ruling to demolish the newer wing, which impinges on public beach land, has been rejected.Now their neighbours are insisting that the sentence of the High Court be carried out. The celebrity pair were accused of encroaching on public land despite having received planning permission for the extension in 1995 from Marbella town hall. At the same time more than 300 residents of Mijas have joined together to fight demolition orders on their homes.The group, who number a few expatriates, has been threatened with fines of up to 180,000 euros.In total some 3000 fines have been issued by Mijas town hall.Some of those affected are old and unaware of the latest demands of urban planning laws in the area. Many have also failed to get their projects signed off by either the Junta or water board.A number, such as one man in the Macorra area, built a small home despite being refused permission by the town hall many times.Juan Antonio Ruiz applied to build a tool shed next to the house his father owned in 1996.But, like many homes, built with this type of licence, it turned into a fully-fledged home.
In 2000, he received the first of three official complaint against the home and he has finally been ordered to knock it down, at a cost of 12,000 euros.He is also awaiting confirmation of the fine he will have to pay, but it is likely to be around 65,000 euros.At the same time a large group of illegal houses is to be demolished in the village of La Chorrosquina, near Algeciras.The 30 houses have been built without proper paperwork on the outskirts of the town.The moves have come after new rules were agreed at a high level Junta meeting in November.
The regional authority is now even beginning to carry out the forced demolition of homes built with permissions from local town halls, which have later been found to be illegally built on protected land. Hundreds of miles of illegally built houses face demolition in Spain with many of them belonging to British owners. The illegally built developments are on 480 miles of Mediterranean coast from Barcelona in the north to Marbella in the south, including the Balearic and Canary islands.
It is anticipated that over one million Britons live in Spain for part of or all of the year, having purchased tens of thousands of holiday homes along the shoreline.
Spanish law says beaches are public property and construction is banned within 100 metres of the coastline, however, this has clearly been ignored by builders and local authorities. Government officials are to negotiate with home owners and regional authorities over the sale of illegal properties rather than expropriate them.
There is uncertainty over whether homes are safe as the government has refused to give details. One government official said mass demolition will not take place, it will be done on a case-by-case basis.
Officials still need permission of Spain’s powerful regional governments and town halls, however, there are concerns that the plans will hurt British investment in the area.

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Club Class Holidays offering cheap luxury breaks which buyers claim fail to materialise.

Club Class Holidays, based in Fuengirola, is reported to be taking between 3,000 and 30,000 euros to join holiday clubs offering cheap luxury breaks which buyers claim fail to materialise.The company, which has links to former timeshare salesman Costa Killer Tony King, uses a training manual that teaches staff how to crudely fool customers.In a sales manual for staff, trainees are told to treat customers “as if they have the intelligence of 10-year-olds” and to use “bribery, intimidation and lies” to get customers to the presentations in the first place.Middle-aged and elderly couples are the main targets of the holiday-club sharks, who promise a lifetime of five-star hotels anywhere in the world at knockdown prices.But instead of a dream holiday in the Caribbean, they are being offered low-grade hotels and apartments on the Costa del Sol that can be bought just as cheaply at any travel agent.Other buyers find they cannot choose holiday dates and are committed to annual subscriptions even if they do not go away.
In a ruse identical to the timeshare salesmen, many victims are approached while on holiday by sales reps who give them scratchcards saying they have won a bottle of champagne or a free holiday.To collect the “prize” they must attend a presentation, which turns into a high-pressure sales pitch lasting five or six hours.
Consumer watchdogs are so concerned about the hard-sell tactics used by some club reps that they are leafleting UK and foreign airports warning holidaymakers about the one-billion-euro-a-year business.David and Lesley Sylvester, both 60, from Derbyshire, in the UK, agreed to go on a cut-price £99, one-week holiday to Tenerife.As part of the deal, they had to attend a five-hour sales presentation by agents representing a company called Club Class Concierge - and ended up handing over thousands of pounds.“The next morning we recognised its implausibility and asked for our money back,” said David.But unlike timeshare sales, where clients can cancel within 14 days, the Sylvesters say there was no cooling-off period, and they could not cancel.The couple paid £10,050 to join a holiday scheme called Estrella Dorada Mediterrenees.When they tried a “castle holiday” in Austria, they were taken to a rundown students’ hostel in Vienna.They have now successfully taken the company to court in Barcelona, where a judge ruled the couple should get a refund.New EU laws recently announced by the European Commission will bring holiday clubs into line with rules that now protect timeshare buyers – but these will not come into force until 2010.Steve Wright, 48, signed a £5,000 deal with a company called Designer Way Vacation Club, after attending a sales presentation in Huddersfield.
He said: “I was fortunate because I found out in time and I wrote off the £950 deposit.”British members of the Designer Way Vacation Club, operating in the Canary Islands, were charged between £8,000 and £12,000 for a website “key” giving them access to “huge” discounts.Instead, they mostly got normal online travel agencies whose offers they could have found themselves on the internet.The UK’s Office of Fair Trading reckons 400,000 Britons get sucked into holiday-club scams every year.
Sandy Grey, of the Timeshare Consumers’ Association, said: “I would urge people not to go anywhere near these scams.”No one was available to comment at the Spanish HQ of Designer Way Vacation Club.Both Club Class and Designer Way have close links to timeshare millionaire Garry Leigh, who is the brother in law and former employer of Costa Killer Tony King.
Leigh, who has been operating on the Costa del Sol for over a decade, has a shady past.His companies are well-known to the Office of Fair Trading.
Leigh started making his fortune in the 1990s, when he and his father, Tom, ran a Yorkshire-based pyramid-selling scheme called the FPW Club.
They advertised with the slogan ‘Turn £140 into £600 as many times as you like! It’s as simple as that! No catch, no limits.’
Garry and his father reportedly tricked 8,500 investors out of more than £8 million before the Department of Trade & Industry won a court order to stop them.
One of his companies, Matchoption Ltd, went bust owing £300,000. His “silent backers” are said to include notorious Costa gangsters Dennis New and Mohammed Derbah, who helped him get his early Spanish scams off the ground.
It is a dirty business that saw Leigh’s Málaga offices teargassed in 2002 and Leigh seriously injured by knife-wielding thugs.His Incentive Leisure office in Fuengirola in southern Spain is a large impressive building.Leigh and co-director Kim Bambroffe turn up in luxury Bentley cars.
In a recent investigation, the Sunday Mirror claims workers were told to treat customers as practically subhuman.
The bible of shame instructs staff to “sell the sizzle not the sausage” and refers to customers as “UPs” - industry slang for gullible punters.

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Court investigation into the false Bills which were issued during the GIL administration in Marbella

Ángeles Muñoz, the Partido Popular Mayor of Marbella, presented a document at a press conference on Tuesday, which comes from the Tribunal de Cuentas, the National Court of Auditors, and is their report on Town Hall accounts between 1991 and 2006. It covers the time when the town was run by first the GIL Party, and then by the tripartite government led by Marisol Yagüe, with the Partido Andalucista, and former members of GIL and PSOE.The court notes hundreds of millions transferred to municipal companies without any type of controlEFE notes that the report highlights payments made for building work which had either already been previously completeor had not been carried out, and also noted prices paid well above the market price. Property expropriations were also well below market price. The court said 653 million € was transferred to municipal companies during that time ‘without any type of control,’ and conclude that those years of government saw ‘the structuring of an administrative organisation which allowed funds to be misappropriated from Marbella Town Hall,’ with the governing team at the Town Hall abusing their majority position on municipal bodies to do so.Other irregularities noted in this damning document include contracting of personnel and staffing levels, the lack of any specific budgets, and negotiating planning agreements with property which no longer belonged to the Town Hall.There was news earlier this month of a new court investigation into the false Bills which were issued during the GIL administration in Marbella, where three ghost companies invoiced the Town Hall for work which was never carried out. The investigating judge has already charged ten people for misuse of public funds and forgery.

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House Jacking in Ciudad Quesada

A gang of robbers broke into the home of 80 year-old promoter Justo Quesada in Ciudad Quesada, while he and his wife were in the house. The gang of at least 3 men threatened a guard on duty at the house with a pistol, which allowed them to gain entry and once inside they stole 30,000€ in cash plus other valuables. Fortunately nobody was injured at the hands of the gang, which is believed to be the same band of foreigners which have struck recently at San Miguel and Almoradí. on 15th January an armed gang of 8 entered a house in San Miguel and threatened the occupants and their children in order to steal jewellery and cash. The same bunch are thought to have been responsible for a robbery in Almoradí on 1st February, when a woman, alone in her house with her children, was injured after resisting the robbers, who stole jewellery and other items of value

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‘El Ardilla’ (The Squirrel). Major Drugs Gang Arrested In Torrellano

National Police raided a house in Torrellano used by an organised gang which distributed drugs throughout the province of Alicante and the surrounding regions. The same house was attacked 2 years ago, almost to the day, by another gang from France, which resulted in the death of one of the attackers.The police raid resulted in the detention of 9 gang members, including it’s leader Enrique C, known as ‘El Ardilla’ (The Squirrel). A search of the premises revealed a cache of firearms of various descriptions, 1.6 kilos of cocaine, a kilo of hashish and other drug related paraphernalia, plus 26,000€ in cash. Two jackets bearing the crest of the Guardia Civil were also found, which may have been used by the gang in attacks on their rivals. A stranger item found was a coffin – in a raid on the same premises some years ago, a live deer was found inside! All the drugs were hidden underneath the house and were located by a police drugs dog.The police had been tracking the gang for some time and built up a picture of it’s structure, which was well organised in pyramid form, with precise orders relating to it’s operations passing from it’s leader down through the various branches which dealt respectively with the transport, distribution, sales and packaging of drugs. Security measures it used made it the police operation very difficult but they gradually built their case before striking.
The house is one of two on a finca in Torrellano, where accommodation was provided for gang members by El Ardilla and his family. The nine people arrested are aged between 27 and 44, three of whom come from Alicante and 2 from Elche. After appearing before a court, El Ardilla and his son were remanded in custody while the other 7 were given bail.

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60 suspects have so far been called in for the final round of declarations in Marbella

Marisol Yagüe,ex Mayor of Marbella was the first suspect to appear before the Malaya judge, Óscar Pérez, on Monday, in his final round of court declarations before the corruption case is handed over to the provincial court in Málaga for trial. As with all the suspects who will appear before the judge, Yagüe was formally notified of the charges against her, but, in her case, refused to answer any questions.Also before the judge on Monday was the former Deputy Mayor, Isabel García Marcos, who told journalists as she left that she has nothing to hide, and said her former colleagues who appeared were optimistic and unworried, because ‘they can at last express themselves and because what they say is noted down, not what is invented.’ She spoke of the judge as a ‘professional with manners,’ which she referred to as an ‘important difference.’ The EFE news agency interpreted that as a comparison with his predecessor at the head of the Malaya case, Judge Miguel Ángel Torres.Four former Marbella councillors were also in court on Monday, and another six come before Óscar Pérez on Tuesday. It is the first time that defence lawyers have the chance to ask questions or to request new evidence.It’s understood that around 60 suspects have so far been called in for the final round of declarations.

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1.5 million € Armed Robbery in Puerto Banus

Three armed men waved pistols as they attacked a Jewelery Store 'Boutique Tourbillón'in upmarket Puerto Banus close to Marbella. the home of the superrich. The armed robbers overpowered the security gaurd in a well planned Hiest.They stripped the fitting of jewellery and watches.1.5 million € worth of top name watches have been stolen from a jewellers in Puerto Banús, Marbella, according to police sources. Three or four people, thought to be from Eastern Europe, took part in the attack after smashing the windows of the establishment with large hammers. The National Police in Marbella are now investigating the robbery and are waiting to see the recordings from security cameras in operation in the area.It happened around noon yesterday and the thieves were armed with pistols which may have been fake. They wore hats and large sunglasses and managed to overpower the security guard at the Boutique Tourbillon in Muelle Ribera before he could react. He was unhurt in the attack.
It all took a few minutes and the men escaped in a large car on the A7 motorway direction Málaga.

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Spanish society’s sick and tired of crime and corruption

In Spain, the crime rate is obviously on the rise under the Zapatero Administration. While the ones in charge mess around with conveniently fabricated numbers and statistics, one thing has become increasingly clear. In recent years, Spaniards have started to feel more and more insecure, not only out in the streets, but within their own homes. Facing the passivity of this Administration, Spaniards see a sort of quiet terror settling in which will most likely escalate.
For one thing, the downtown areas of the big cities are breaking down at a remarkable rate. In the name of multiculturalism and coexistence, entire neighborhoods are becoming black holes of crime, prostitution, drug trafficking, and consumption, as well as mafia-style contracts. It is no longer about petty theft or misdemeanors; we speak about real crime in the middle of the streets, wild assaults to jewelers, gang raids. The law of the jungle reigns; police stations are jammed with complaints pressing charges; officers cannot cope with the load. In addition to the lack of human resources and equipment, there is legal apathy; never before had it been so clear the feeling of a legal revolving door.

On the other hand, crime has gone out of control in qualitative and quantitative fashion outside downtown areas. It is characterized by violence with no limits; it is no longer about sneaking into houses, and running away with the booty, but instead entering forcibly to torture and murder in order to reap maximum benefits. Some housing developments in Madrid’s surrounding areas already live in fear, and rightly so; the citizens know intuitively that, when facing paramilitary assaults, they lack access to adequate security measures.
The Guardia Civil (Civil Guard) cannot keep up with the task of patrolling extensive rural areas. Given the circumstances, this body’s performance has been better than expected; gangs take advantage of the scarce human resources and equipment available, they rely on preparation, money and lack of scruples. Without the necessary means, the security forces always come out on the losing end. Facing the passivity of this Administration during all the legislative term, there are more crimes every day, and each time they become more violent. The autonomous communities try to lessen with great difficulty this untenable situation. Thus, the government winning in March will undoubtedly have to undertake the necessary reforms.
The next administration must equip the National Police and Guardia Civil with the necessary means and human resources to fight this type of crime. They should spare no effort. In addition, it is urgent to reform the law in order to adapt it to this new reality. We must speed up judicial proceedings, take a tougher stance on the matter of sentencing till the bitter end, or proceed to deport all foreign criminals with expediency; these are necessary measures. Between Alonso and Rubalcaba we have lost four years. Regardless of what new policy is put in place, it will have arrived late. However, if the next Administration puts its nose to the grindstone and makes a real effort, it will not be too late to reverse the situation.

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Special Forces of Arturo Beltran

soldiers seized 23.5 tonnes of cocaine – enough for about 200 million lines of the drug – in the world's biggest ever cocaine bust. It was destroyed in a public bonfire. Calderon is hoping his crackdown will bring his administration rewards from the US, which has frequently urged its southern neighbour to be more aggressive against drug mafias. The US Congress is debating a $1.4 billion anti-drug aid proposal for Mexico, including high-tech phone-tapping equipment and possibly Black Hawk helicopters.The proposal has been tacked onto a bill requesting more funding for US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Calderon argues the US government has a responsibility to help out because US drug users fund the traffickers - analysts estimate that Mexican drug trade to the US is worth around $10 billion to $30 billion a year.Most of the weapons fuelling the bloodshed are also bought in US gun stores and smuggled south over the Rio Grande."How are we supposed to confront these guys if they come at us? We need the army to wipe them out"Osiel Mendoza, Mexico City police officer
"It's a bi-national problem," said a senior US drug official in Mexico who withheld his name for security reasons. "It's an extremely bloody uphill battle. Narco-organisations have a developed infrastructure. It is being threatened and we are seeing their brutal response."However, critics worry that Black Hawks or other such tools given to Mexico could fall into the wrong hands. In the last two decades, hundreds of police, soldiers and politicians have been convicted of working for the cartels. One entire unit of army special forces deserted in the late 1990s to form a paramilitary commando called the Zetas, who work as bloody enforcers for the Gulf Cartel. Their rival, the Sinaloa Cartel, imitated their paramilitary style by training hundreds of would be enforcers in special weapons and tactics. After years of beheadings and reprisal massacres, these two cartels recently reached a truce, only to turn their wrath on the federal government, according to Mexican and US drug officials.The level of firepower of the drug gangs has been shown in raids on cartel safe houses in recent weeks. Police stormed one middle-class Mexico City home to find 30 guns, 12 grenade launchers, 30 grenades and more than 40 bullet-proof jackets with the initials FEDA – a Spanish acronym for "Special Forces of Arturo Beltran", an alleged drug gang leader.A raid on a Tijuana warehouse used by a cartel for training even unearthed a shooting range and assault course.Low ranking police officers complain they are outgunned and are risking their lives for salaries which are as low as $600 per month."How are we supposed to confront these guys if they come at us?" Osiel Mendoza, a Mexico City police officer, said to Al Jazeera.
"We need the army to wipe them out."

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Hashish had come from Tetuan in Morocco, shipped over from Safi or Tan Tan

While the debate over bugging continues in the UK, police in Tenerife make no bones about the advantages of tapping not one but twenty telephones, which was the case last week when it helped them bust a gang of local and Moroccan traffickers in Güímar.
The police swooped as the men were in the act of transferring 1,100 kilos of hashish in a van to a safe house.Hashish had come from Tetuan in Morocco, shipped over from Safi or Tan Tan and had been offloaded somewhere along the south Tenerife coast.

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Alicante death alley Bandidos evicted

Police moved into one of the highest crime areas of Alicante on Monday, the Barrio del Carmen in the North of the city, to evict 65 homes which El País newspaper said had been illegally occupied. The area is known locally as the ‘callejon de la muerte,’ – ‘death alley,’ and is, according to police sources quoted by El País, a known haven for drug traffickers.The paper reports some moments of tension as police – more than a hundred officers in total - put up three metre high fencing to stop anyone going back in, and oversaw the removal of furniture from the flats. Four people were arrested.The Valencia Housing Institute, who built the blocks eight years ago, have announced a renovation programme of 3 million €.

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Ciudad de la Luz film studios investigation by European Commission

Public funding of the Ciudad de la Luz film studios in Alicante is under scrutiny by the European Commission, who have announced an in-depth investigation to determine if funding from the Generalitat de Valencia, the regional government, could have distorted competition between European studios. It follows complaints from two film companies in Europe, and there are concerns that the Generalitat’s investment could have violated European regulations on state aid. Brussels said the Ciudad de la Luz complex is wholly owned by a company which is itself owned by the Valencia government through the Sociedad de Proyectos Temáticos de la Comunitat Valencia.
The European Commissioner for Competition, Neelie Kroes, said in a statement released to the press that the studios have so far received 200 million € of public money, and pointed out that the final amount could be higher once construction is complete. The EC said the Spanish authorities’ argument is that the public support was not state aid as a private investor would have invested on the same terms: the statement adds that the Commission, ‘doubts that a private investor would have provided 100% funding for such a new large-scale entrant in a competitive market.’
The latest Asterix movie, Asterix at the Olympic Games, was shot at the Ciudad de la Luz, and premiered in Spain earlier this month.

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La Viñuela Bandidos give us 6,000 € and 12,000 € or else

Residents of the village of La Viñuela in the Axarquía, Málaga province are receiving a letter from the local socialist-controlled town hall, which asks them for the payment of what is called a ‘voluntary tax’ so that their illegally-built property can be declared legal. The amount being requested is between 6,000 € and 12,000 €.Most of the people affected are British and German, and they have said that they will create a protest group to defend their rights and to denounce what they describe as this odd system of paying tax. Some 300 people attended a protest meeting at the El Camping restaurant next to the reservoir last week to set up the protest group.PP spokesman in the Town Hall, Francisco González, said that around 50 British residents had received the letters over recent days, and that some of them had paid already, in cash or by cheque. He said that fear had led many to hand over their savings. González said the amount requested was supposed to be inline with the size of the property concerned, but it seemed to have been set more arbitrarily according to the wealth of the family concerned.The letters are dated from the time the illegal building started, and show the Town Hall official stamp, but are not signed by any individual, nor do they have a return address.
La Opinion de Málaga reports that such letters would lack any judicial value in the legalisation of the properties

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hashish flavoured lollipops believed to contain THC, the psychoactive substance in cannabis.

Alhaurín shop sold ‘marijuana lollipops’ A complaint last week in Alhaurín de la Torre took a surprising twist when officers discovered that the alleged dealer, a local shop owner, was selling not only bags of marijuana but also hashish flavoured lollipops believed to contain THC, the psychoactive substance in cannabis.

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Paddy Doyles post mortem examination body riddled with a total of 15 bullets

Spanish press reports that Detectives are now trying to establish a link between the murder of Paddy Doyle and Tuesday’s haul of 115 kilos of cocaine, also in Estepona. Following a series of clues found after Monday’s shooting the Costa del Sol Drugs and Organised Crime Unit (Udyco) set up a number of controls in the Estepona area. On Tuesday officers approached a group of people moving furniture around. On inspecting the pieces, ranging from wardrobes to sofas, they discovered the 115 kilos of cocaine hidden in secret compartments inside. Seven people, six British and one Irish, were arrested. One of them was a minor.
Later on Tuesday the police searched the home of one of the suspects arrested during the drugs raid, a villa with two swimming pools, on an Estepona estate. There officers confiscated around 80,000 euros in cash, a firearm and a number of documents. Another two people were arrested in this search, including a Moroccan woman and another minor, taking the total number of suspects in custody up to nine.
The post mortem examination,revealed that Doyle had been riddled with a total of 15 bullets.

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Gary Hutch, was driving the vehicle that came under attack during the shooting.

Spanish police are investigating possible links between a cocaine seizure on the Costa del Sol yesterday and the murder of Irish drug dealer Patrick Doyle.
Eight men, including one Irishman, were arrested following the seizure of 115kg of the drug close to where Doyle was shot dead on Monday in Estepona.
Spanish officials say the men in custody may have links to the murder.
They also believe the 27-year-old Dubliner was shot dead by rival drugs traffickers in Spain rather than as a result of an Irish gangland feud.
Meanwhile, an Irishman who was with Doyle at the time of his murder is understood to have come forward to the police.
Gary Hutch, a nephew of the top Dublin criminal Gerry 'the Monk' Hutch, was driving the vehicle that came under attack during the shooting.
He was reportedly injured in the incident

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Patrick Doyle shot all the hallmarks of a professional assassination.

Patrick Doyle, 27, from Portland Row in Dublin, was gunned down after the car in which he was a passenger was ambushed. Doyle, who had been travelling in the car with Gary Hutch and Freddie Thompson, two Drimnagh gang members also well known to gardaí, was shot twice in the head in what had all the hallmarks of a professional assassination.
Garda sources said they suspect the killing was part of a violent Dublin feud, but have not ruled out the theory he may have been targeted by a foreign drug gang. Gardaí fear the shooting will lead to further violence in the Crumlin-Drimnagh feud, which has already claimed at least nine lives since 2001. Gardaí were already on alert following the assassination attempt on crime figure Martin Foley on January 26. Yesterday’s gun attack happened in broad daylight in the town of Cancelada, in the resort area of Estepona, on the Costa del Sol at 2.15pm, Spanish time. Gary Hutch, the nephew of a former Irish crime boss, was driving the car. Another car pulled up beside them and its occupants opened fire. It is understood there were five shots. Four hit the windscreen and a fifth hit the passenger door. Doyle was in the front passenger seat. The driver struck a lamppost, with reports suggesting he received injuries. All three men got out of the car, but Garda sources said the attackers ran after Doyle and shot him twice in the head. The other two escaped. The victim was himself a suspect for two of the murders in the Crumlin feud, that of Joseph Rattigan in July 2002 and Noel Roche in November 2005. He fled the country after Roche’s murder. He is thought to have killed Roche after the rival gang shot dead his close friend Darren Geoghegan, and another man, Gavin Byrne, days earlier. He was described by Garda sources as a violent and vicious individual. Gardaí said Doyle had established himself as a significant drug trafficker in Spain and was involved in shipping large quantities of cannabis, cocaine and heroin from Spain into England and Ireland.

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Firsts reports indicate that a British Man has died in a shooting incident in Estepona

British man was shot in the head after a bullets were fired at the car he was travelling in Estepona today. It happened at 2pm in Calle Mejorana in the Bel Air urbanisation in Cancelada, and National Police are still at the scene. The order to remove the body was granted at 3,20pm, and police found a four wheel drive vehicle at the scene with five gunshots, four in the windscreen and one in the front passenger door.
The victim, aged 25-30 was travelling in the passenger seat according to a witness at the scene who said the four wheel drive was fired at by another car. The driver lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a lamppost. When the passenger got out of the four wheel drive, he was shot twice in the head.
There have been no arrests in the case as yet.

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Portugal,Spain and the Canary Islands are being linked in child abductions

Jeremy Vargas vanished from his home in Gran Canaria just eight weeks before four-year-old Madeleine went missing in Praia da Luz.The missing seven-year-old boy is being linked it with the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
Detectives hunting for the boy have told his parents they are now working closely with police in Portugal.
This development adds weight to Kate and Gerry McCanns' insistence that their daughter was abducted, and that they were not responsible.
The link between the cases was revealed as dive teams searched a murky reservoir for Madeleine's body.
Jeremy's mother Ithaisa Suarez, 24, told yesterday of the striking similarities between the two cases - and her belief that both children may still be alive.
She said: "The specialist police team from Madrid have told me that they have been in contact with the Portuguese police investigating Madeleine. They are working on the theory that people involved in child trafficking are behind these cases."
Jeremy was playing on wasteground behind his home when he disappeared on March 10 last year.
Ithaisa insists both Jeremy and Madeleine, four, were snatched to order and likely sold on by a ruthless gang.
She was the first mother in similar anguished circumstances to write to the McCanns, both 39, when Madeleine disappeared last May. The two griefstricken families exchanged a series of letters.
Ithaisa wants to meet Kate and Gerry, as well as the parents of missing Mari Luz Cortes from Huelva, Spain, to present a united front in drawing international attention to their plight.
She said: "We need to stick together and make sure people understand we have not given up on our children being found."
Clarence Mitchell, the McCann family spokesman, said: "We are very grateful to the Vargas family for their continued support.
"Kate and Gerry have Jeremy in their thoughts an awful lot of the time."

Yesterday, divers continued to search a reservoir for Madeleine's body following a tip-off from an underworld source to a lawyer.

The search at Barragem do Arade - 40 miles from Praia da Luz - is being funded by Marcos Correia, who claims he was told she was murdered and thrown into a lake last May.

Correia, who would not reveal his source, said: "I am convinced this is the place."

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40,000 Spanish estate agencies have gone bust.

figures released by the Spanish Estate Agents' Commission, around 40,000 Spanish estate agencies - nearly half the total - were forced to close last year, coinciding with a 40% decline in property sales.
As a result, it is estimated that around 100,000 estate agents lost their jobs during 2007.

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Clifford Hobbs Tracked down on Spain's "Costa del Crime"

"For years Hobbs has tried to run from us but today's outcome demonstrates that you can't run forever," Scotland Yard's Flying Squad head, Detective Superintendent Bob Cummings, said. He also thanked his Spanish counterparts. One of Britain's most wanted men, tracked down on Spain's "Costa del Crime" by police, was jailed on Friday for his part in a cash van robbery and armed escape from a prison van at the gates of a London court.
Clifford Hobbs, 47, had been on the run for almost five years after escaping from a Securicor prison van in June 2003 by armed men who had posed as postmen who ambushed it as it waited for the court gates to open.
He had been due to attend court after the theft of 1.5 million pounds from another Securicor van earlier that year.
Hobbs, described by news media as one of the country's "premier league" gangsters, had fled to Spain's Costa del Sol.
The area, along the country's southern coast, has long attracted Britons seeking sun and sand alongside British-style pubs and fish and chip shops -- including those fleeing justice.
Britain's Serious Organised Crime Agency and Spanish authorities have recently tried to crack down on British criminals living there, publishing details of the most wanted, including their prominent scars and tattoos.
Hobbs, described by London police headquarters as one of the country's most wanted, now faces up to 18 years in jail for possessing a firearm, his escape and conspiracy to steal.

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Wilber Varela aka JABON aka SOAP

The boss of Colombia's biggest remaining cocaine cartel was killed by gunfire in Venezuela in an apparent settling of accounts between drug gangs, Colombian security forces said on Friday.
The body of Wilber Varela, known as "Jabon" or "Soap," was found on Wednesday in a hotel room in Merida state in neighboring Venezuela, said a Colombian police source who asked not to be identified.
"We have intelligence information that the person found dead in Venezuela is Jabon," the source said.
Varela, a former police sergeant wanted for extradition by the U.S. government for helping to smuggle tonnes of cocaine to the United States, was one of the last Colombian drug kingpins at large after last year's arrest of Diego "Don Diego" Montoya.
The two had battled for control of the Norte del Valle cartel, a violent rivalry that left hundreds of people dead.
The U.S. government had offered a $5 million reward leading to the arrest of Varela, who got his nickname from a brand of soap with the same name.
The Norte del Valle gang, based near the western city of Cali, is the only Colombian cartel that still controls all areas of the business from cultivation of coca plants to production of cocaine and its exportation.

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Darli Velazquez-Armas : Bounty hunters in Spain

Spanish police have arrested a suspected cocaine trafficker who was wanted in the United States and had undergone facial surgery to avoid detection, nabbing him after a foot chase through a cemetery, officials said Monday.
Darli Velazquez-Armas, a 33-year-old Cuban citizen, was arrested last week in the Canary Islands in a raid coordinated with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the Interior Ministry said.
According to U.S. court documents, Velazquez-Armas was arrested on Jan. 30 in a DEA sting operation involving 130 kilos (290 pounds) of cocaine shipped to Miami from Ecuador.
A U.S. grand jury indicted him on drug trafficking charges. He pleaded not guilty and posted a $1 million (€700,000) bond Feb. 20, and was required to surrender his travel documents. His trial was scheduled to begin April 16. Velazquez-Armas failed to appear at a March court hearing, and was declared a fugitive on May 14.
Spanish authorities caught up with him in June in a Madrid suburb, but he escaped a dragnet after ramming his car into a police car.
Velazquez-Armas was later spotted in the town of Vecindario on Gran Canaria, one of Spain's Canary Islands, where he had continued to engage in drug trafficking, and officials put him under surveillance, the Spanish ministry said.

Last Friday, police chased him from Vecindario to the capital city Las Palmas. At one point the suspect got out of his car and fled on foot through a cemetery. He later attempted two carjackings before police finally arrested him in an industrial area, and even then he tried to grab an officer's gun, the ministry said.


When a drug trafficking suspect skipped out on a $1 million Federal bond, the bail bonds company traced him to Spain by going through his garbage for clues.
Just weeks after posting a $1 million bond, Darli Velazquez-Armas skipped bail. On March 10th, 2007 Federal authorities were alerted that something was wrong when Velazquez’s electronic monitoring bracelet sent a failure signal that the defendant had failed to report home. The huge bond was posted in the U.S. Southern District Federal Court in Miami, Florida. The $1,000,000.00 Federal bond was underwritten by a California bail bond insurance company.
Within days of jumping bond investigators for Bail Yes Bonding, a Miami based Nationwide bail bond company discovered that Velazquez had fled on a private plane to the Dominican Republic out of Kendall-Tamiami Executive Airport located in Southwest Miami-Dade County, where from there the case went cold. Veteran bounty hunter Rolando Betancourt was hired by the bail bond company to track down and capture the fugitive. Betancourt went to work in Miami on several leads focusing mainly on the defendant’s parents and ex-wife, all of which had signed as indemnitors on Velazquez's bond. Betancourt directed teams of investigators across several states, coordinating all aspects of the investigation. "We really pulled-out all the stops on this case” said Betancourt, pooling our resources and working closely with government agencies as is typical today for high-risk fugitive recovery operations. Betancourt went as far as renting a garbage truck to make un-scheduled garbage runs at the defendant’s Miami home. One day, fearing they had been spotted, they were forced to pick up the neighbor's garbage down whole length of the street, “It was a real smelly mess”, recalled Betancourt, “but it had to be done”. The early morning garbage runs paid off, amongst the bags of debris were shredded documents that investigators were able to reconstruct yielding a cache of information including used calling cards, bank records, and pages from a First Class in-flight magazine belonging to a European Airline, leading the investigators to believe the defendant was somewhere in Europe, quite possibly the Country of Spain.
In June after weeks of grueling 24 hour round the clock surveillance of various locations Betancourt received a tip that members of Velazquez's family were planning an overseas trip, he was able to follow the defendant’s ex-wife to Miami International Airport were she, her two children and other members of the fugitives family had gathered to board an Iberia flight destined for Madrid, Spain. Betancourt always prepared for the un-expected did not hesitate to buy a ticket to Madrid and as luck would have it was seated next to one of the defendant’s family members. Prior to departing Betancourt coordinated with DEA agents in Miami and the U.S Embassy in Madrid who alerted the Spanish authorities of the situation. Upon arriving at the Madrid airport, Spanish Police were there to escort the bounty hunter off the plane. At the Iberia baggage claim area the suspect’s family were pointed out to the Spanish authorities and the family group was followed for nearly an hour in early morning rush hour traffic to a luxury Chalet in an exclusive suburb of Madrid. Surveillance was established at the residence with the coordination of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Madrid Country office and members of the Spanish National Police SNP Fugitive Unit. Shortly thereafter Velazquez was observed getting into a brand new Toyota Land Cruiser SUV with his entire family. Velazquez recklessly broke through the Police dragnet after which a high speed chase ensued through the narrow, winding streets of Majadahonda a suburb of Madrid, ending only when Velazquez ran a female SNP agent off the road causing her to crash her motorcycle. Velazquez then fled on foot, the bruised and injured agent was unable to pursue him because a passenger in the fugitives vehicle blocked her as she was getting up from her downed motorcycle. Left behind were the fugitive’s two crying children, the ex- wife, a hysterical sister, brother in-law and two nephews. One of the nephews was placed under arrested for aiding in the escape of the fugitive and other related charges. Betancourt was of course upset, but this mishap only fueled his conviction to go after the defendant even harder, thus sealing Velazquez’s fate.

After a week of searching Madrid's inner neighborhoods and following up on the smallest of leads, the battered bounty hunter returned to the United States empty-handed. Betancourt was determined to finish the case, but in reality he knew, he was starting all over again from day one. After weeks of extensive surveillance of the defendant’s known associates, and another transatlantic trip, small leads began to trickle in indicating the defendant might still be hiding out in Spain. Betancourt was requested back to Europe for a third time by the bail bond company mainly due to this new information which also coincided with the approaching Fathers Day weekend were it was believed that the defendant would attempt to contact his children. Betancourt being a seasoned bounty hunter targeted several Madrid neighborhoods offering rewards for any information of the defendant. After several frustrating weeks of scouring most of the cities in Southern Spain with no results, Betancourt returned to the U.S. and called upon the resources of Interpol, the DEA and other law enforcement agencies while continuing to direct teams of investigators who were pursuing leads in Florida and elsewhere. With some of Betancourt’s European assets and their arsenal of sophisticated high technology systems he soon discovered that the defendant was not in Spain at the moment, but was visiting other countries in Europe and would most probably be returning to Spain in the near future. Betancourt was again dispatched to Europe were upon further investigations he concluded that the most likely final destination would be Las Palmas, in the Grand Canary Islands. Betancourt's hunch proved right, actually arriving in Las Palmas two days ahead of the defendant. After seven days of canvassing targeted neighborhoods throughout the majestic Island and seemingly endless 24 hour street level surveillance, Betancourt telephoned the Miami bail bond company saying that he was certain that Velazquez was near with a sense that he was walking the same streets as the defendant. “I felt it was now only a matter of days or hours, before I would run into him, we were breathing the same air ...” said Betancourt. Late afternoon on Thursday August 9th, he spotted the elusive fugitive at a luxurious home in the town of Vecindario just south of the Las Palmas Airport. Velazquez, now sporting a full mustache in a feeble attempt to change his appearance, was casually talking with a neighbor, dressed in his favorite color of brown as his hunter silently walked passed him confirming it was indeed Velazquez, Betancourt called DEA agents in Miami, Florida who immediately alerted their DEA counterparts and U.S. Embassy officials in Madrid Spain. After an all night surveillance of the defendant’s hideout the Spanish National Police where dispatched to aid in the apprehension of the defendant. While the Spanish Police were setting up surveillance of the home the fugitive Velazquez was seen leaving the residence and entering a waiting vehicle with other individuals later identified by authorities as Velazquez’s Spanish attorney, her husband and their eighteen year old pregnant daughter. The vehicle was followed and when Spanish Police attempted to stop them a chase ensued covering a distance of several kilometers ending when they made a wrong turn into a dead end street. Velazquez by now a veteran of these situations, again fled with flair, this time running through a cemetery and attempting two carjacking's ; one a vehicle occupied by two women and a motorcycle, almost causing the driver to fall off. Velazquez then jumped onto the back of a passing truck, hanging on for his life, while in hot pursuit was a determined Spanish Police officer who was able to grab him and pull him off the moving truck, Velazquez and the officer stumbled to the ground, as they scuffled Velazquez attempted several times to disarm the officer, as wayward shots were fired, the officer now fighting for his life eventually was able to subdue the defendant taking him into custody. Velazquez suffered several fractured ribs and facial cuts requiring stitches. He was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment before being booked into the local jail. Authorities fearing that Velazquez poses a serious security threat have dispatched a Spanish Naval Vessel to pick up and transport the dangerous drug kingpin to the mainland, were local authorities are expected to hand over the defendant to U.S. Marshals Service Agents in Madrid for extradition to Florida were he will stand trial for drug trafficking and possible bond jumping charges.

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