Mark Lewis has been left in charge of the town hall in San Fulgencio after the mayor, deputy mayor and four senior councillors were arrested

A British expatriate who speaks only a smattering of Spanish has become the "accidental mayor" of a town on Spains Costa Blanca after a wave of corruption arrests. Mark Lewis, 58, has been left in charge of the town hall in San Fulgencio after the mayor, deputy mayor and four senior councillors were all taken into police custody following allegations of real estate corruption. Mr Lewis, who lives in Spain with his wife and daughter, was given the title by default on Wednesday on the grounds that he is one of only two councillors from the ruling...

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Equatorial Guinea’s exiled opposition leader, Severo Moto, has been arrested in Spain after allegedly trying to transport illegal weapons

Equatorial Guinea’s exiled opposition leader, Severo Moto, has been arrested in Spain after allegedly trying to send illegal weapons to the oil-rich African nation. The arrest was the latest twist in a tangled case that has implicated figures such as Mark Thatcher, the son of the former British Prime Minister, and Simon Mann, the Eton-educated mercenary, who is facing trial in Malabo for his alleged role in a failed 2004 coup attempt. Mr Thatcher, who now lives on the Spanish Costa del Sol, was given a suspended jail sentence after he pleaded guilty...

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Gary Glitter planning to buy a posh pad in Puerto Banus

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National Police officers received a tip off that the group was transferring ‘hashish’ in a van to the United Kingdom

The gang were stopped by National Police officers after they received a tip off that the group was transferring ‘hashish’ in a van to the United Kingdom. According to the National Police, they carried out operation ‘Rostel’ in a bid to stop the gang, after they discovered that there was an organised group based in south-east Spain who had managed to smuggle a large quantity, thought to be about a tonne, of the drug through a Murcian port. They said that they suspected the drugs were bound for the UK and that they expected it to be transferred in...

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Tamboskaya mafia organisation Vladislav Reznik being investigated on the orders of a Spanish judge

Vladislav Reznik, a deputy of Putin's United Russia party and the chairman of the State Duma Financial Markets Committee, is being investigated on the orders of a Spanish judge for alleged links to the Tamboskaya mafia organisation.The gang is accused of a series of serious crimes including murder, kidnap, arms and drugs trafficking, money laundering and racketeering and has been mentioned in connection with match fixing UEFA cup games.A luxury villa...

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Guardia Civil is currently investigating the discovery of a body, in an advanced stage of decomposition, in waters close to sa Foradada

Guardia Civil is currently investigating the discovery of a body, in an advanced stage of decomposition, in waters close to sa Foradada, between Deya and Soller. The body was found by a fisherman who, upon making a closer inspection of a large object he had seen floating in the water, realised that it was a human corpse and immediately called the emergency services. Units from the Guardia Civil, Maritime Rescue and Red Cross all took part in the recovery operation, which lasted some hours. Initial identification has been made even more difficult...

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SIX Americans arrested in Torrevieja for possession of cocaine

SIX arrested in Torrevieja for possession of cocaine and for allegedly being part of a narcotics ring.According to the police, all those arrested are American and aged between 30 and 40 years. They said that the gang ringleader, known as M.V.C, had been arrested previously in 2001 for the same drug related activities. The investigation into the Americans’ activities began three months ago when two properties in Torrevieja were identified as the bases where drug operations were being conducted. When arrested, the police found several amounts of...

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Six kilos of heroin has been taken off the streets of Alicante

Six kilos of heroin has been taken off the streets of Alicante and it is one of the largest drugs hauls.It occured when a North African man was being tailed from Murcia by the police as a suspect , he was stopped and resisted arrest by dangerous driving . The drugs were discovered in his car .The last major drug bust was in 2006 when more than 20 kilos was found on a boat in Alicante . This came in from Turkey via the so called Balkan route . Heroin is now less popular than cocaine and other synthetic drugs...

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Mayor built a house on non-urban land by claiming it was just a garden shed

Residents have complained that the mayor has built a house on non-urban land by claiming it was just a garden shed. According to the village’s inhabitants, Juan Jose Puchol (PSPV) had a house built of some 40 square metres, which he said was just a storeroom for tools and a DIY room, but then later installed a small bathroom and kitchen. They say the windows of the ground floor are blanked out so passers-by cannot see that it is lived in, and the upper floor windows ‘have sea views’. Properties built on land classified as ‘rural’ or ‘rustic’ must...

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David George Hartley, 41, from Mansfield, Notts, was sentenced to 16 years imprisonment for murder

David George Hartley, 41, from Mansfield, Notts, was sentenced to 16 years imprisonment for the murder in June, 2002, of Danish holidaymaker Paul Pedersen.He was also sentenced to a further two years imprisonment for stealing 200 euros - then worth about £135 - from his victim after strangling him.Hartley denied the charges.The written sentence was published at the Barcelona provincial court today following Hartley's conviction by a jury of nine at the end of a five-day trial last month.Hartley met Pedersen at a campsite near Barcelona airport...

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The Latin Kings are the best-known among the Hispanic youth gangs that have formed in Spain among the immigrants from its former colonies.

They call themselves kings and queens. They rule over streets they have named the Inca, Aztec or Hispanic kingdom. They believe in God, honour and brotherhood. And whoever breaks the code of silence, does so at his own risk. The Latin Kings are the best-known among the Hispanic youth gangs that have formed in Spain among the immigrants from its former colonies. Gradually, Spanish police experts are beginning to understand the mentality of the street gangs born or based on models in poor and crime-infested neighbourhoods in the Americas. The Almighty...

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Spanish police has seized seven tons of marijuana and detained five people in recent crackdowns in the southern province of Andalucia

Spanish police has seized seven tons of marijuana and detained five people in recent crackdowns in the southern province of Andalucia, provincial commissary Jose Maria Deira said Tuesday."The drug, coming from Morocco, is very pure, which has a market value of 10 million euros (about 14 million U.S. dollars),"Deira said, "it is the biggest volume seized in Andalucia this year."Deria said the marijuana was captured on two ships respectively, one ton in Cadiz on Sept. 21, and the other six tons in San Lucar de Barrameda a day later."It took several...

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Body of a woman has been found floating on a beach of La Manga del Mar Menor in Murcia.

Body of a woman has been found floating on a beach of La Manga del Mar Menor in Murcia.Lifesavers found the body of the woman on the Galúa beach around 5pm last night and alerted the Guardia Civil. There are no details about her possible identity or nationality as yet.It comes after the body of another woman was found on Monday floating in swimming pool in a water park, also in La Man...

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