The Civil Guard officers found it to have a ton of cannabis resin hidden

The Civil Guard in Málaga province have released news of a drugs haul on one of the accesses into Málaga City last Friday where four people were taken into custody. Málaga Hoy newspaper said it happened during a routine Civil Guard control of routes into the provincial capital, and took place on Las Pedrizas.
The lorry pulled over was registered in Germany and was carrying a cargo of tinned foods. The Civil Guard officers found it to have a ton of cannabis resin hidden

Civil Guard swoop nets three tons of cannabis resin

A Civil Guard swoop on a warehouse in Callosa de Segura on Tuesday has seized what is reported to be more than three tons of cannabis resin and taken at least four people into custody. La Verdad newspaper said the suspects may be from Holland, and two of them appear to be the man who rented the warehouse and his father.

It’s understood he had a legal rental contract with the owner of the premises in Callosa, and had been using the premises for more than two years.
Four vehicles, two of them with Dutch plates, were also seized in the raid.

ton of cannabis resin

Four men from Roquetas de Mar are under arrest, after they were caught in the act unloading a cargo of more than a ton of cannabis resin on a beach in Balanegra on Tuesday night. The smugglers who transported the drugs to the Seto Maleno beach managed to escape out to sea.
Two of the three vehicles seized on the beach were later found to be stolen.

European arrest warrant for armed robbery

The National Police have arrested a 28-year-old Romanian fugitive wanted on a European arrest warrant for armed robbery. He was identified by police officers at a local street market. And in neighbouring Torremolinos, another foreign fugitive has been arrested. The 52-year-old German was wanted on a warrant from his home country, where he faces fraud charges

smuggling of cocaine into Ireland which passed through Alicante.

Spanish police arrested a number of people related to the smuggling of cocaine into Ireland which passed through Alicante.

The arrests came after an eight-month investigation into the gang's operations by the Irish Police, British police and the authorities in Spain and the Netherlands. Police sources said the gang were a major part of the wholesale organization for cocaine importation into Ireland. The gang is thought to have been responsible for the supply of drugs to gangs in Dublin and Limerick.

Senior sources said the arrests were a major blow to drug-dealers here who have been sourcing their cocaine from Spain. It should significantly reduce the amount of the drug available on the streets in Ireland for the near future.
The gang's ringleader a 40 year old Dubliner was one of the suspects being held by police in Alicante. Another man form Birmingham with Irish connections was also being held. A Venezuelan and a Hungarian woman were also in police custody. All the members of the gang were caught in the car park of the Holiday Inn in Alicante in two cars on Friday night. Between them they had almost €200,000 worth of cocaine and €30,000 in cash

crime wave sweeping the Costa Blanca

crime wave sweeping the Costa Blanca and other parts of southern Spain popular with foreign tourists. Hundreds of holiday villas have been attacked recently by criminal gangs, many of them Romanians and Albanians.
The criminals are not only burgling houses. A hire-car belonging to Geoff and Diane Winnard, a retired couple from Bournemouth, was rammed from behind as they drove from Alicante airport to their holiday villa.
“One man reached into my car and grabbed my wife’s handbag and drove off,” said Geoff Winnard, 58. The men made off with their passports, credit cards and £2,750 of jewellery.

fight in Playa Flamenca

A man died and four others were hospitalised following a fight in Playa Flamenca.
The incident happened in the early hours of Monday outside the Chinese restaurant on Calle Nicholas Bussi in Playa Flamenca on the Orihuela Costa. The 25-year-old, who has not yet been named, died in hospital from stab wounds following the fracas. Another man was also seriously injured and three others were slightly injured. It is thought that the altercation started in the bar next door to the Chinese restaurant and after the men were requested to leave, the fight continued outside.

Missing

Derek John Cross, nicknamed Des or Dosser, has not been seen since he was holidaying with friends in Benidorm on November 15, 1996.

Spain is going to be the largest grower of Cannabis

Spain is going to be bigger than Jamaica or Holland as a cannabis growing country.The Spanish sun is free, and the climate in some parts of the country is good for growing cannabis 10 months a year, but we see indoor growing as superior because it offers a controlled environment, and avoids the possibility of rip-offs and problems with insects and lack of water," Molina said. "Growers can combine indoor and outdoor growing, using their indoor gardens during cool weather, and also getting a head start on making plants for transplanting to outdoors. Pretty soon, Spain is going to be bigger than Jamaica or Holland as a cannabis growing and tourism destination

Judah Eleazar Binstock

Judah Eleazar Binstock, is a 78 year old British businessman and financier and is now believed to have been the person who financed trips taken by Marbella councillors the week before the motion of no confidence was placed against Julián Muñoz. He is now thought to have been hidden in the background and pulling the strings behind much of the corruption in Marbella. This information has been given to Judge Miguel Angel Torres in the declaration from the ex councillor Carmen Revilla.

Binstock, who has large real estate interests in Marbella including the Villa La Magnolia in the Camino de la Cascada de Camoján, is reported to be wanted for questioning by the British police in connection to several financial frauds including the BCCI case.
Actually born in East Germany, he grew up in Moscow where is was a member of the Communist Party. He took up British nationality at the end of the sixties. He is thought to have a large income from several casinos. United States intelligence services link him to the Syrian magnateMonzer Al Kassar and Adnan Kashogui and arms sales of missiles to Iran and possible links to Al Qaeda.

Binstock has been missing since the Malaya case broke in Marbella and there are some reports that he has travelled to his mansion in Paris. The missing and wanted councillor, Carlos Fernández, is said to have had a relationship with Binstock’s daughter.

four Madrid Lawyers have been ordered that they be held in prison pending trial

Murcia Judge Miguel Angel Torres who has been investigating the corruption scandal in Marbella has indicted four Madrid Lawyers and has ordered that they be held in prison pending trial. This follows the arrest of the Cartagena property developer Juan Antonio Roca for corruption charges. Roca is belived to be the mastermind behind a corruption ring in Marbella, Andalucia.

The four Lawyers have been involved in large projects in Los Alcazares like Nueva Ribera. All four lawyers are from the firm of Sánchez Zubizarreta-Soriano Zurita in Madrid. Police experts have confirmed it will be many months before the evidence in assimilated into a case which can be brought before the court. During the police intterogation the lawyers were questioned about the transfers of many thousands of euros during the last few weeks.

‘Malaya 2’

‘Operation Malaya 2’ new offences came to light, resulting in some 30 city councillors and business people being accused of massive corruption. These accusations were in addition to the arrests made earlier in the year. Then. 29 people were arrested, including Mayor Marisol Yagüe, her deputy, Isabel García Marcos and José Antonio Roca, who was town planning advisor. During the investigation, Judge Miguel Ángel Torres said of Mr Roca that he was the driving force in Marbella City Hall and that the Mayor performed a mere symbolic role. In September 2006, the former mayor and her deputy were released from custody on 60,000-euro bail.

Those arrested as part of ‘Malaya 2’ included the former chief of Marbella’s police Rafael del Pozo and Tomás Reñones, the city’s second deputy mayor. Mr Reñones became acting mayor after the arrest of the mayor and the first deputy mayor. However, his involvement in the scandals became clear during the following-up investigations and Judge Torres ordered his unconditional detention. Tomás Reñones was football player and captain of Atlético de Madrid, the football club owned by the late Jesús Gil, the first of the big corrupted mayors of Marbella and founder of GIL, the political party whose members included the disgraced mayor Marisol Yagüe.

hidden storage room

Police have uncovered a hidden storage room in Spain holding 1,800 pieces of pre-Colombian art, including ceremonial masks, ceramics, jewellery and a suit of 37 plates of gold - artefacts from a collection last seen in public 10 years ago.
Many of the metallic pieces, including four copper masks, four gold rattles and four gold nose pendants, derived from the ancient tomb of the Lord of Sipan, one of the most important vestiges of pre-Inca Moche culture in Peru.

torture and other ill-treatment

Spanish police are getting away with repeated acts of torture and other ill-treatment, according to a new Amnesty International report.
The report highlights cases of people who have been hit, kicked, punched and verbally abused by police officers, both in police custody and on the street. Some complainants report being being beaten while handcuffed. Others claim they were threatened with a gun or knife, whipped on the soles of their feet and subjected to death threats

Spanish drug survey

The figures released yesterday are the result of a survey carried out by the government in secondary schools. Teenagers between 14 and 18 participated in the nationawide survey. According to the results, the number of teenagers who admit to taking cocaine is now four times as high as it was in 1994, and the number of people who smoke cannabis has doubled. 87 per cent of teenagers consider that it is easy to buy alcohol, 64 per cent find it easy to buy cannabis, and 53.8 per cent have no problem in getting sleeping tablets.

5,627 structures that are not reflected in the property register.

Using the satellite images of the town’s urban centre and outlying urbanisations and rural zones, officials have identified 5,627 structures that are not reflected in the property register. The majority of the unregistered buildings, 69 per cent of which existed prior to 2002, are in the countryside and the El Rodeo, Cortijo Benítez, Miravalle and Las Delicias districts.
Comparing images taken in 2002 and 2006, officials discovered 2.676 land-use changes.

Three Britons have been handed prison sentences

Three Britons have been handed prison sentences for their involvement in a recent late-night brawl in Ronda.Three received prison sentences of six months each for attacking two local police officers and a local resident. As they have no previous convictions, the jail terms were deferred but will be taken into account if they offend again.
In addition to the prison terms, they also have to pay 1,500 euros in compensation to one of the officers, 800 euros to the local resident, who received a face wound requiring four stitches, plus 36 euros to the second policeman.

Four prisoners who took three prison officers hostage

Four prisoners who took three prison officers hostage at Picassent jail, near Valencia, yesterday evening have been split up and transferred to different jails. The crisis began at around 6pm yesterday evening when four prisoners from the high-security wing took three officers hostage, apparently using one of their fellow prisoners as a bargaining chip.
Two of the three officers, both in their twenties, were released shortly after midnight and following all-night negotiations, the third man was set free shortly after 6am this morning.

British man, whose initials have been confirmed as AMT

A 66 year old British man resident in Fuengirola (Málaga) has been arrested accused of heading up a gang trafficking cannabis between Spain and the UK.
Two weeks ago, a suspicious trailer was intercepted on its way to a company that runs daily shipments to the UK. It was found to contain industrial-sized water purifiers, though police sniffer dogs later detected 2,500kg of cannabis resin hidden inside the machines. A further 1,500kg was found inside a warehouse on a Barcelona industrial estate from which the lorry had been spotted leaving.
The British man, whose initials have been confirmed as AMT, visited Cataluña regularly to ski, always staying in luxury hotels.
The investigation started last October when Guardia Civil officers seized 1,200kg cannabis found hidden inside a shipment of computer terminals, although they were unable to find sufficient evidence implicating AMT to arrest him on that occasion.

Ken MacIntyre from Ayrshire murdered

Ken MacIntyre from Ayrshire and his partner Bill had been drinking in bars near Plaza de la Constitución in the old town on Friday night when the attack took place.
The couple left Eros bar in Calle Santa Faz around 04.00 and headed in the direction of Plaza de la Constitución near the popular tapas strip.
They walked through Calle San Miguel and were attacked near Domino bar.
A friend told Costa Blanca News that Ken and Bill were allegedly tapped on the shoulder by two men who snatched their jewellery and attacked them until they fell to the floor.
Sadly, Ken took a severe beating and died at the scene of the crime

raping an 18 year old British tourist last Saturday night

A 39 year old taxi driver was arrested today accused of raping an 18 year old British tourist last Saturday night in Maspalomas (Gran Canaria). According to the victim's testimony, she caught the taxi at around 2am on Sunday morning in the Plaza de Maspalomas and asked the driver to take her back to her hotel. Instead, she alleges, he drove her first to a piece of waste ground where he raped her in the back of the vehicle before dropping her off at her hotel.

154 people were arrested

since the introduction of tougher penalties for dangerous drivers at the start of this month, a total of 154 people were arrested for traffic infractions, 151 of whom tested with more than 0.6mg alcohol per litre of aspirated breath.

The other three were caught speeding: one was arrested for driving at more than 60km an hour above the legal limit on an urban street, while the other two were clocked doing more than 80km an hour above the limit on the freeway.

criminal offence to drive drunk or speed

criminal offence to drive drunk or speed, and anyone caught doing so could face a prison sentence of up to six months. If they are caught committing both crimes together, the sentence could be up to two years.
The limit at which drunk driving becomes a crime is 0.60 milligrams of alcohol in exhaled air, while for speeding to be considered a crime the driver would have to exceed 200km/h on a highway or 110km/h in an urban area.

Except for people with prior criminal records, most sentences would be substituted for a fine. In the first two days of the legislation going into effect, 154 people were arrested.

Three out of every 100 Spaniards over the age of 15 paid a bribe last year

Three out of every 100 Spaniards over the age of 15 paid a bribe last year, according to figures released Thursday by anti-corruption organisation Transparency International

Three notaries have been arrested in connection with Operation White Whale.

Operation White Whale is the first time police have established a direct link between organised crime and Spain's booming construction and property industries. Half of all new construction starts in Spain take place on the Mediterranean coast.

In a boon for international criminals, established practice enables notaries to absent themselves for a few minutes when property contracts are signed, allowing the buyer to hand over “dinero B”, a substantial amount of undeclared cash. Unlike bankers, public notaries are not required to “know their clients” or establish the provenance of money exchanged in property transactions.

323 arrests in connection with organised crime

The Civil Guard,estimates that about 550 criminal groups operate in Spain, about half of them foreign. Last year, police made 323 arrests in connection with organised crime. “Criminals are businessmen these days,” says a chief inspector in a unit that fights organised crime. “They want good travel connections, an efficient banking sector, nice weather and anonymity. They get all that in Málaga.”

Seven Britons were involved in a brawl

Seven Britons were involved in a brawl with a group of Spaniards in the early hours of Saturday morning in the centre of Ronda.

nabbed a bag snatcher

Police in Benalmádena Costa nabbed a bag snatcher just moments after he had robbed three tourists on Friday afternoon. The alleged thief, identified only as a Romanian man, was picked up at 1.30pm on Calle Carril del Siroco. When police grabbed him, he was about to steal the bags of two British tourists.

crackdown on child pornography

A minor was detained in Málaga last week in a crackdown on child pornography. A Guardia Civil investigation into the exchange of images by mobile phone and the Internet has seen 40 people arrested across the country. A specialist team which deals with under-age suspects took part in the Málaga arrest.

four robberies in Sotogrande and Pueblo Nuevo de Guadiaro have been reported to the police

A further wave of four robberies in Sotogrande and Pueblo Nuevo de Guadiaro have been reported to the police. The thieves were looking for money and jewellery and used the same modus operandi as on previous occasions. They entered all of the properties while owners were asleep.