Housejacking, Three masked men attacked the chalet belonging to Juan Mora, the owner of the Matola restaurant in Elche

Three masked men attacked the chalet belonging to Juan Mora, the owner of the Matola restaurant in Elche, in the early hours of yesterday. The victim was woken up at 4.15 in the morning by the thieves who complained that they could not find the money.
After ransacking the property they made off with an estimated 10,000 €. As they left they warned him ‘Call the police after 15 minutes. Don’t do so before as we know where your children live’.Información newspaper reports that family members of the victim say he was beaten up by the thieves, and were armed with a large screwdriver and used a large leather belt as a whip. For some reason the house alarm had not been activated and the three men managed to gain access without upsetting the dogs.
Reports say that one of the men was black and they had a foreign accent. Juan Mora is now back at home after a medical check up at Elche hospital.

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Spaniard, Jesús G.R., who is alleged to have caused the coach crash in Benalmádena ordered to prison without bail

27 year old Spaniard, Jesús G.R., who is alleged to have caused the coach crash in Benalmádena on Saturday April 19th, in which nine Finnish tourists, including a seven year old girl, lost their lives, has been ordered to prison without bail by the judge in Instruction Court One in Torremolinos. He attended with his father, was wearing a neck brace, and showed difficulty in walking.He is thought to have lost control of his KIA four wheel drive vehicle while overtaking the bus at speed on a curve on the A7 motorway, crashing into the bus and causing it to overturn.
The judge called the youngster to the court this morning where he arrived at 1125am and left in a National Police car at 1310pm.
He now faces nine charges of serious negligence resulting in death, and 41 counts of serious negligence resulting in injury. There is also a charge of dangerous driving, and another of driving while under the influence of alcohol. He had breath tested at 0,50 milligrams of alcohol after the accident, double the legal limit in Spain.
Speaking to the Diario Sur newspaper last week Jesús’s father said that his son is deeply depressed and has said he wished he had been killed in the crash.

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Marbella Town Hall has ordered a zero tolerance policy for those who sell their wares by foot in the town

Caracuel is reported to have referred to the immigrants as ‘a threat’ and as ‘invaders’ of the town, leader IU to comment ‘We cannot doubt that this type of sale is illegal, but the way of combating it is not adequate’.The Defensor del Pueblo, the Spanish Ombudsman, has asked for an explanation from Marbella Town Hall following a spate of immigrant arrests in the town. The PP local councillor for citizen safety, Francisca Caracuel, has ordered a zero tolerance policy for those who sell their wares by foot in the town, and this has resulted in 500 arrests in a few months. Most of the sales were of counterfeit goods, and 50,000 such items were recently crushed by a steam roller in Puerto Banús to underline the policy. However 17 Chinese beach masseurs have also been arrested, and criticism of the harshness of the police has come from the IU left wing.The Ombudsman, José Chamizo, met with the left wingers and a local Senegalese association last September and called on the Town Hall to ‘only apply the law’. Some claim that in fact things have improved considerably for the immigrants compared to the time of the GIL administration.
Two recent court cases in Spain have seen immigrants charged with such sales being released, given that profits made were minimal and the activity was necessary for their survival.

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Border guards have started implementing a directive ordering them to open fire on smugglers who fail to stop

The entering into force of this directive came amid discovering the close relationship of smuggling networks with terror groups, as well as the use of arms by smugglers while securing tracks to their goods.Furthermore, some smugglers tend to extend their activities to arms and explosives trafficking, like for instance in Tlemcen province where gendarmerie and border guards managed foiling about five attempts of smuggling weapons and explosives.Besides, many armed clashes have taken place between border guards and security services against smugglers, later last year and early this year, in border provinces, eastern, western and southern the country.
The Majority of armed clashes have been underscored in Bechar and Tlemcen provinces, western Algeria, followed by Illizi and El-Oued provinces, southern the country, then Tebessa province, eastern Algeria.
It is worth mentioning that joint security forces in Bechar have led, a couple of weeks ago, helicopter raids against a group of 4X4 belonging to smugglers, while hardly fled from being arrested by border guards.

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300 illegal homes in Cañada Hermosa

20 minutos reports that there are 300 illegal homes in Cañada Hermosa, and local resident, Pedro Cerón, noted some of them have been there for more than ten years. He said they would not be legalised because people simply don’t know what to do, and he called on the City Hall to visit the area to explain the procedure. There are a further 200 homes in Cañada de San Pedro in the same position.Murcia City Hall is threatening to demolish as many as 4,000 homes which have been built illegally in the region’s countryside. Property owners have been given the deadline of January 31 2009 to bring their properties into legality, and Town Planning Councillor, Fernando Berberena, has warned that after this date legal processes will be started which could end in demolition. Illegally built warehouses are also included in the new crackdown.Bringing as many as 4,000 properties into legality in such a short time is a tall order, given that all of last year saw only 80 homes regularised in the region.The 2001 PGOU General Ordinance Plan gave five years for making the homes and industries legal, but over the five years only 1,000 homes and 150 warehouses were regularised.Murcia City Hall says that leaflets will be handed out in the areas concerned. These show that to bring a property into legality the owner has to provide an application form with a report from Emuasa, technical documentation which includes the provision of services such as water and sewerage, several plans and a budget.

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Puerto Banus shooting mystery..70 shots were fired in the assault and the two victims were hit by 16 bullets between them.

After the shooting an Algerian-born French businessmen went to the National Police to say he thought he was the intended target. He had been in the hairdressers at the time of the shooting and his friend – bodyguard, who was waiting in their car outside the hairdressers, was one of those injured. The companion was arrested in his hospital bed for the possession of a gun that was found beneath their car.
Police have stressed that neither the Frenchman nor his companion have any previous convictions in Spain. The businessmen is said to be involved in high fashion, owns several shops in Puerto Banús and commutes between his homes in Paris and Marbella. He was allowed to return to his home after being interviewed by police.
The police say they do not know the identity of the four attackers nor have they yet found the man who entered the hairdressers before the shooting and asked for an appointment in English. He is said to have acted in a very suspicious manner and left the shop seconds before the shooting started.Whilst police still believe the shooting bears all the hallmarks of a “settling of accounts” between criminals they have stated that the modus operandi suggests that they had no clear identity of their target. More than 70 shots were fired in the assault and the two victims were hit by 16 bullets between them.
Meanwhile in neighbouring Estepona the civilian security group has formed a special squad of local police officers to tackle organised crime. The town hall fears that this violence may spread from Marbella to Estepona. The new group of officers will pay special attention to the many urbanisations in the east of the municipality bordering on to Marbella where a Rumanian gang is said to have already carried out robberies.

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Plane loaded with drugs crashes at Spanish banker Botin's estate

The plane was carrying 200 kilograms (441 pounds) of hashish when it missed the airfield and crashed into a nearby gully, Dmaz-Cano said. Two people were killed at the crash and a third one was arrested.
Police are investigating a small plane loaded with drugs that crashed Friday at the estate of one of the country's most prominent bankers, killing two people on board, an Interior Ministry representative said.The plane crashed around midday Friday as it tried to land at a private airstrip on the country estate of banker Emilio Botin, Maximo Dmaz-Cano said.The plane was carrying 200 kilograms (441 pounds) of hashish when it missed the airfield and crashed into a nearby gully, Dmaz-Cano said.
A third person has been detained at the 11,000 hectare (27,180 acres) estate, located 230 kilometers (143 miles) southwest of Madrid. Police are combing the area in search of other people who might have been involved in the suspected smuggling.
Botin is president of Banco Santander Central Hispano, Spain's largest bank by market capitalization.

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Juan Antonio Roca return to prison brings a rapid end to his week of freedom on bail during which time he made many claims to the press, including one

The bail conditions against Juan Antonio Roca, the ex Marbella Municipal real estate assessor in the case known as ‘Saqueo 1’ have been increased today to three million €. The Roca family had already paid the lower level of bail, set at 450,000 € in the case, but today Roca finds himself sent to prison again, with bail now set at 3 million €.This is separate from the 1 million € which it took his family 17 days to raise in the Malaya case.The Saqueo 1 case is also known as the 'false facturas' case and is linked to the alleged diversion of public funds from Marbella Town Hall to private companies between 1991 and 1995 amounting to 27.6 million €. The late Mayor Jesús Gil and six others were charged in the case, where Roca is accused of money laundering, defrauding Hacienda, bribery, the alteration of prices in public auctions and tenders, the misuse of public funds and even a charge against damaging flora and fauna, amongst others.Today the National Court judge, Pablo Ruiz, accepted an appeal presented to him from the legal department of Marbella Town Hall which said they feared that Roca was a flight risk. The Town Hall say that it is ‘curious’ that the Roca family could find such amounts of money as had paid, 1, 450,000 € despite having all his assets supposedly frozen in the Malaya case.Roca’s defence team said they did not understand why their client was seeing his bail conditions revised, considering that Roca’s circumstances had not changed.
His return to prison brings a rapid end to his week of freedom on bail during which time he made many claims to the press, including one of innocence.

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The Playa de Bakio, with 13 Spanish and 13 African crew on board, was attacked by around 10 pirates armed with grenade launchers

Ambassador Nicolás Martín Cinto was expected to travel to the Somali capital Mogadishu on Wednesday, coinciding with the arrival of a Spanish warship off Somalia's north coast where the fishing boat was boarded.The Playa de Bakio, with 13 Spanish and 13 African crew on board, was attacked by around 10 pirates armed with grenade launchers at around 1pm on Sunday.Crew members who managed to speak to relatives in Spain by telephone yesterday said the pirates appeared to be "well-trained soldiers" who accused the crew of stealing Somalia's fish stocks and who spoke of a "senior commander" who would negotiate their release in exchange for ransom money.At 7am yesterday, one of those onboard said the Playa de Bakio was moored in sight of the Somali coast and that the crew members were being treated well.The Playa de Bakio is the first Spanish fishing boat in eight years to be seized by pirates after the Almacora IV was attacked off Somalia in 2000. The crew were reportedly freed after the boat's owner paid the pirates EUR 400,000.

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Hacienda tax authorities has announced that they are to investigate 198 Spaniards

Hacienda tax authorities has announced that they are to investigate 198 Spaniards who have bank accounts in Liechtenstein for possible fiscal crimes. A statement from the Agencia Tributaria, said that the deposits correspond to family groups with several different titles and beneficiaries.
The data obtained in the investigation will be sent over to the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor.
It comes with the revelation that Spain is working in coordination with Australia, Canada, France, Italy, New Zealand, Sweden, the U.K. and the United States in the Lichtenstein investigation.
Spanish investment there alone is 22.11 million € in the past 15 years, although there are no numbers since 2005 when the country was considered as a financial haven.
Spanish investments offshore are estimated to have reached 95 million € in the first half of last year, some 50% lower than for the same period in 2006.

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