Benidorm bank robbery opposite the Trafico Guardia Civil barracks

Two French Citizens, both aged 39, have been arrested in connection with an attempted bank robbery. The bank branch is directly opposite the Trafico Guardia Civil barracks in Benidorm, and one of the bank employees managed to attract the attention of Civil Guards who were at the door of their barracks at the time of the robbery.
It happened just before 2pm in Avenida Beniardà, when the two now in custody entered the bank armed with a pistol and demanding the safe be opened. When the Guardia Civil crossed the street the two men tried to run off and a car chase ensued with the arrest of one of the robbers and the second was detained later in El Campello as he was packing to leave his home.The two, who had fake beards and moustaches, had also planned another robbery in Valencia.

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Four people aged 23 to 28 years have been detained in Torrevieja for the suspected distribution and sale of explosives

Four people aged 23 to 28 years have been detained in Torrevieja for the suspected distribution and sale of explosives, during a high profile investigation known as ‘Operation Palmera’. Agents of the National Police intercepted almost 20 kilos of goma- 2, thought to have been stolen from a quarry in the Vega Baja area sometime ago. Goma-2 is a gelatinous, Nitroglycol-based explosive manufactured within Spain for industrial use. The substance was favoured for terrorist attacks carried out by ETA during the 1980’s and 1990’s and is also the explosive allegedly used in the Madrid train bombings of 11th March 2004. Investigations were opened when the Department received information that an organized crime ring, comprising mainly of Eastern European nationals, intended to purchase explosives for use during robberies. The first series of enquiries resulted in the arrest of two Spaniards, aged 24 and 28 years, who were accosted on the day that the exchange was scheduled to take place, carrying a rucksack containing half a kilo of explosives. A second pair of Spaniards, aged 23 and 27 years, was subsequently arrested under suspicion of collaborating with the other two, as “runners” in the transfer of the explosives.
During the investigation, Agents executed two house searches in Torrevieja, where an additional 9.5 kilos of goma-2 and a detonator were also uncovered. The band had hidden a further 7.5 kilos in a hole beneath a palm plantation at the ‘Granja de Rocamora’ farm, divided into several small packages surrounded by plastic bags. The stash was eventually uncovered with the help of the specialist Police Dog Unit from the National Police Headquarters
The defendants were initially presented before the Custody Officer of ‘Juzgado nº1 de Torrevieja’, who ruled that the four suspects be detained in prison without granting bail, and will be tried later by the ‘Juzgado de Primera Instancia Número 5 de Torrevieja’. The Sub-Delegate of the Valencian Government, Encarna Llinares, and the Provincial Commissioner for Alicante, Enrique Durán, appeared before the court to explain the details of the case, presenting a selection of the packages that the Agents had confiscated as evidence. Finally, the Councillor for Police and Security of Torrevieja City Council, Tomás Arenas Buenas, assured citizens that there was no great cause for concern and gave his word that the matter would be addressed promptly and accurately. He also dismissed reports that the explosives have been used in previous attacks carried out in the area.

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DOLORES VASQUEZ, who was wrongly imprisoned for 17 months in the much-publicised ‘Wanninkhof’ case

DOLORES VASQUEZ, who was wrongly imprisoned for 17 months in the much-publicised ‘Wanninkhof’ case for the murder of her lesbian lover’s daughter, Rocio, has finally managed to clear her criminal record, although she is yet to receive any compensation.Now that her name has been deleted from police records, her lawyers are demanding the sum of four million euros in compensation for false imprisonment and emotional damage although, so far, the government has only agreed to 120,000 euros .On October 9, 1999 the 19-year-old daughter of Alicia Hornos, Rocio Wanninkhof, left her home to visit her boyfriend in Mijas. At about 9:30pm, she left his house to go home and get ready to meet him later at the Fuengirola fair. She was never seen alive again.When she failed to return home, Alicia asked her other daughter, Rosa, to contact Rocio’s boyfriend, Antonio, to find out where she was. He said he had not made it to the fair but that Rocio had been seen there by other friends, so she had probably spent the night at one of their houses.The restless mother went for a walk and found Rocio’s blood-stained clothes. Rocio’s badly-burnt body was found three weeks later, on November 2, at La Cala de Mijas, although forensic evidence indicated that this was not where she had been murdered. An autopsy revealed that she had been stabbed once in the chest and eight times in the back, although, on account of the poor condition of the corpse, it could not be determined if she had been sexually assaulted.Police initially suspected Antonio of involvement but, after he was cleared, their attention switched to Alicia’s former lover, Dolores Vasquez. The media frenzy that followed the brutal murder secured a guilty verdict against Dolores, who has always maintained her innocence.In August 2003, whilst Dolores was waiting for an appeal hearing date, 17-year-old Sonia Carabantes from Coin disappeared and was found murdered in very similar circumstances, five days later, in Monda. Forensic specialists found human flesh under Sonia’s finger-nails from which they were able to recover DNA that matched DNA recovered from a cigarette butt found at the scene of the Wanninkhof murder. Celia Pantoja, the ex-wife of English expatriate, 41-year-old Tony Alexander King, told police she thought her ex-husband may have been the culprit in the Carabantes murder after he returned home on the morning of Carabantes’ disappearance with blood on his clothes and scratch marks on his face. Londoner, King, was arrested in Alhaurin el Grande in September 2003 and convicted of the Carabantes murder in October 2006, when he was sentenced to 36 years in prison.

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Flight from Spain 53-year-old man has been arrested at Prestwick Airport

53-year-old man has been arrested at Prestwick Airport on suspicion of trying to smuggle a quantity of cocaine into the country. The man was stopped by officers from the UK Border Agency on Tuesday night after he got off a flight from Spain. Police were called after he was found to be in possession of drugs, believed to be cocaine, with an estimated street value of £60,000. The man was expected to appear at Ayr Sheriff Court on Wednesday.

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24 people, all Spaniards, have been arrested so far in a civil guard operation, codenamed Mansion, against organised crime in Madrid

24 people, all Spaniards, have been arrested so far in a civil guard operation, codenamed Mansion, against organised crime in Madrid. The burglary of a house in Griñon led to the Guardia Civil identifying the group which operated in three different groups, assaulting private homes in the Madrid region and even stealing from lorries when in roadside rest areas.Investigations also link the group to theft from industrial estates, and new charges against them have not been ruled out.

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Mármoles Ballester Man, from the Almanzora district of Almería has been arrested for allegedly shooting dead two members of a gypsy clan, Los Pertolos

Businessman from the marble company, Mármoles Ballester, from the Almanzora district of Almería has been arrested for allegedly shooting dead two members of a gypsy clan, Los Pertolos, who were allegedly extorting local businesses including his own.
The shooting happened in Olula del Río at just after 9am on Wednesday morning inside the marble factory close to the municipal boundary with Purchena.There is some confusion as to the identity of the shooter as the company is apparently being run currently by a manager.A man and a woman from the same Los Pertolos clan were sent to prison for four years in July last year for demanding money in 2004 from a British businessman who lives in nearby Arboleas. They also had obliged the Briton to employ three workers.

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Jose Luis Romeu Galvan arrested by the Guardia Civil for misappropriation of public funds

Jose Luis Romeu Galvan, was sacked on March 4 by his employers, the Spanish airport authority, Aeropuertos Españoles y Navegación Aérea (AENA). Earlier that day, he had been arrested by the Guardia Civil for misappropriation of public funds, faking documents, embezzlement and obtaining money under false pretences.An employee in charge of keeping the accounts for Seguridad Integral Canaria, the private company which provides security guards for Reina Sofia Airport, was taken into custody at the same time. Romeu was held for several hours for questioning before being charged and released on bail.Romeu’s arrest was the culmination of an under- cover investigation codenamed Operation Fly which began in June 2008. The enquiry was launched after the Guardia Civil learnt that the security firm’s accountant at the airport was allegedly altering records to show more employees than actually existed and, in turn, Jose Luis Romeu was said to be signing off the monthly invoices presented to AENA. In order to conceal the scam, the fictitious security guards were assigned to areas in the airport where there was generally little in the way of control or surveillance.

On the day of Romeu’s arrest, officers from the Guardia Civil’s organised crime unit searched the offices of AENA’s security department at the airport as well as those of Seguridad Integral Canaria. The same company’s offices in Candelaria and Santa Cruz de Tenerife were examined at the same time as well as the homes of both the men involved. Guardia Civil investigators removed computer records and what onlookers described as copious amounts of paperwork. Some sources also claimed that during an earlier investigation last October, computers and paperwork were taken from Seguridad Integral Canaria’s offices in Las Palmas.

Seguridad Integral Canaria said the following day that none of their employees at the airport had been arrested with Jose Luis Romeu but confirmed that one of their office workers was implicated in the case. In a statement to the press, the company announced that an employee had explained to the Guardia Civil the accounting system that the firm used at Reina Sofia Airport and was able to demonstrate that the amounts claimed on invoices presented to AENA matched the number of hours worked by employees.The Alternativa Sindical union in Tenerife maintains that security guards at the airport had noticed irregularities which they reported to the Ministry of Public Works in November 2007, although their warnings prompted no response from the ministry. It was evident, they said, that neither the number of security guards on duty nor the number of hours supposedly put in by personnel tallied with the amounts that AENA was being charged for. The union also claimed that this shortfall in staff led to situations where private aircraft sometimes entered and left the airport without their documentation being checked.
The case against Jose Luis Romeu Galvan will be heard at the court in Granadilla de Abona. There is a ban on reporting while the case is at the instruction stage where the examining judge questions all parties before deciding whether there is a case against the accused. Meanwhile, AENA announced that it was working closely with the court and the police to shed light on the background to the case, and said it would be taking disciplinary action against its former employee. An AENA spokesman also emphasised that despite the incident, security at the airport had not been compromised at any time.

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Paul Logan Donnelly fled after abandoning a six-inch knife

Two Britons have been arrested after apparently trying to fire a gun at police who confronted them for urinating in a Spanish street.
The officers were not injured because the 9mm pistol reportedly used by one of the men jammed twice. The arrests following a stand-off in Alhaurin el Grande, a hillside village 30 miles from Marbella on the Costa del Sol, a Guardia Civil spokesman said. One of the arrested men has been named as Paul Logan Donnelly from Newcastle. Officers allege he fled the scene after abandoning a six-inch knife, but was later arrested. The name of the second man in custody has not been released.
Two civil guards, armed with pistols, had stopped the pair after spotting one of them urinating outside a video shop on Monday evening, Spanish police claim.
A spokesman for the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office said the unnamed man pulled the trigger twice during the incident but that it jammed. He said: "The men were arrested for urinating in the street and possession of a gun. "A consular team is now working with the relevant authorities in Spain. The investigation is at a very early stage."

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23 people have been arrested across nine provinces (including Malaga and Almeria) accused of several offences ranging from tax fraud

23 people have been arrested across nine provinces (including Malaga and Almeria) accused of several offences ranging from tax fraud, falsifying documents and illegal association. Those arrested were part of an organisation that converted industrial-use diesel (‘gasoleo bonificado’, types B and C, used for farm machinery and heating) into regular diesel (‘gasoleo ordinario’, type A) used in vehicles. During the operation called ‘Toelum II’ police seized: 25 properties, four investment funds, 18 lorries, 21 vehicles, three motorbikes and three trailers. The total value of the items seized is estimated at four million euros. During the early part of the investigation, police found installations in Toledo and Madrid used to ‘clean’ and adulterate the cheaper industrial- use diesel. The gang then sold it on as the more expensive type ‘A’ diesel to petrol stations and other organisations (some of which knew about the scam). Following further enquiries, tax evasion fraud was uncovered, valued at 6.7 million euros, calculated between 2004 and 2008. It was also found that around 4.5 million litres of diesel type ‘B’ was mixed with 13 million litres of oil and other unknown substances with the aim of increasing the total volume of product that could be sold.

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14 year old girlfriend of Miguel Carcaño,now says that he confessed his crime to her on the night he carried it out, January 24.

14 year old girlfriend of Miguel Carcaño, the man who has confessed to killing the 17 year old girl from Sevilla, Marta del Castillo, now says that he confessed his crime to her on the night he carried it out, January 24.Sources close to the investigation also say that he told her that he had thrown Marta’s body into the Guadalquivir River with the help of his friends 15 year old El Cuco, and Samuel B.P.
The 14 year old changed her story to the police last Monday, when her family was called in to reconstruct what had happened on the night that Marta vanished.The National Police have now confirmed that fibres from the blanket used to carry the body, and DNA from Marta was found in the back seat of the car belonging to Cuco’s mother.El Cuco however changed his story to the judge on Tuesday, saying that he was not involved in the crime, and he had not been in the flat where the crime occurred that night.

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Pensioner opened fire with a 32 caliber revolver at an ambulance driver and the doctor with whom he had had an appointment at 7pm that afternoon.

34 year old doctor was shot just after midnight in the early hours of Wednesday, but did not die until 1530 in the afternoonThe judge in Instruction Court One in Caravaca de la Cruz, has ordered preventative prison for the 74 year old retired taxi driver, Pedro N.S. who opened fire at 25 minutes past midnight on Tuesday night after he had gone to the health centre in Moratalla, Murcia.The pensioner opened fire with a 32 caliber revolver at an ambulance driver and the doctor with whom he had had an appointment at 7pm that afternoon. One report says he had gone for oxygen at 4pm but was told to return at 7, but did not do so until just after midnight.
Maria Eugenia Moreno Martínez, the 34 year old doctor who received several shots died from her injuries to the head and chest in the Virgen de la Arrixaca Hospital at 3,30pm on Wednesday afternoon. The 40 year old Ambulance driver, Juan Miguel Moya, is in a stable condition in the Caravaca de la Cruz District Hospital. He was shot when he tried to take the gun off the pensioner.
Local doctors stopped work in demand for better security measures in health centres.
On leaving the court the pensioner told the press that he was very sorry for what he had done.He has also said that the treatment he received in the ambulatorio was not good.‘The attended to me very badly, very badly’ he said.
Reports indicate that the pensioner had found the gun he used in the back of his taxi in Barcelona twenty years ago.

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Philip Doo and David Mufford, and Christopher Wiggins, from Spain's Costa del Sol, are charged with attempting to import 1.7 ton of cocaine

Philip Doo and David Mufford, from Devon, and Christopher Wiggins, from Spain's Costa del Sol, are charged with attempting to import 1.7 tonnes of cocaine - believed to be valued at more than 650 million euro.Three Britons accused of being involved in an international drugs smuggling ring intercepted off the coast of Ireland have appeared briefly at Cork Circuit Criminal Court as the start of their trial was adjourned.Barristers asked for the case to be put back to the next session so defence teams could continue discussions with State prosecutors. The three men were detained last November after the Irish Navy, gardai and Customs swooped on the 60ft ocean-going boat Dances With Waves, 170 miles off the west Cork coast. Seventy-five bales of cocaine were discovered on the vessel which had set sail from the Caribbean a month earlier.

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Barcelona airport,Cocaine disguised as 52 bars of chocolate

National Police have arrested an Ecuadorian man at El Prat airport in Barcelona after he was found to be carrying four kilos of cocaine in his luggage on arrival on a flight from Colombia.The drug was disguised as 52 bars of chocolate, perfectly individually wrapped as the Jumbo brand, one of the best known in Colombia. The drug was hidden below a thin layer of chocolate in each bar.51 year old Edgar N.N. was questioned by police and customs after they considered him to be acting nervously.

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