Jose Munoz, 55, head of the Malaga brotherhood of Gitanos, was shot twice inside his car by a fellow gypsy.

Jose Munoz, 55, head of the Malaga brotherhood of Gitanos, was shot twice inside his car by a fellow gypsy.The suspect, D.R.F, 18, from Almeria, was later arrested by police at a roadblock in Algodonales, Cadiz province, as he tried making his getaway in a taxi. Police now fear that the shooting may spark gypsy warfare and retribution crimes within the city.A police spokesman said: “He was immediately taken to Malaga police station and not to Ronda for fear of reprisals.”The incident took place at 14:30 in an area known as La Indiana – just metres away from the back entrance to the local army barracks. Munoz – a furniture salesman – had been seen earlier with the suspect in Almeria and was driving back to his farm before the shooting took place.The two men reportedly began arguing over a business matter while heading to a livestock fair held in the area. The youth immediately fled the scene and called for a taxi at a nearby hotel – where he reportedly waited calmly for it to arrive.
“He was immediately taken to Malaga police station and not to Ronda for fear of reprisals.”However, an onlooker – already aware of the shooting – alerted the police.
Just over an hour later, the vehicle was intercepted in the gaditana district of Algodonales.The taxi driver was intially arrested but, after proving his identity, was subsequently released.The murder of the popular Munoz has shocked Ronda and even prompted mayor Antonio Marin Lara to send his condolences to the victim’s family. Meanwhile, police are searching for a motive behind the fatal attack. Malaga province has now been the setting for 18 homicides this year, four more than the whole of 2008.

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Addictions International offers a range of services to expats with addiction problems.

Addictions International offers a range of services to expats with addiction problems. Because of the unique delivery of our programme we are able to support people wherever they may be. Our programme is exceptional in that we can reach people with problems even when they cannot access help in the usual ways.
» People living in rural areas with inadequate public transport or with issues surrounding confidentiality within that setting;
» The need to continue in employment for personal or family reasons;
» Individuals who are housebound - or have mobility issues caused by disability or age;
» People engaged in sensitive employment e.g. key public sector employment status, senior executives in the private sector, professionals- including medics and lawyers etc., entrepreneurs, and people in the public-eye.
contact:copsandbloggers@gmail.com

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Throat cut outside Barraca disco in Sueca, Valencia.

24 year old woman has died after having her throat cut in a fight with another woman in her 30’s outside a discotheque in Sueca, Valencia.The owners of the Barraca disco where it happened have given their condolences to the family of the victim, and issued a statement expressing their ‘tremendous consternation’ at what had happened, and underlining that the disco staff are collaborating fully with the police to try and establish exactly what took place.It happened around 7am on Sunday morning and reports say both women were local residents in the La Ribera area. The SAMU health team called to the scene could do no more than confirm the death.

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Diamond robbery was masterminded by a trio of British youths

Diamond robbery was masterminded by a trio of British youths, it can be revealed.The gang – who have been charged with more than 30 robberies – regularly took ‘a civilised’ full English breakfast at 4pm each afternoon, near their Coin home.The dangerous gang – who had weapons in the garage of their rented Sierra Gorda property – were however, always impeccably polite at their regular meeting spot Leslie’s Bar.“They were always very well-mannered,” a waitress told the Olive Press. “I liked them, so I was surprised when they were arrested for these crimes.”
The group – which includes one woman – have been arrested over an incredible 30 or more robberies and burglaries, amassing a booty of luxury items over the last few years.The group – who kept a series of dangerous Staffordshire bull terrier dogs at their home – came from England, Wales and Ireland.According to sources they had lived in the area for up to two years, renting luxury detached villas in the Coin and Alhaurin el Grande area.They lived a ‘low key’ lifestyle, but wore designer clothes, expensive watches and other top accessories. mijas diamond robbery but police became suspicious of their extravagant way of life following a 30,000 euro robbery at the Mijas Diamond and Jewellery Centre.They had previously visited the jewellers and carefully sketched plans of the layout of the shop, before raiding a few weeks later.After police obtained a search warrant for their rented home they found designer furniture and other items, including a 9,000 euro Bang & Olufsen TV, and a stolen Volvo in the garage. They also recovered a selection of weapons.
According to a police spokesman the robberies and burglaries were well planned and executed.He said: “In the Mijas robbery the gang posed as tourists on an excursion. The day of the robbery they dressed up as building workers and erected barriers in the street, before smashing the shop window.”They are also alleged to have raided private homes in the area, while the Volvo was stolen from a Chinese resident in Coin at gunpoint.The downfall of the gang was keeping the best of what they stole and only selling on the rest.Police believe the gang may have had three more accomplices.

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e-mail on the Costa del Sol,can seriously damage your wealth

If you can’t wait to surf the Web or check your e-mail on the Costa del Sol, a few words of advice: Think twice about it. Or maybe three or four times.Roaming with your BlackBerry or iPhone abroad to simply make voice calls will cost you an arm and a leg. Using it to surf the Web or send e-mail could cost you your whole body, with bills running into the hundreds of dollars. Early iPhone users learned this the hard way; AT&T forgave some of the most outrageous bills and cautioned users to turn off the automatic e-mail checking that was eating up data usage.But even if you use your smartphone to check e-mail and send photos manually, you could be headed for trouble. And the problem is made worse by the skimpy information provided on the Web sites of the two main GSM wireless providers in the United States: AT&T and T-Mobile. (GSM is the predominant system used in Europe. Sprint and Verizon use CDMA, and most of their phones will not work in Europe.)Both companies’ Web sites state the cost to use data when roaming. But it’s priced in megabytes, a measurement that means nothing to most people. (Can you imagine if your wireless plan told you how many MB of data you could use, rather than how many minutes you had?)How much data you use to send a text or visit a Web site depends on whom you’re asking. T-Mobile’s site says that a text message uses about 3KB, and visiting a Web site will eat up between 250 to 500 KB a page, depending on how many images are on the site.AT&T’s site does not state an equivalency between Web-page access and the amount of data used, although a spokesman said that the company would add that information soon. According to AT&T, visiting a Web site could use 50 to 75 KB a page and checking three e-mail messages could eat up 60 KB

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Stephen Mallon surrounded by a gang of 30 men and hurled off a 25ft balcony.

Stephen Mallon, 49, was pelted with bottles, glasses and other missiles after going to the aid of his two teenage sons outside a village bar.He was then surrounded by the mob and hurled off a 25ft balcony.Mr Mallon, from Bournemouth, was yesterday in a coma at a hospital in Malaga, with his distraught wife Teresa at his bedside.
The attack happened in Competa, an hour from the Costa del Sol, where the family has had a holiday home for six years.One of the sons had his nose broken in the violence, while the other suffered a broken arm.A family member said: "They were set upon by a gang of 30 men because they were English."

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Voodoo curses human trafficking gang charged on Saturday at a court in the southwestern city of Huelva

Spanish police say they have arrested the ringleaders of a human trafficking ring that allegedly brought Nigerian women to Spain and forced them into prostitution by threatening them with voodoo curses.Many of the 23 suspects arrested in nationwide raids were being charged on Saturday at a court in the southwestern city of Huelva.
Police say the arrests were triggered by a woman who in February told police of the gang's intimidation tactics.The victims, aged 25 to 35, were forced to pay large sums of money to the gang members, who told the women they would go mad or have their souls destroyed if they disobeyed orders given during voodoo rituals held in Nigeria involving pieces of their fingernails or hair.

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La Costa Nostra, or Our Coast.

Neapolitan gangsters, including the alleged fugitive boss captured Saturday night in the city of Marbella, have a name for Spain: La Costa Nostra, or Our Coast.
The term plays off Cosa Nostra, or Our Thing, as the mafia is called, and underscores what authorities say: that Spain has become a top foreign base for the Naples underworld, the Camorra, in the last decade. Spanish police have arrested half a dozen suspected Neapolitan crime figures this year alone.
"They use that name Costa Nostra because it's like a second homeland for them," said Alessandro Pennasilico, an Italian prosecutor in Naples, in an interview. "They like Spain -- the climate, the coast, the beaches, because it's close to their culture. And the Camorra goes where there is business. Spain is an important country regarding the trafficking of drugs."The nickname of purported boss Raffaele Amato is "the Spaniard." He partied in Marbella, a beachfront refuge of high-rolling international desperadoes and dubious fortunes. Investigators say he set up multinational cocaine deals in Barcelona. Moving among Spanish hide-outs, he allegedly waged a long-distance war for the housing projects in Naples that are the heart of his empire. And he speaks Spanish like a native.Amato's capture Saturday was a major victory for Italian investigators. The balding 44-year-old gained notoriety for allegedly setting off a turf war with a rival clan between 2004 and 2007 that littered the high-rise slums of Naples with 70 bodies. The battle was retold in "Gomorra," a book by journalist Roberto Saviano, and in the recent film of the same name.The Camorra's intense activity in Spain reveals evolving alliances and shifting global crime networks, investigators say. Starting about seven years ago, Amato was a key player in a number of decisive underworld sit-downs in Spain, the gateway for Latin American cocaine smuggled into Europe, said Antonio Laudati, a top official in Italy's Justice Ministry and former chief prosecutor in Naples.Europe became an increasingly hot market for cocaine because of rising demand, a strong currency and the hardening of U.S. borders after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Laudati said in a telephone interview. The Neapolitans met with Latin American and Spanish gangsters to build new partnerships and develop the European market, he said.
"They reorganized the routes," Laudati said. "One important route for cocaine into Spain went through North Africa. Another crossed the Balkans into Italy. And Barcelona became a hub for a land route for cocaine to Italy through France, where the Marseilles underworld has always had close ties to the Camorra. So you had a mixed operational group of bosses base itself in Spain."The Camorra enlisted Spanish seagoing smugglers and front companies that concealed loads in shipments of products such as marble and seafood, Laudati said. Italian gangs also took advantage of the booms in real estate and construction in Spain to launder millions, according to authorities.Although the Neapolitan crime clans are flashy and murderous at home, they avoided violence in Spain because it was seen as a place to do high-level business and lie low.Nonetheless, the numerous arrests in Spain show that Spanish and Italian law enforcement have developed good cooperation. Amato was arrested in 2005 in Barcelona but was later released because of a judicial error in which the deadline for his prosecution passed by a day.Police began tracking him again in 2006. He lived in southern Spain and used fake Spanish documents to travel to see his family at upscale hotels in London, Tokyo and Turkey, according to Italian authorities and media reports.Last weekend, surveillance and wiretaps paid off when Italian and Spanish police trailed Amato on a 30-mile drive along the Mediterranean from Malaga. They arrested him on his way to a Saturday night date in Marbella, the glitzy capital of "his coast."

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Estepona breakwater 50 year old British tourist who was assaulted by a group of youths on a beach

50 year old British tourist who was assaulted by a group of youths on a beach .
He was hit over the head with a bottle and stabbed twice in the back in the area near the Estepona breakwater, where numerous young people go to drink alcohol at weekends.It appears that the victim was having a drink with a woman, also British, when, just before four o’clock in the morning, he was attacked by a group of five youths of North African origin who had been sitting on the sand just a few metres away from the couple.After the youths had fled the scene the victim’s companion helped him onto the Avenida de España where they were picked up by a Local Police patrol. The tourist was taken to the nearest health centre and then transferred to the Costa del Sol Hospital, where he was admitted for treatment for the two stab wounds, one in the kidney area and the other near the left shoulder blade.

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Danish citizen who was wanted by Great Britain for alleged crimes of robbery, fraud and money laundering has been arrested in Fuengirola.

Danish citizen who was wanted by Great Britain for alleged crimes of robbery, fraud and money laundering has been arrested in Fuengirola. A European warrant had been issued by the British courts for the arrest of T.G.G.K. (30), who has allegedly done dozens of people out of more than three million pounds sterling (almost five million euros). The victims of the swindle had bought shares in different companies that were worth nothing. T.G.G.K. was wanted for a total of fourteen alleged crimes related to fraud and money laundering committed between 2003 and 2006.
The Spanish police unit dedicated to finding fugitives has also arrested British I.S.J. (24) in Formentera del Segura in Alicante and German E.K. (59) in Els Poblets - also in Alicante. The British man was wanted in his country for robbery, misappropriation and damages committed in 2006 in Chorley, England. The German courts were looking for E.K. for crimes of fraud and document forgery committed between 2003 and 2005 when he worked as a financial assessor.

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Christopher Wiggins, 42, pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply cocaine from South America believed to be worth more than 650 million euro

Christopher Wiggins, 42, pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply cocaine from South America believed to be worth more than 650 million euro (£580 million).
Wiggins, based in the Costa del Sol in Spain, pleaded guilty at a brief hearing in Cork Circuit Criminal Court.
Wiggins, was detained after Irish navy, gardai and customs swooped on the 60ft ocean-going boat, Dances With Waves, 170 miles off the west Cork coast last November. Intelligence agencies had tracked the boat for two months across the Atlantic.

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Wanted for alleged document forgery, fraud and identity theft.

Arrested a 64-year-old man from Potenza (Italy) who was living in Marbella. Wanted for alleged document forgery, fraud and identity theft.

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‘Robin de los Bancos’, was arrested in Barcelona University

‘Robin de los Bancos’, was arrested in Barcelona University after reappearing yesterday saying the money he had obtained had gone to produce a new free newspaper which proposes his own ‘post-capitalist’ plan to overcome the crisis, and includes a guide on how not to pay your mortgage. He said he had spent the previous six months in exile outside Spain but had come back as ‘our future is at stake’. The police claimed last October that 18 banks had presented denuncias against him, while he claimed that only four had done so and those cases had been archived. Despite that claim he was arrested yesterday.

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The new ‘Costa del Crime’.Russel Ruble has just been returned to America by the FBI to stand trial for a theft of over $320,000 from his relatives.

In the last few months there has been much written about foreign fugitives who have sometimes lived here for many years without detection. We have had an Englishman John Darwin who faked his own death at sea in a canoe while his wife Anne collected thousands of pounds in life insurance and moved here.
The only reason he got caught was because he was stupid enough to pose for a picture for a real estate company.
In the last couple of weeks The Panama Star reported the case of David Matusiewicz and his mother abducting his three children and living happily in Cerro Azul in a $175,000 property. He also forged his ex-wife’s name to obtain a home equity loan; he even had the audacity to sell an optometry business.
All this netted him in excess of a million dollars. Another fugitive Russel Ruble has just been returned to America by the FBI to stand trial for a theft of over $320,000 from his relatives.
So why do they choose Panama? I know the North Americans treat Panama as their playground where they can do things here they could never do in their home countries. Some of them maybe were ex-military and remembered the good old times and wanted to revisit with some nostalgia.
But, I do not understand why Europeans choose to come here. When during my rare visit to England, I have told locals in pubs that I live in Panama, the educated ones might know that is where the canal is. Others do not even know what part of the world we are in.
Most of the criminals who are up to no good in the U.K. tend to go to ‘Costa del Sol’ (nicknamed ‘Costa del Crime’) in the south of Spain. Mainly due to the climate and cheaper way of life but probably more importantly only a two hour flight from their homeland, unlike Panama which is eleven hours flying time--not including the wait at the airports.
Now we live in an electronic global age where anybody can sit at a keyboard and find out information about anywhere in the world. Is it possible that all the promotion from the tourist sector is actually partly responsible for the influx of criminality? Cruise ships now come here, and the tourist industry is thriving generating over $2.2 billion.
Are we sure we can control this new thriving business?
Dare I say that immigration is not doing their job. When I applied for my cedula I had a barrage of paperwork to fill out and I quite clearly remember one of those documents was a crime report stating that I did not have a criminal record from my homeland.
Why were these individuals not flagged when this document was completed?
Panama is a country with an abundance of laws. The main problem is these laws are never implemented. It could be the lack of resources or is it that the government does not have the will or skill to enforce the laws of the land?
Alternatively were all of these aforementioned individuals here illegally by overstaying their tourist visas? I somehow doubt it.
Unless someone in authority gets a grip on the crime wave, which includes trafficking narcotics and gang wars which now envelop this beautiful country, it is going to turn into another ‘Costa del Crime’.

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37 year old man to be given 6 years , after being arrested in his vehicle transporting nearly 300 grams of cocaine.

37 year old man to be given 6 years , after being arrested in his vehicle transporting nearly 300 grams of cocaine.According to the indictment, which has had access Efe, they have been watching him since March 21st, 2007 when the police set up a device to monitor the vehicle of the defendant, after learning that he was planning to travel to Almería to acquire a “significant amount of drugs. ”
After being observed during the outward journey to the border of the province of Almeria, the officers stopped the man around the town of Guadix and after registration of the car they found a bag containing 282.99 grams of cocaine on the illicit market which would have reached a value of 12,552 euros.The prosecution asked for the accused, who has been more than two months in custody for this reason, in addition to imprisonment, a fine of 38,000 euros. It is anticipated that the trial for these acts will be held on April 16th in the First Section of the Audiencia Provincial de Granada

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family clan responsible for dozens of burglaries in Elche have been arrested

Eight members of a gang responsible for dozens of burglaries in Elche have been arrested in an operation by National Police.The Interior Ministry described them as a family clan and said in a press release that one was also wanted for attempted rape. Seven of the suspects are Spanish, while the eighth person in custody, a Moroccan man, was responsible for selling on the stolen items. More than 60 robberies are noted, many of them in outlying areas.
The operation was carried out in two phases and seized a number of firearms and two vehicles.

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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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Socialist Mayor of the village of Alcaucín in Málaga is among 13 people arrested in Spain’s latest corruption scandal.

Socialist Mayor of the village of Alcaucín in Málaga is among 13 people arrested in Spain’s latest corruption scandal.José Manuel Martín Alba, a labourer by trade, has been detained as investigations continue into the building and sale of homes on non-buildableland. Searches were carried out on Friday in the homes of the Mayor and members of his family.The PSOE Socialist party says they will expel all those indicted from the party.The 13 arrests occurred in Málaga and Huelva and also include the Mayor’s two daughters, and José Mora, chief of municipal architecture in the Dipitación de Málaga, the provincial government.Also detained are two architects and other constructors and alleged intermediaries.El Mundo says that the investigation could move to neighbouring La Viñuela, where the Socialist Mayor already faces different investigations on town planning irregularities.Many of the properties sold in the area, have been purchased by foreigners.

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