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...

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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...

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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...

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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,...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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Welsh tourist was left for dead following a bungled bag snatch on the Costa

Ray Griffin, of Dowell Street, fell victim to thieves preying on tourists while staying in a hotel resort in Benalmadena on the Costa del Sol earlier this month.The incident happened just two weeks after a Welsh tourist was left for dead following a bungled bag snatch.The female victim was thrown to the ground as a man on a moped tried to snatch her bag, leaving her with a blood clot on the brain.Mr Griffin was on holiday with his wife, Valerie, when thieves made off with a purse, containing 150 Euros, a silver lucky charm and a Nintendo DS with...

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“We’re waking up from the property dream and finding ourselves in a situation where prices are falling in Spain for the first time,”

“We’re waking up from the property dream and finding ourselves in a situation where prices are falling in Spain for the first time,” said Fernando Encinar, a founder of Idealista.com, a real estate Web site.In Spain, more than four million homes were built in the last decade, more than in Germany, Britain and France combined. Average house prices tripled in parts of the country, as Spain’s torrid economy attracted immigrants and Northern Europeans snapped up holiday homes along the Costa del Sol.Now, though, thousands of those houses stand empty....

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Juan Antonio Roca is accused of money laundering, defrauding Hacienda, bribery, the alteration of prices in public auctions and tenders

Juan Antonio Roca, is in the National Court on Wednesday morning in the so-called Saqueo 1 case, in which he is currently released on 450,000 € bail. He has also had to pay 1 million € bail in the separate Malaya case.The hearing on Wednesday at 10am comes under article 5050 of the Criminal Judgement Law which consists of a revision of his bail conditions in the Saqueo case. The appearance comes following a formal appeal made against bail by Marbella Town Hall legal department, in which they ask for a reconsideration of the bail granted. Both sides...

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Viva Estates had 15 offices across southern Spain and was selling 2,000 properties a year.

Viva is down to one office and sells 200 homes a year if it is lucky. “It’s as if we’ve been hit by a tsunami,” says McCarthy, who is focusing on Hot Properties, a magazine he has set up to help people sell privately. “The property boom was over by 2004. Chris McCarthy, a Briton living in Marbella, set up Viva Estates, an estate agency aimed at selling property to the hordes of his fellow countrymen keen to buy on the Costa del Sol. At its peak, the company had 15 offices across southern Spain and was selling 2,000 properties a year. Last year,...

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Spain's real estate market is turning sour, a situation tied by some to the international banking crisis

The Costa del Sol Association of Builders and Promoters reported in February that sales of tourist property in southern Malaga province fell nearly 50 percent last year. It claimed the main problem was people being frightened by corruption scandals in which homes were built with licenses obtained through bribes.Tourism and rampant construction over the past three decades have turned the Spanish coast from the French border all the way round and beyond...

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Christakis Philippou , Evangelia Liogka fraudsters netted £6million from bogus budget sites

Holiday fraudsters netted £6million from bogus budget sites.A gang of fraudulent travel agents who scammed more than 20,000 sun seekers out of their holidays have been jailed for up to seven years each. fraudsters advertising budget breaks on teletext and the internet. Sixty-four-year-old Christakis Philippou was the ring leader. His mistress Evangelia Liogka oversaw the agencies and call centres, bankrupt accountant Timothy Entwistle masterminded...

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Viktor Bout lawyer in Thailand, Lak Nitiwatanavichan, said he would fight extradition

Thai police dropped charges Wednesday against a Russian man accused of being one of the world's most prolific black market arms dealers, saying they will proceed with hearings to extradite him to the United States.Viktor Bout, a 41-year-old Russian, faces several counts in the U.S. of "conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization" for allegedly arranging to sell and transport weapons, including portable surface-to-air...

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Mark Longhurst Assets, including an Aston Martin, two Nissan Pathfinders and a Rolex watch,.

Mark Longhurst had links with crime gangs in Holland and Spain, was caught after an 18-month investigation. The 45-year-old, of Chapel House, Newcastle, admitted conspiring to supply cannabis and money laundering. Newcastle Crown Court heard how Longhurst enjoyed exotic holidays, expensive cars and jewellery. As well as a jail term, Longhurst, who was arrested in March last year, was given an eight-year travel restriction order to run from his release...

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Top members of the Canary Island Government were implicated in irregularities in the awarding of concessions for the placing of wind farms

El País reports that the corruption was revealed by the sacked General Director of the Siemeca wind company in 2005, who claimed that top members of the Canary Island Government were implicated in irregularities in the awarding of concessions for the placing of wind farms. Now the paper says that the Anti-corruption Prosecutor, Luis del Rio, has established the exchange of privileged information between Celso Perdomo and others, with the details revealed in a series of illegal emails. Perdomo is alleged to have paid 23,000 € into foreign bank accounts...

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José Luis Hernández, the President of the Polaris World group linked to perversion of the course of justice Mayor

The Mayor faces charges of perversion of the course of justice and the mis-use of public funds.Daniel García Madrid from the Partido Popular is reported to have exchanged building land with worthless plots in a deal with the Polaris World company More details on the latest corruption allegations in Torre Pacheco, where the PP Mayor, Daniel Garcia Madrid, has been ordered to prison without bail by instruction judge in San Javier, Salvador Calero....

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Ketamine is a veterinary drug, but is hot in the trance/club circuit abroad

The manufacture of ketamine, a hallucinogen, is legal in India. Not classified as a controlled substance, it can be bulk-manufactured Ketamine is a veterinary drug, but is hot in the trance/club circuit abroad International pressure has led India to notify that exporters must get the nod from the Commissioner of DrugsLegally manufactured in India. Illegally consumed at rave parties from Ibiza to California. That's ketamine hydrochloride—the chemical...

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Raymond Nevitt the walking fraud machine believed to be in Puerto Banus

Nevitt, who vanished after a conviction in 2006, is believed to be in Puerto Banus or Marbella in Spain.International arrest warrants have been issued for Raymond Nevitt, 43, from Manchester, after his conviction at the city's crown court on Thursday. He was found guilty in his absence of five charges of fraudulent trading worth £3.25m after an 11-week trial. He was first convicted of defrauding the taxpayer in 2006 but was released on bail by a...

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Ten year old boy who was allegedly raped by four classmates allegedly recorded by one of the aggressors on their mobile phone

Ten year old boy who was allegedly raped by four classmates in the Almeria town of Adra, is suffering nightmares and panic attacks according to a psychologists report drawn up at the Mental Health centre at El Ejido. The attack, by four classmates who are all also under age, allegedly took place close to the CEIP Nueva Andalucía school in the town, although not on the premises and outside school hours. The medical report advises a change of school and place of residence for the victim who is also on medication. The victim’s mother, Maria Teresa...

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Robbing the money from the collection box placed where the faithful go to light a candle.

Security cameras at the San Juan Bautista Church in Coín, Málaga, have allowed the Civil Guard to identify who was responsible for robbing the money from the collection box placed where the faithful go to light a candle. Three women, two sisters and another local woman, all of them Spanish, were recorded making off with the collection, estimated at 120 €, and what’s more all three turned round to face directly into the camera. The recording shows how one kept watch while the other two broke the padlo...

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Malaga banks held up in the space of five minutes by a man in a blue wig

Malaga banks held up in the space of five minutes by a man in a blue wig last week. Witnesses say an individual burst into a branch of Unicaja in Malaga on Tuesday morning, brandishing a shotgun. He was dressed in sunglasses, a green jacket and a blue wig according to the two customers and three members of staff in the bank at the time. Although the gun appeared to be fake, employees handed over the contents of the till to the intruder, who fled the scene. Just five minutes later police received a call from an office of Banesto on the Calle Frigilana....

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Costa del Sol villas and quality apartments in good locations are crashing by as much as £20,000 to £80,000.

Sellers are also gravitating towards auction houses, where properties can achieve a fast sale at knock-down prices. Inez Rix of Direct Auctions says she has seen a huge increase in business from owners desperately trying to offload property. "Things are getting worse and people are dropping prices drastically where they can."On Direct Auction's website, properties are being listed as much as 60 per cent below their original valuations. Banks have...

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