Rumanian immigrant was arrested last Sunday evening hours after a woman returned home to find him asleep in her chalet

27 year old Rumanian immigrant was arrested last Sunday evening hours after a woman returned home to find him asleep in her chalet. The woman noticed something was wrong when she noticed that the door of the property had been forced and that one of the window bars had been bent out of shape.
Peering in through the bedroom window, she spotted the man asleep in her bedroom, and immediately called the police. He was captured a few hours later hiding in bushes on the banks of the Guadalmedina river between Casabermeja and Málaga.
During the search, a shotgun wrapped in a blanket was found discarded close to the chalet, which is located in the El Chorro area, not far from the Hermitage of Nuestra Señora del Socorro, on the outskirts of Casabermeja.

Police are investigating the death of a man whose badly burned body was found in a wooded area of the Garraf natural park

Police are investigating the death of a man whose badly burned body was found shortly after midnight last night in a wooded area of the Garraf natural park near Sitges (Barcelona). It seems that the man was hit over the head before being doused in some kind of inflammable liquid then set alight. The body was discovered after fire-fighters had been called in to extinguish the resulting bush fire.

One of the two security guards shot in a raid this morning in Viso del Alcor has died at the Virgen del Rocío Hospital in Sevilla

One of the two security guards shot in a raid this morning in Viso del Alcor has died at the Virgen del Rocío Hospital in Sevilla. The 48 year old man died of abdominal injuries before doctors could operate.The other guard was shot five times - in the arm, leg and lower abdomen - and was taken to Valme Hospital, where his condition is described as serious, but not life-threatening. They were shot at around 11am by a man on a motorcycle as they were carrying bags of cash into a branch of the Banco Santander on the calle Real in Viso del Alcor. Their attacker sped off with the cash and remains at large.

major drugs’ bust in El Médano when three people of different nationalities were remanded in custody after being arrested

A year-long police operation has led to a major drugs’ bust in El Médano when three people of different nationalities were remanded in custody after being arrested when a boat believed to have sailed from Morocco was seized.
Properties were also searched and some 3,000 euros was confiscated, together with a number of items which police believe were being used in association with the drug trafficking. They included night vision binoculars, GPS equipment, mobile phones and cans of gasoline for the return journey back to Morocco.

Two Colombians (aged 34 and 43) and an Italian (45) were arrested yesterday after a suitcase containing 120,000 ecstasy tablets was found

Two Colombians (aged 34 and 43) and an Italian (45) were arrested yesterday after a suitcase containing 120,000 ecstasy tablets was found in the back of their car.
The three suspects were arrested as the Italian man, unaware that he had been tailed, was handing over the vehicle to the Colombian pair close to where the Summercase music festival is being staged this weekend in Boadilla del Monte (Madrid).
With each tablet fetching between €8-€15, the total market value of the haul is estimated at over a million euros. It seems that the drugs were bought in Holland and transported by the Italian man to Spain by car. The importance of the haul becomes apparent given that, up until the end of last month, only 162,500 ecstasy tablets were seized across the whole of Spain, and that the total for last year was 481,600. Ecstasy, or MDMA, is an illegal, synthetic, psychoactive drug which produces a euphoric sensation of intimacy with others as well as diminished feelings of fear and anxiety, but can be fatal.

Timothy O'Toole has been jailed for 15 years in Spain updated

A briton has been jailed for 15 years in Spain after police infiltrated a £126m cocaine smuggling operation. Timothy O'Toole, 53, who has Manchester connections, acquired the Atlantic Warden fishing boat to run drugs from Latin America to Europe - not realising the skipper was an undercover Customs officer. The vessel was boarded by police off the west coast of Africa after a three-year operation.
James Carabini, 45, from Dublin, was acquitted.Trafficker Timothy Kieran O'Toole (53), gave his address as Limerick but was using a British passport when he was arrested in May 2005. O'Toole is also thought to have connections with Manchester. He is not known here to any of the garda national units or to senior garda officers in Limerick. However, Dubliner James Carabini (45) was cleared of the charges by the three-judge national criminal court in Madrid. Father-of-two Carabini, of Carnlough Road, Cabra, moved to Spain after he came to the attention of the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB). As a result of a Cab investigation into his actions, Mr Carabini's social welfare payments were stopped and he and a friend had to hand over cash from an alleged overpayment. The Madrid court heard how an undercover international police operation, which had lasted three years, ended with the seizure of 3.5 metric tonnes of cocaine when a yacht was boarded off the Cape Verde Islands off Africa's west coast. O'Toole had supplied the Atlantic Warden boat for the cocaine run from Latin America after meetings with known drug dealers in Britain, Germany, Holland, Portugal and Spain. Those meetings were monitored by undercover police and customs officers from Britain, Spain and elsewhere. The court was told that O'Toole was believed to have been involved regularly in making contacts between South American cocaine barons and organised criminals in Europe. The haul on board the Atlantic Warden was headed for Galicia, on the northwest tip of Spain, from where it would have been distributed to the UK and other countries in northern Europe, the court heard. Several officers from British Customs and police forces in the UK were involved in Operation Warden which first began in 2003 when O'Toole attended a meeting in Hamburg, Germany, at which the acquisition of a yacht was discussed.
Other meetings took place in Marbella on the Costa del Sol; Faro on the Portuguese Algarve; in Holland; and in Britain including at Southampton, where the Atlantic Warden was berthed for a time. Also on trial were three Spaniards and one of them was acquitted of the charges along with Mr Carabini.
Convicted with O'Toole were Daniel Baulo Carballo (44) -- who was jailed for 17 years and six months as the leader of the attempt to bring the cocaine aboard the yacht to Spain -- and Gonzalo Ferreiro Soto, who was given a prison sentence of 13 years, six months and a day. All claimed they were victims of a police sting operation, which is not permitted under Spanish law. But the judges ruled that O'Toole and the two others had not been persuaded to commit the crime by the police, but had instigated the smuggling attempt themselves. What they had not realised was that undercover police and customs officers were monitoring their movements.

Alicante police have arrested two 29 year old Spanish men, S.S.G. and F.B.H. on charges of computer fraud

Alicante police have arrested two 29 year old Spanish men, S.S.G. and F.B.H. on charges of computer fraud. The two sent spam and used other people’s bank accounts to bet in online casinos in a fraud which allegedly amounted to 280,000 €. Plane tickets and hotel reservations were also obtained by the pair often using the fraud techniques known as phishing and identity theft.
Police say they found the bank details of thousands of people from all over the world on their computer.

875 kilos of hashish in a false bottom has been recovered by the authorities on the Tiburón beach in San Roque, Cádiz

A patera small boat containing 875 kilos of hashish in a false bottom has been recovered by the authorities on the Tiburón beach in San Roque, Cádiz.
The drug came to light as the five metre boat broke up as it was being removed from the water by members of the local beach club. The drug was found in a false bottom and sides of the vessel.

Fifteen Russian sailors arrested in Spain for alleged drug trafficking have been allowed to see their relatives

Fifteen Russian sailors arrested in Spain for alleged drug trafficking have been allowed to see their relatives. They were detained two months ago, along with other foreigners in the port of Huelva on the Atlantic coast.
The crew maintains it undertook the extra work of unloading cargo from an unknown vessel while their ship was under repair. Spanish police say they were caught unloading a cargo load which contained four tonnes of hashish.

Marbella suffering a financial Black hole of 355 million €

Tribunal de Cuentas, has revealed that Marbella was suffering a financial Black hole of 355 million € at the end of 2006. That amounts to 2,699 € per resident of the town, and the court has found as many as 13 financial and economic irregularities.
A new report from the court notes that a large part of the building agreements with the Town Hall included a clause which conditioned the approval of the building to the approval of the PGOU Urban Plan, and that large amounts of monies were diverted to third parties.

Málaga bank manager has been sentenced to ten years in prison for investing client’s money for his own benefit.

The Provincial Court in the city heard that the man had carried out high risk investment operations in the name of dead people, and had changed currencies without clients knowledge, with none of the movements being reflected in the branch’s official accounting. He also set up three companies in Gibraltar which he used to channel his investments and to avoid detection by Hacienda. The fraud occurred between the years 1988 and 1997.The man was also fined 10,800 € and ordered to compensate several clients to the total of nearly 260,000 €.
The owner of a financial advice firm was also found guilty of collaborating with the bank manager who has not been named in reports.

Malaga’s Plaza de la Merced stabbing

A man in his forties was stabbed in Malaga’s Plaza de la Merced late on Sunday. Police said that someone had snatched the Spanish flag he was waving and, as he tried to retrieve it, the victim received a wound to his right thigh. It was the most serious incident of the night as thousands of fans filled the city centre to celebrate Spain’s Euro2008 win.

Guardia Civil officers in Nerja confiscated 2.6 tons of hashish resin

Guardia Civil officers in Nerja confiscated 2.6 tons of hashish resin on the town’s Playazo beach last Friday. A resident of Puerto de la Torre was arrested during the operation. Also confiscated was a seven foot launch equipped with three 200 h.p. motors.

Romanian woman has been robbed of 1,500 euros

Romanian woman has been robbed of 1,500 euros while waiting at Málaga bus station. Investigators said she was approached by three well-dressed men, claiming to be police officers and showing false identification, who insisted on searching her luggage for drugs. When they finished and left, she discovered the theft of her savings by thieves who, witnesses claim, were also Romanian.

Police raided two properties in Torrevieja and another in Torrequebrada, seizing a hoard of jewellery, eight designer watches, two televisions, came

highly-organised gang who specialised in night-time burglaries while their victims were sleeping in their beds have been arrested.The Eastern European delinquents were based in a residential complex in Orihuela Costa.
They are known to have committed at least 20 break-ins in the provinces of Alicante, Murcia and Málaga.
The thieves used cars stolen in previous burglaries to carry out future assaults.
A special organised crime squad from the National Police had been tracking the gang since November, 2006 but the criminals, originally from Albania, got wind of the investigation and evacuated their Orihuela Costa home, escaping to Torrequebrada in Málaga.However the officers were able to follow and arrest four members of the gang.
Two of the men from Albania are suspected of carrying out the burglaries and two Spaniards are accused of giving them logistical help and fencing stolen property.
Police suspect there are other members of the gang at large who have not yet been identified.Officers discovered that the burglars had been sending large sums of money to Albania along with other stolen goods by post.
They also found an underground bunker used by the thieves to hide the booty they stole during the break-ins.Following the arrests officers raided two properties in Torrevieja and another in Torrequebrada, seizing a hoard of jewellery, eight designer watches, two televisions, cameras and other objects.

Police have found 5,000 kilos of hashish Two Britons arrested in Alicante

Police have found 5,000 kilos of hashish in an as yet un-named industrial estate in San Vicente del Raspeig. It’s thought a warehouse there was being used to store the drug ahead of its distribution in the U.K where it would have a market value of about 6.5 million €.Three arrests, two Britons and a Romanian, have been made in the operation so far, and more have not been ruled out in what is the second most important drugs haul in the province this year.
The nearly 5,000 kilos was recovered on Saturday night and those arrested were held on Saturday night in the cells of the main police station in Alicante.
Yesterday morning police statements were taken, and today the three will declare before the judge who will decide between prison on remand or bail.

Mijas Costa pedestrian bridge collapsed over both carriageways of the A7 motorway

Six people, including a two year old child, were injured, two of them seriously when a pedestrian bridge collapsed over both carriageways of the A7 motorway at the 198 km point in Mijas Costa. The accident happened at 4,55 pm when the busy traffic below hit the fallen bridge. The two seriously hurt are two men who were trapped in their crushed car by the fallen bridge, a 47 year old who was driving the vehicle and a 30 year old who was a passenger. The four others to be injured were a family travelling in the car behind. All the injured were taken to the Costa del Sol hospital in Marbella.Witnesses say that a crane got hooked onto the bridge, causing it to collapse. There were no pedestrians on the bridge at the time.

Aidan Holly fell 30 metres to his death

23 year old Aidan Holly, had just completed his army training, and was from the small village of Tarbert in North Kerry, and was in the Navarra town for the famous San Fermines festivities which got underway at the weekend.confirmed that a man who fell 30 metres to his death from the ancient city walls in Pamplona on Sunday was Irish.It’s reported that his body lay dead for some hours before being found.

Manuel Millón secretary for PP mayor of Nerja, has been found shot dead

Manuel Millón, the Jefe de Gabinete, the secretary for PP mayor of Nerja, has been found shot dead below the viewpoint, Balcon de Europa. Reports speak of one bullet wound in the forehead. The Civil Guard was called to the scene at the Balcón just after 7am, and their first hypothesis is that is a possible suicide.
The zone was closed off and access to the Balcon de Europa Hotel was blocked for a time.Witnesses say that Manuel Millón was seen walking down Calle Pintada to the Balcón with his head streaming blood. He appears to have shot himself in the Partido Popular headquarters in that street and then walked down to the Balcón de Europa where he threw himself down a 20 metre drop.The 54 year old was a teacher at a college in nearby Torrox, and have been in Nerja Town Hall for more than ten years. He was married with two children. Locals describe him as a well known and well educated man who had done a great deal for Nerja.

Lloret de Mar body found of the missing Italian tourist, Federica Squarise

body found in Lloret de Mar has been confirmed to be that of the missing Italian tourist, 23 year old Federica Squarise, who went missing in the town on July 1.
The body was found half-buried and covered with branches.
Mossos d’Esquadra chief, Jordi Bascompte, told the press that it was thought the body had been dead for three or four days, but they had not been able to confirm if death took place where the body was found, in an area of the Caso Zaragoza, just a few metres from the Hollywood disctotec.
The young Italian had only arrived in Spain with a friend the previous Sunday.

Crocodile Park in Torremolinos Costa Del Sol move for alligator

An alligator is swapping life in Galashiels for the Costa Del Sol after the reptile was seized in the town.The alligator was found with a Western Diamondback rattlesnake during a raid by SSPCA officers, and will move to a the Crocodile Park in Torremolinos.It is alleged they were both being kept without a licence required under the Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976

The Khan family went sailing off the coast of Morocco and stumbled across suitcases loaded with cannabis

The Khan family went sailing off the coast of Morocco and stumbled across suitcases loaded with cannabis. The British family dolphin-spotting in the Mediterranean came across suitcases containing £500,000 worth of cannabis.Simon Khan, from Witney, Oxfordshire, his partner and their two young sons risked their lives to seize the haul and hand it over to police after spotting the floating cases.They were on holiday in Duquesa, Spain, when they decided to take the boat trip and were 12 miles off Morocco when they saw the first case.Despite being worried the package was awaiting pick-up, sales manager Mr Khan said his family felt 'morally obliged' to seize it and report it to the Costa del Sol police. On their return they collected another five packages.Mr Khan said: 'The captain was terrified and I was worried. The whole way back there were boats criss-crossing backwards and forwards.'
Police took charge of the drugs but did not take the family's names or ask for statements. Mr Khan said: 'I was stunned by the lack of authority involved.'

Briton arrested in Marbella in connection with 14 counts of sexual aggression against minors carried out in the U.K.

42 year old Briton, named as Peter C. has been arrested in Marbella in connection with 14 counts of sexual aggression against minors carried out in the U.K.
The five victims of the man were aged between 11 and 17, and one of them was his own daughter, with three others some of her friends. He is accused of inappropriate sexual behaviour, and aggression with penetration and rape with the crimes dating back originally to 1989 and 1990, and then later between 2004 and 2006.
The arrest was carried out on a European Arrest Warrant issued by Guildford Magistrates Court last May, and the man faces a possible 10 to 14 years in prison. It comes thanks to the increased cooperation between the Spanish police and the Serious Organised Crime Agency SOCA in the U.K.

On Thursday, in the Sagres area, the Judicial Police (PJ) seized 199 bales of hashish, weighing around 6,000 kilos.

On Thursday, in the Sagres area, the Judicial Police (PJ) seized 199 bales of hashish, weighing around 6,000 kilos. The drug was being transported by fishing boat, and the four members of its crew were detained. The PJ released a statement saying that the police operation, dubbed “Relampago” (Lightning), was conducted with the support of the Portuguese Navy and Air Force. According to the PJ, the trawler’s movements had been under investigation and when it left its base port, Vila Real de Santo Antonio, last week, the fishing boat’s two-day trip to the Moroccan coast was kept under close surveillance by a Navy corvette and an Air Force aircraft.
The 13-metre long trawler was intercepted near the Algarve coast when its crew members were getting ready to offload the hashish. According to the police, some of those arrested already had convictions for drug trafficking offences.
On Sunday, the PJ confiscated another 2.5 tonnes of hashish in Faro. Officers said that the investigation had begun three months earlier. Some 75 bales of hashish were seized at Estudantes Beach, near Faro’s commercial harbour. This time, police apprehended six suspects, a Portuguese man and five Moroccans, aged between the 45 and 49. “Although the alleged drug traffickers offered no resistance to the arrest, they did try to escape, but without success,” said Faro PJ chief Guilhermino da Encarnaçao.He added that the drugs had been transported from North Africa in a fishing trawler and offloaded off the Algarve coast by two speedboats, which were also seized. The PJ chief stated that when police intercepted the smugglers, the hashish had already been transferred to a minivan with fake Spanish licence plates, so they believe the drugs were destined for the Spanish market.
The third seizure occurred on Saturday as a result of a joint operation between the Portuguese and Spanish authorities. Another 1,000 kilos of hashish were discovered in the Guadiana River when police spotted three crew members on a fishing boat attempting to discharge their illegal cargo on the Spanish side of the river. A Moroccan man was detained but two others managed to escape.
As well as being a main tourist region, the Algarve is also an entry point to Europe for drugs. The authorities are doubling their efforts to clamp down, and the PJ chief said: “It is an continuous battle. We are trying to control it as much as possible.”

Two men robbed a young Swedish woman as she left a bank in Fuengirola

Two men robbed a young Swedish woman as she left a bank in Fuengirola and stole 2,500 euros from her, which she had just withdrawn. The mugging took place last Wednesday at approximately 2 p.m. on Calle Iglesia, and police believe that the two thieves followed the victim from the bank and jumped her just 100 metres from the building. The money they got away with had been sent to the woman by her family in Sweden to help out with living costs. Police are investigating the case.

La Nogalera stabbing sentence seven years in prison

Provincial Court in Málaga has sentenced a man to seven years in prison for stabbing another man in the chest and face after he refused to invite him for a drink.
It happened last April in the La Nogalera area of Torremolinos when the man, accompanied by a girlfriend, approached the victim who was reported to be drunk at the time, asking him to buy them a drink. The sentence notes the aggressor is a drug addict. He now has to compensate the victim with a total 67,500 €. His girlfriend was released without charges.

Valencia policeman is accused of robbing 20 kilos of cocaine

Valencia policeman is accused of robbing 20 kilos of cocaine recovered by the police so that he could keep both his wife and his lover in the habit of taking the drug.The prosecutor in the case has charged two policemen with the theft of the drug which formed part of a 500 kilo haul found by the authorities in Valencia port. The second policeman says that he was not involved and has been implicate by his colleague ‘in revenge for a personal problem’.The policeman who has confessed said that he was in a ‘delicate situation’ and needed money to keep his wife and girlfriend happy. That was why he said he went along with the idea of the fellow officer to take the 20 kilos of the drug which had been left on a temporary basis in a police van. He said he sold three kilos of the drug to a club doorman before he and the other policeman were arrested.Had the accused sold all the drug they could have obtained as much as 600,000 €. One in five Europeans who take cocaine on a regular basis lives in Spain.

Algeciras cocaine was hidden in five sports bags underneath the bean cargo.

Tax officials and the Guardia Civil in Algeciras have seized 178 kilos of cocaine that was found in a container that officially held dried beans. The cargo was en-route from Callao in Peru to Valencia. Officers decided to search the container that had been deposited in the customs zone awaiting clearance. The cocaine was hidden in five sports bags underneath the bean cargo.

30 caravans stolen in the UK on Benidorm campsites

Serious and Organised Crime Unit, working with the Guardia Civil, have uncovered more than 30 caravans stolen in the UK on Spanish campsites.
British authorities were aware there were stolen caravans being sold to unsuspecting Britons, but the full scale of the organised crime operation was not uncovered until last week.Undercover police and a UK insurance investigator raided a number of campsites in Benidorm and their findings have been astonishing to say the least.
After checking the registration numbers of 120 caravans last week, they found that 30 of them had been reported as stolen in the UK.
Investigators have estimated the total value of the stolen caravans at one million euros. In the UK 700 caravans are stolen each year, many of which are filtered to the Costas by organised gangs.Checks revealed that none of the 30 stolen caravans had the correct legal paperwork or a receipt of payment.Police have been busy taking statements all week from the owners affected by the crime, all of whom are British expats.

Civil Guard arrested supplied information to the drug traffickers

The Civil Guard in Ciudad Real have arrested a total of 31 people, including one of their own, in an operation against drug trafficking which resulted in the recovery of 13 kilos of cocaine.The arrested Civil Guard is thought to have supplied information to the drug traffickers in the case which came to light when controls on drug trafficking near schools and colleges were stepped up.The arrests were made in two separate operations carried out in the towns of Almadén and Villanueva de los Infantes. One group purchased the drug in Madrid, while the second group, controlled by Colombians, imported the drug via Barajas airport in Madrid. The Civil Guard uncovered several points of sale in the Ciudad Real area. More arrests have not been ruled out as investigations continue.