17 year old Marta del Castillo, who vanished from Sevilla nine days ago

Eva Casanueva, the mother of the 17 year old Marta del Castillo, who vanished from Sevilla nine days ago, has spent most of that time in bed just waiting for news. On Monday she made the effort to attend to the questions of the media. There are no firm clues to go on, although rumours that the boy who said he dropped Marta off at her home on the Saturday night is under suspicion. An expert dog has indicated that the clues may be in the Triana part of the city, where Marta spent Saturday afternoon with friends before she disappeared.Meanwhile her uncle, Javier Casanueva, who is acting as family spokesman, has complained to the press that neither the Prime Minister, nor the Minister for the Interior have called the family.

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Gang of drug traffickers had six light planes for bringing drugs from Africa into Spain.

Spanish authorities have broken up a gang of drug traffickers that had six light planes for bringing drugs from Africa into Spain.The criminal organization was led by a veteran airline pilot, arrested together with 11 other gang members, who used airfields and landing strips in wooded areas in Andalucía to evade detection by security forces.Besides the six airplanes, the Civil Guard, Spain's militarized national police, seized assault rifles and other weapons plus documents and a quantity of drugs.The first phase of the operation was launched last November, when the Civil Guard was alerted to the existence of several drug traffickers suspected to bringing hashish from Africa into Spain.At the end of February three Spanish citizens and two Frenchmen were arrested in the southern province of Seville with 400 kilos (880 pounds) of hashish.A laboratory was also dismantled where the drug was ground up and mixed with chemicals to make it undetectable by any possible police inspections.After this first phase, the Civil Guard verified that some gang members were still at large.The group had acquired new fast, long-range aircraft for transporting cocaine, using routes familiar to the gang from their experience of bringing hashish into Spain.These later investigations led to the capture of one of the kingpins, a Spaniard, together with a second pilot of Colombian origin and an airfield employee who apparently aided in the operations.

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stag party-goers Bus driver arrested during the early hours after a positive breath test

The 45 year old driver of a bus carrying a party of nineteen stag party-goers was arrested during the early hours of yesterday morning after a positive breath test at a routine police control, leaving his passengers to make their own way back to Sevilla city-centre on foot. The man was stopped at around 4.30am on the SE-30 near the Tablada/ exhibition centre exit.
He was taken into custody after officers also discovered that his licence had already been confiscated, and jailed following a preliminary court hearing yesterday.

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