MALAGA GAZETTE

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Housejacking, Three masked men attacked the chalet belonging to Juan Mora, the owner of the Matola restaurant in Elche

Posted On Wednesday, April 30, 2008 0 comments

Three masked men attacked the chalet belonging to Juan Mora, the owner of the Matola restaurant in Elche, in the early hours of yesterday. The victim was woken up at 4.15 in the morning by the thieves who complained that they could not find the money.
After ransacking the property they made off with an estimated 10,000 €. As they left they warned him ‘Call the police after 15 minutes. Don’t do so before as we know where your children live’.Información newspaper reports that family members of the victim say he was beaten up by the thieves, and were armed with a large screwdriver and used a large leather belt as a whip. For some reason the house alarm had not been activated and the three men managed to gain access without upsetting the dogs.
Reports say that one of the men was black and they had a foreign accent. Juan Mora is now back at home after a medical check up at Elche hospital.


Spaniard, Jesús G.R., who is alleged to have caused the coach crash in Benalmádena ordered to prison without bail

Posted On Wednesday, April 30, 2008 0 comments

27 year old Spaniard, Jesús G.R., who is alleged to have caused the coach crash in Benalmádena on Saturday April 19th, in which nine Finnish tourists, including a seven year old girl, lost their lives, has been ordered to prison without bail by the judge in Instruction Court One in Torremolinos. He attended with his father, was wearing a neck brace, and showed difficulty in walking.He is thought to have lost control of his KIA four wheel drive vehicle while overtaking the bus at speed on a curve on the A7 motorway, crashing into the bus and causing it to overturn.
The judge called the youngster to the court this morning where he arrived at 1125am and left in a National Police car at 1310pm.
He now faces nine charges of serious negligence resulting in death, and 41 counts of serious negligence resulting in injury. There is also a charge of dangerous driving, and another of driving while under the influence of alcohol. He had breath tested at 0,50 milligrams of alcohol after the accident, double the legal limit in Spain.
Speaking to the Diario Sur newspaper last week Jesús’s father said that his son is deeply depressed and has said he wished he had been killed in the crash.


Marbella Town Hall has ordered a zero tolerance policy for those who sell their wares by foot in the town

Posted On Wednesday, April 30, 2008 0 comments

Caracuel is reported to have referred to the immigrants as ‘a threat’ and as ‘invaders’ of the town, leader IU to comment ‘We cannot doubt that this type of sale is illegal, but the way of combating it is not adequate’.The Defensor del Pueblo, the Spanish Ombudsman, has asked for an explanation from Marbella Town Hall following a spate of immigrant arrests in the town. The PP local councillor for citizen safety, Francisca Caracuel, has ordered a zero tolerance policy for those who sell their wares by foot in the town, and this has resulted in 500 arrests in a few months. Most of the sales were of counterfeit goods, and 50,000 such items were recently crushed by a steam roller in Puerto Banús to underline the policy. However 17 Chinese beach masseurs have also been arrested, and criticism of the harshness of the police has come from the IU left wing.The Ombudsman, José Chamizo, met with the left wingers and a local Senegalese association last September and called on the Town Hall to ‘only apply the law’. Some claim that in fact things have improved considerably for the immigrants compared to the time of the GIL administration.
Two recent court cases in Spain have seen immigrants charged with such sales being released, given that profits made were minimal and the activity was necessary for their survival.


Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Border guards have started implementing a directive ordering them to open fire on smugglers who fail to stop

Posted On Tuesday, April 29, 2008 0 comments

The entering into force of this directive came amid discovering the close relationship of smuggling networks with terror groups, as well as the use of arms by smugglers while securing tracks to their goods.Furthermore, some smugglers tend to extend their activities to arms and explosives trafficking, like for instance in Tlemcen province where gendarmerie and border guards managed foiling about five attempts of smuggling weapons and explosives.Besides, many armed clashes have taken place between border guards and security services against smugglers, later last year and early this year, in border provinces, eastern, western and southern the country.
The Majority of armed clashes have been underscored in Bechar and Tlemcen provinces, western Algeria, followed by Illizi and El-Oued provinces, southern the country, then Tebessa province, eastern Algeria.
It is worth mentioning that joint security forces in Bechar have led, a couple of weeks ago, helicopter raids against a group of 4X4 belonging to smugglers, while hardly fled from being arrested by border guards.


300 illegal homes in Cañada Hermosa

Posted On Tuesday, April 29, 2008 0 comments

20 minutos reports that there are 300 illegal homes in Cañada Hermosa, and local resident, Pedro Cerón, noted some of them have been there for more than ten years. He said they would not be legalised because people simply don’t know what to do, and he called on the City Hall to visit the area to explain the procedure. There are a further 200 homes in Cañada de San Pedro in the same position.Murcia City Hall is threatening to demolish as many as 4,000 homes which have been built illegally in the region’s countryside. Property owners have been given the deadline of January 31 2009 to bring their properties into legality, and Town Planning Councillor, Fernando Berberena, has warned that after this date legal processes will be started which could end in demolition. Illegally built warehouses are also included in the new crackdown.Bringing as many as 4,000 properties into legality in such a short time is a tall order, given that all of last year saw only 80 homes regularised in the region.The 2001 PGOU General Ordinance Plan gave five years for making the homes and industries legal, but over the five years only 1,000 homes and 150 warehouses were regularised.Murcia City Hall says that leaflets will be handed out in the areas concerned. These show that to bring a property into legality the owner has to provide an application form with a report from Emuasa, technical documentation which includes the provision of services such as water and sewerage, several plans and a budget.


Sunday, April 27, 2008

Amy Fitzpatrick renewing their efforts to find her with a new campaign to distribute between 100,000 pamphlets with her photos

Posted On Sunday, April 27, 2008 0 comments


No sign of missing Irish teenager Amy Fitzpatrick since her disappearance on January 1 from Mijas Costa. During that period the Guardia Civil have tried to trace two cars and have now found the second vehicle they were looking for.
According to an eyewitness, either Amy or a girl looking like her got into the vehicle, a Mazda, around the time she is thought to have disappeared. The car has apparently been sold within the last three months and although it is undergoing forensic tests the investigators are not hopeful that it will hold any important clues.However the Guardia Civil have stressed that their main focus has been on tracking down the first car they identified that belongs to a neighbour of Amy's. This is a white Ford Fiesta with a British number plate C955SLK. The government's sub-delegate in Málaga province, Hilario López Luna, confirmed last week that finding this car was still a top priority.At the same press conference Sr López Luna admitted that the longer Amy was missing the less likely it was that she had disappeared voluntarily. The same view is shared by the government's delegate in Andalucía, José Lopéz Garzón, who stated that from the start the investigation centred on either her voluntary or involuntary disappearance. He agreed that as time passed the first scenario was less likely but they had not given up hope.
Her family are not giving up hope either. They are renewing their efforts to find her with a new campaign to distribute between 50,000 and 100,000 pamphlets with her photos and telephone numbers on so that any information regarding her disappearance, possible sightings or whereabouts can be called in.


Malaga prostitution in the city centre

Posted On Sunday, April 27, 2008 0 comments

Residents in Málaga are threatening unprecedented protests against prostitution in the city centre. Referring to “the serious situation in which we find ourselves,” the collective ‘Centro Sur’ says it will create road blocks, stage demonstrations and patrol the streets to bring to an end the problems arising from prostitution in the area.
The group’s vice-president, Pedro Pérez, claimed the situation had become “truly unsustainable” around Alameda Principal, Alameda de Colón and Tomás Heredia, adding that, “the residents’ quality of life has notably declined.” Centro Sur is actively seeking the support of other similar collectives in city areas affected by the problem, with the intention of organising “a huge demonstration in the city streets.” But Sr Pérez says that, if necessary, his group will go it alone, “because we can put up with it no longer.”
Members of Centro Sur say they are tired of female residents being stopped in the street to be asked how much they charge, the high levels of noise plus the attacks on many of their private vehicles, which have been broken into and robbed.
The councillor responsible for the area, Rosa Agüera, said that there exists no legal means to prevent the practice of prostitution, although the Law of City Security allows for a series of penalties of as much as 300 euros. Local residents say that part of the problem is the number of derelict buildings in the area and the opening of several sex shops, saying that, little by little, the controls over prostitution have been lost by the authorities and the problem has continued to grow.


Organized crime on the Costa del Sol

Posted On Sunday, April 27, 2008 0 comments

The Spanish ministry is determined to tackle organized crime on the Costa del Sol. It is targeting the large international gangs that are using the latest technology and modern methods of moving money. Two new special police units are to be formed to work alongside the existing drugs, organized and violent crime groups. They will gather intelligence on gangs and liaise with international law enforcement agencies in the criminals’ countries of origin, especially eastern Europe.In a press statement the Ministry of the Interior explained that the trafficking of hashish from Morocco across the Straits of Gibraltar was largely responsible for the existence of organized criminal gangs on the Costa del Sol. These groups were largely made up of criminals from France, Britain, Italy and Germany.The ministry pointed to the occasional outbreaks of violence between these criminal groups that resulted in the so-called ‘settling of accounts’. These are provoked by the theft of shipments of drugs, arms and often result in murders of which a number have occurred in Marbella this year including the recent slaying of two innocent people.
During 2004 police on the Costa del Sol seized 5,200 kilos of heroin, 21,812 kilos of hashish, 190.3 kilos of cocaine, 51,541 ecstasy tablets in 63 actions against 35 organized gangs. In Andalucía the total number of people detained this year stands at 490 in 86 actions involving 49 criminal groups.


Puerto Banus shooting mystery..70 shots were fired in the assault and the two victims were hit by 16 bullets between them.

Posted On Sunday, April 27, 2008 0 comments









After the shooting an Algerian-born French businessmen went to the National Police to say he thought he was the intended target. He had been in the hairdressers at the time of the shooting and his friend – bodyguard, who was waiting in their car outside the hairdressers, was one of those injured. The companion was arrested in his hospital bed for the possession of a gun that was found beneath their car.
Police have stressed that neither the Frenchman nor his companion have any previous convictions in Spain. The businessmen is said to be involved in high fashion, owns several shops in Puerto Banús and commutes between his homes in Paris and Marbella. He was allowed to return to his home after being interviewed by police.
The police say they do not know the identity of the four attackers nor have they yet found the man who entered the hairdressers before the shooting and asked for an appointment in English. He is said to have acted in a very suspicious manner and left the shop seconds before the shooting started.Whilst police still believe the shooting bears all the hallmarks of a “settling of accounts” between criminals they have stated that the modus operandi suggests that they had no clear identity of their target. More than 70 shots were fired in the assault and the two victims were hit by 16 bullets between them.
Meanwhile in neighbouring Estepona the civilian security group has formed a special squad of local police officers to tackle organised crime. The town hall fears that this violence may spread from Marbella to Estepona. The new group of officers will pay special attention to the many urbanisations in the east of the municipality bordering on to Marbella where a Rumanian gang is said to have already carried out robberies.


Friday, April 25, 2008

Mohamed Taieb Ahmen Spanish police arrests "El Nene" fugitive Moroccan citizen

Posted On Friday, April 25, 2008 0 comments



Spanish police arrests "El Nene" fugitive Moroccan citizen
Police say he had bribed his way out of jail and Moroccan authorities issued an international arrest warrant in December after discovering he was missing.A man known as ‘El Nene’, one of the most wanted hashish drug traffickers in the world, has been captured by the Spanish National Police in the Spanish North African enclave of Ceuta.The Moroccan, Mohamed Taieb Ahmen, has been on the run for five months after escaping from a Moroccan prison in Kenitra, 40kms north of Rabat, where he was serving eight years for international drug trafficking. It seems he simply bribed six prison officers to help with his escape and he was thought to have been lying low on the Costa del Sol.The man who was arrested again on an Interpol warrant is said to have more millions than years; he is 32 years old.


Plane loaded with drugs crashes at Spanish banker Botin's estate

Posted On Friday, April 25, 2008 0 comments

The plane was carrying 200 kilograms (441 pounds) of hashish when it missed the airfield and crashed into a nearby gully, Dmaz-Cano said. Two people were killed at the crash and a third one was arrested.
Police are investigating a small plane loaded with drugs that crashed Friday at the estate of one of the country's most prominent bankers, killing two people on board, an Interior Ministry representative said.The plane crashed around midday Friday as it tried to land at a private airstrip on the country estate of banker Emilio Botin, Maximo Dmaz-Cano said.The plane was carrying 200 kilograms (441 pounds) of hashish when it missed the airfield and crashed into a nearby gully, Dmaz-Cano said.
A third person has been detained at the 11,000 hectare (27,180 acres) estate, located 230 kilometers (143 miles) southwest of Madrid. Police are combing the area in search of other people who might have been involved in the suspected smuggling.
Botin is president of Banco Santander Central Hispano, Spain's largest bank by market capitalization.


across-the-board personal income tax rebate of EUR 400, worth a total of around EUR 6 billion.

Posted On Friday, April 25, 2008 0 comments

The Finance Department on Wednesday reported that the public surplus shrank to EUR 3.280 billion in the first quarter, or 0.29 percent of GDP. The surplus in the first quarter of last year was EUR 6.747 billion, equivalent to 0.64 percent of GDP.
The government's coffers are starting to feel the effects of a sharp slowdown in the economy as the housing market moves from boom to crisis.
Spain posted a surplus of 1.83 percent of GDP last year when the economy grew 3.8 percent. That was surpassed in size among countries in the euro zone only by Finland. The government was initially forecasting a surplus of 1 percent of GDP for this year when it estimated the economy would grow by 3.1 percent.However, the administration has finally bowed to the inevitable and will shortly announce revised growth figures. Economy Minister Pedro Solbes said Tuesday that the new GDP estimate is likely to be in line with that of the Bank of Spain, which recently cut its forecast to 2.4 percent from 3.1 percent. The International Monetary Fund sees activity increasing by only 1.8 percent this year.Commenting on the latest budget figures, the secretary of state for finance, Carlos Ocaña, said the government is now looking at a surplus for this year of 0.4 percent of GDP.
The administration recently approved an economic stimulus package worth some EUR 10 billion, which it expects will add between 0.2 and 0.3 percent to GDP growth this year. The package includes an across-the-board personal income tax rebate of EUR 400, worth a total of around EUR 6 billion.Ocaña insisted that the tax rebate would not result in the government posting a deficit in 2008.The Finance Department attributed the narrowing of the surplus in March to lower value added tax receipts due to the slowdown in the housing market and to higher oil prices. VAT revenues fell 5.7 percent to EUR 19.355 billion. New home sales carry a VAT rate of 7 percent. House sales fell 27 percent in January, the latest available official figure. Total revenues in March climbed 1.3 percent to EUR 38.298 billion.Outlays in the first quarter rose 12.8 percent to EUR 35.022 billion, with financial costs up 14.6 percent.


medical records of 11,000 patients on an internet file-sharing programne.

Posted On Friday, April 25, 2008 0 comments

Spain's Data Protection Agency has fined a medical centre in Bilbao EUR 150,000 after an employee accidentally disclosed the medical records of 11,000 patients on an internet file-sharing programne.The records include details of 4,000 women who underwent abortions at the Lasaitasuna clinic and are therefore of an exceptionally sensitive nature."This is an inexcusable mistake on the part of the medical centre, which did not have adequate security measures in place to prevent a leak of this nature," Artemi Rallo, the director of the Data Protection Agency, said. The agency traced the source of the leak to an employee's laptop on which the file-sharing programme eMule had been installed, apparently with the intention of downloading music from the internet. However, the employee mistakenly made public files on the computer's hard drive containing the medical records, allowing anyone on the file-sharing network to obtain them. "We have to urge all companies, hospitals, banks and schools to take greater care and revise their security systems," Rallo said. "We need an active policy to train and increase the awareness of citizens" to data security, he added. The Data Protection Agency is currently investigating 16 more similar cases of unlawful information disclosure by companies and organisations.


Thursday, April 24, 2008

Years of overbuilding means Spain has around half a million new homes on the market, a Spanish property developer association said on Wednesday.

Posted On Thursday, April 24, 2008 0 comments

Spaniards have borrowed heavily by guaranteeing consumer loans against the value of their homes, which have more than tripled in the last ten years.
Households are feeling poorer since Spanish house price growth fell below the rate of inflation for the first time in a decade during the first quarter.
Expectations Spanish house prices will fall this year have led to a sharp decline in housing demand, especially for second homes, real estate firm CB Richard Ellis said on Thursday.
Spanish consumer borrowing for cars and personal loans fell for the first time in over a decade during the first quarter amid rising unemployment and declining consumer confidence, a financial group said on Thursday.
Credit for car purchases declined up to 10 percent year on year, while personal loans fell around 30 percent during the first three months of the year, according to Spanish credit industry group ASNEF.
"In my 10 years here this is the first time I've seen it, I think it's the first time since the 1992-1995 crisis," ASNEF President Pedro Guijarro told a press conference.
Credit demand is falling as Spaniards are hit by the end of a decade-long property boom and tighter borrowing conditions during money market turmoil.
Spain's government plans to cut its 2008 and 2009 economic growth forecasts to around 2.4 percent and 2.1 percent, respectively, marking the weakest levels since the economy suffered a recession in the early 1990s.
ASNEF warned of a sharp increase in Spain's consumer credit default rate this year after it rose 22 percent to 3.14 percent in 2007.
Spain's overall debt default rate, combining mortgage and corporate credit, is among the lowest in Europe but could triple to around 3 percent over the next two years, banking groups forecast.The property consultancy expected the slowdown to last a further 18 months and for prices to fall.
"That's the amount of time it will take to absorb houses currently on sale," said Eduardo Fernandez-Cuesta, the firm's president in Spain. "The correction in prices has yet to happen."
Years of overbuilding means Spain has around half a million new homes on the market, a Spanish property developer association said on Wednesday.


Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Juan Antonio Roca return to prison brings a rapid end to his week of freedom on bail during which time he made many claims to the press, including one

Posted On Wednesday, April 23, 2008 0 comments


The bail conditions against Juan Antonio Roca, the ex Marbella Municipal real estate assessor in the case known as ‘Saqueo 1’ have been increased today to three million €. The Roca family had already paid the lower level of bail, set at 450,000 € in the case, but today Roca finds himself sent to prison again, with bail now set at 3 million €.This is separate from the 1 million € which it took his family 17 days to raise in the Malaya case.The Saqueo 1 case is also known as the 'false facturas' case and is linked to the alleged diversion of public funds from Marbella Town Hall to private companies between 1991 and 1995 amounting to 27.6 million €. The late Mayor Jesús Gil and six others were charged in the case, where Roca is accused of money laundering, defrauding Hacienda, bribery, the alteration of prices in public auctions and tenders, the misuse of public funds and even a charge against damaging flora and fauna, amongst others.Today the National Court judge, Pablo Ruiz, accepted an appeal presented to him from the legal department of Marbella Town Hall which said they feared that Roca was a flight risk. The Town Hall say that it is ‘curious’ that the Roca family could find such amounts of money as had paid, 1, 450,000 € despite having all his assets supposedly frozen in the Malaya case.Roca’s defence team said they did not understand why their client was seeing his bail conditions revised, considering that Roca’s circumstances had not changed.
His return to prison brings a rapid end to his week of freedom on bail during which time he made many claims to the press, including one of innocence.


The Playa de Bakio, with 13 Spanish and 13 African crew on board, was attacked by around 10 pirates armed with grenade launchers

Posted On Wednesday, April 23, 2008 0 comments


Ambassador Nicolás Martín Cinto was expected to travel to the Somali capital Mogadishu on Wednesday, coinciding with the arrival of a Spanish warship off Somalia's north coast where the fishing boat was boarded.The Playa de Bakio, with 13 Spanish and 13 African crew on board, was attacked by around 10 pirates armed with grenade launchers at around 1pm on Sunday.Crew members who managed to speak to relatives in Spain by telephone yesterday said the pirates appeared to be "well-trained soldiers" who accused the crew of stealing Somalia's fish stocks and who spoke of a "senior commander" who would negotiate their release in exchange for ransom money.At 7am yesterday, one of those onboard said the Playa de Bakio was moored in sight of the Somali coast and that the crew members were being treated well.The Playa de Bakio is the first Spanish fishing boat in eight years to be seized by pirates after the Almacora IV was attacked off Somalia in 2000. The crew were reportedly freed after the boat's owner paid the pirates EUR 400,000.


Hacienda tax authorities has announced that they are to investigate 198 Spaniards

Posted On Wednesday, April 23, 2008 0 comments

Hacienda tax authorities has announced that they are to investigate 198 Spaniards who have bank accounts in Liechtenstein for possible fiscal crimes. A statement from the Agencia Tributaria, said that the deposits correspond to family groups with several different titles and beneficiaries.
The data obtained in the investigation will be sent over to the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor.
It comes with the revelation that Spain is working in coordination with Australia, Canada, France, Italy, New Zealand, Sweden, the U.K. and the United States in the Lichtenstein investigation.
Spanish investment there alone is 22.11 million € in the past 15 years, although there are no numbers since 2005 when the country was considered as a financial haven.
Spanish investments offshore are estimated to have reached 95 million € in the first half of last year, some 50% lower than for the same period in 2006.


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

Posted On Wednesday, April 23, 2008 0 comments

Ray Griffin, of Dowell Street, fell victim to thieves preying on tourists while staying in a hotel resort in Benalmadena on the Costa del Sol earlier this month.
The incident happened just two weeks after a Welsh tourist was left for dead following a bungled bag snatch.
The female victim was thrown to the ground as a man on a moped tried to snatch her bag, leaving her with a blood clot on the brain.Mr Griffin was on holiday with his wife, Valerie, when thieves made off with a purse, containing 150 Euros, a silver lucky charm and a Nintendo DS with four games."I was sunbathing by the pool and it was quite breezy," Mr Griffin told the Herald."When I got up, I saw our bag had blown to one side. I didn't know it had been moved by thieves."I realised the items were missing when I looked inside."Mr Griffin reported the theft to police and was later able to view CCTV footage, which, he says, clearly showed two local men in their 40s and 20s as the culprits."I saw the hotel manager and had a go at him about security. There is no security whatsoever," he said."It's getting terrible in Spain. Villains are making a living out of ripping off tourists."A few days after the theft, Mr Griffin was astounded to see the same men back in the hotel's grounds."I went over and challenged them, and they threatened to shoot me!" he said. "One of them had a bag and he went to unzip it as he said it."Other holidaymakers joined me in challenging them and they left the site."Mr Griffin believes the men were accessing the hotel grounds via insecure gates. He has taken pictures of the gates - to illustrate how they are being left unlocked or secured with a plastic tie.Mr Griffin travelled to Spain as an independent tourist and not as part of a package deal with a tour operator.


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

Posted On Wednesday, April 23, 2008 0 comments

“We’re waking up from the property dream and finding ourselves in a situation where prices are falling in Spain for the first time,” said Fernando Encinar, a founder of Idealista.com, a real estate Web site.In Spain, more than four million homes were built in the last decade, more than in Germany, Britain and France combined. Average house prices tripled in parts of the country, as Spain’s torrid economy attracted immigrants and Northern Europeans snapped up holiday homes along the Costa del Sol.
Now, though, thousands of those houses stand empty. The I.M.F. estimates that property is overvalued by more than 15 percent. With mortgages drying up and prices swooning, speculators who once viewed Spanish property as a no-lose proposition are confronting hard reality.In 2005, Julian Felipe Fernandez bought three small apartments, as an investment, in a huge development being built outside Madrid. He paid 100,000 euros as a deposit for the units, and now he is eager to sell them to avoid having to taking on a costly mortgage. But with the market stalled, Mr. Fernandez’s asking price is what he paid for them.“Three years ago, it looked like I would be able to flip them for a nice profit before they were finished,” he said. “I just want to get them off my hands, to get rid of this headache.”If he unloads them, he will be lucky. Enric Bueno, head of marketing for Ibusa, a real estate company in Barcelona, said his firm was closing six or seven sales a month, compared with 40 a month a year ago.“Things are really bad,” Mr. Bueno said. “If this goes on for five years, we won’t make it.”Economists have been busy cutting their growth forecasts for Spain, with a few saying that it may stagnate this summer. BBVA, a leading Spanish bank, forecasts that unemployment will rise to an average of 11 percent this year, from 8.6 percent in 2007.


Benalmadena Ray Griffin,"It's getting terrible in Spain. Villains are making a living out of ripping off tourists."

Posted On Wednesday, April 23, 2008 0 comments

Ray Griffin, of Dowell Street, fell victim to thieves preying on tourists while staying in a hotel resort in Benalmadena on the Costa del Sol earlier this month.The incident happened just two weeks after a Welsh tourist was left for dead following a bungled bag snatch.
The female victim was thrown to the ground as a man on a moped tried to snatch her bag, leaving her with a blood clot on the brain.Mr Griffin was on holiday with his wife, Valerie, when thieves made off with a purse, containing 150 Euros, a silver lucky charm and a Nintendo DS with four games."I was sunbathing by the pool and it was quite breezy," Mr Griffin told the Herald."When I got up, I saw our bag had blown to one side. I didn't know it had been moved by thieves.
"I realised the items were missing when I looked inside."Mr Griffin reported the theft to police and was later able to view CCTV footage, which, he says, clearly showed two local men in their 40s and 20s as the culprits."I saw the hotel manager and had a go at him about security. There is no security whatsoever," he said.
"It's getting terrible in Spain. Villains are making a living out of ripping off tourists."A few days after the theft, Mr Griffin was astounded to see the same men back in the hotel's grounds."I went over and challenged them, and they threatened to shoot me!" he said. "One of them had a bag and he went to unzip it as he said it.
"Other holidaymakers joined me in challenging them and they left the site."
Mr Griffin believes the men were accessing the hotel grounds via insecure gates. He has taken pictures of the gates - to illustrate how they are being left unlocked or secured with a plastic tie.Mr Griffin travelled to Spain as an independent tourist and not as part of a package deal with a tour operator.


Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Juan Antonio Roca walked free on Monday after his family and friends had got together a million euros in bail money.

Posted On Tuesday, April 22, 2008 0 comments

The man accused of being the brains behind years of corruption at Marbella Town Hall walked free on Monday after his family and friends had got together a million euros in bail money. He wanted to clean up his image, he explained, and had obviously started as he meant to go on, leaving the jail looking impeccable in a dark suit, blue shirt, shiny shoes and a proud smile. Behind him he had left two years and 16 days in a prison cell, first in Alhaurín de la Torre and then in Albolote. However he took time to say his goodbyes, embracing prison staff and raising his hands towards corridor 11, his home for the last 18 months. “When you get your freedom back, you’ve got reason to be happy”, he said. Roca, who is also involved in the previous “Saqueo” case, faces charges in ‘Malaya’ of repeated offences of bribery, embezzlement, fraud, tax evasion, money laundering as ringleader of an organisation, forgery, illegal possession of firearms, influence peddling and corruption and planning offences.With all this hanging over him Roca must be well aware of the difficulties ahead if he wants to clean up his image, especially in the eyes of the people of Marbella, who were due to take to the streets yesterday evening (Thursday) in protest against his release and his presence in the town.In fact during the ten minutes in which he spoke to the press on Monday he mentioned the protest organised by residents’ associations and local political parties: “I understand that people have every right to demonstrate, it is their fundamental right. However my freedom is also a fundamental right. When two fundamental rights are in violent conflict we have to abide by what the courts say. In this case the judge has said that I should be released. And here I am”. Nevertheless the judge’s decision to order his release, albeit under supervision, was the only step in the Malaya process he seemed to be in agreement with. The alleged corruption ringleader pointed out that “all the evidence had been systematically denied”. He described the investigation as “totally partial, fraught with irregularities and significant violations of fundamental rights”.

After two years “in silence” he now intends to defend himself. “During this time Marbella Town Hall, the Junta and the Prosecution Department have been giving the idea that I am responsible for 50 per cent of this country’s problems; the other 50 per cent has been put down to Zapatero”.The El Pais newspaper reports that Juan Antonio Roca operated in the town with the support of the Local Police force. It says that local police protected him from the National Police and Civil Guard and that he used a total of nine mobile phones and had special equipment on other lines to avoid thee recording of his conversations. It was regular practice for his bodyguards to ask the local police for details of cars he considered to be suspicious, supplying them with number plate details. He used an estimated 120 companies to control his network and had purchased two valuable small palaces in the centre of Madrid. He is quoted on saying to a businessman on one occasion – ‘I am the town hall’.“The most important thing I have to do now is prove my innocence. I have to defend myself, something I haven’t been able to do in two years”. No sooner had Juan Antonio Roca stepped outside Albolote prison in Granada did he tell the press of his immediate plans in a speech that he may well have been rehearsing for the last two years.


Montserrat Corulla, who is alleged to have acted as a ‘frontman’ for Juan Antonio Roca in the Malaya corruption case

Posted On Tuesday, April 22, 2008 0 comments

Marbella lawyer, Montserrat Corulla, who is alleged to have acted as a ‘frontman’ for Juan Antonio Roca in the Malaya corruption case, told the instruction judge Óscar Pérez on Monday that she had never laundered any money. She claimed that all her companies were totally legal, and while she was the administrator of the Condeor company ‘she never operated with illicit funds or assets’, according to a report from Europa Press. She also denied belonging to any criminal organisation or seeing ‘envelopes full of money’.She faces charges of money laundering of cash from criminal activity. Her case drew more interest when the PSOE Socialist candidate for the Mayor of Madrid, Miguel Sebastián, tried to link the current PP Mayor of the capital, Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón with her during the previous election campaign.
During her appearance before the judge, which lasted for just under an hour, she said the accounting for Roca’s companies was always carried out by the offices of Zubizarreta Soriano.


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

Posted On Tuesday, April 22, 2008 0 comments

Juan Antonio Roca, is in the National Court on Wednesday morning in the so-called Saqueo 1 case, in which he is currently released on 450,000 € bail. He has also had to pay 1 million € bail in the separate Malaya case.The hearing on Wednesday at 10am comes under article 5050 of the Criminal Judgement Law which consists of a revision of his bail conditions in the Saqueo case. The appearance comes following a formal appeal made against bail by Marbella Town Hall legal department, in which they ask for a reconsideration of the bail granted.
Both sides will be able to question Roca during the hearing, and then the judge will make a ruling. Already Roca’s defence team has said they do not understand why the hearing has been called as nothing has changed in the Saqueo case and there can be no destruction of evidence. They also claim there is no ‘social alarm’ and no risk of flight.
The Saqueo 1 case is also known as the 'false facturas' case and is linked to the alleged diversion of public funds from Marbella Town Hall to private companies between 1991 and 1995 amounting to 27.6 million €. The late Mayor Jesús Gil and six others were charged in the case, where Roca is accused of money laundering, defrauding Hacienda, bribery, the alteration of prices in public auctions and tenders, the misuse of public funds and even a charge against damaging flora and fauna, amongst others.


The preliminary report from the Civil Guard into the Benalmadena bypass accident

Posted On Tuesday, April 22, 2008 0 comments

The preliminary report from the Civil Guard into the accident, which says that the KIA was travelling at excessive speed for the conditions at the time, and that the overtaking manoeuvre on the left saw a collision first with the central reservation which caused a rebound into the bus which then turned over. The definitive report on the accident is now expected in a few days time.
13 of the injured in the accident remain in different hospitals in the region. A total of the 12 victims from the accident have now returned to Finland after receiving permission to do so from the doctors.
The 27 year old driver of the new black KIA four wheel drive vehicle which was in collision with the coach in Benalmádena on Saturday night, in the accident which left nine Finnish tourists dead, and who is considered to have caused the accident by travelling at excessive speed and losing control on a curve, has been released from custody by the Instruction Judge in Court One in Torremolinos today. The judge said he had taken the decision because, according to forensic reports the 27 year old is not in a condition to appear before the court. He will need at least another 15 days recovering from his injuries in the Carlos Haya Hospital in Málaga before he is expected to be able to make a declaration. The judge has therefore decided to wait until his health has improved before making any decision on his legal situation. The judge called on the hospital to advise him with sufficient notice when the man is able. He has undergone surgery to his back following the accident.


Playa de Bakio attacked by pirates in the Indian Ocean

Posted On Tuesday, April 22, 2008 0 comments


According to the El País newspaper today, the Spanish Ministry of Defence is planning a rescue operation as a last option in the case of the Basque tuna fishing boat, ‘Playa de Bakio’ which has been kidnapped by pirates off the coast of Somalia in the demand of a ransom.The Spanish Government says that all diplomatic contacts are being intensified to try to get the 26 crew, 13 of which are Spaniards, released, and ABC newspaper reports today that help has been requested from NATO.
Spanish Foreign Minister, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, has held several conversations with the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Durao Borroso, and has been in contact with the African Union to investigate the situation. The closest Spanish diplomat is the Spanish Ambassador in Kenya.Meanwhile the most modern Spanish navy frigate, Méndez Núñez, is on her way to the scene and is now some 1,400 miles away and is therefore not expected to arrive for two days.
The Capitan of the 'Playa de Bakio' has reported that all the crew is well, and all the pirates want is cash.The crew of the Basque Fishing boat, from a small fishing town called Bermeo in Vizcaya, is made up of 8 Galicians, 5 Basques and 3 Africans. The first person to raise the alarm this morning was the ships owner who spoke to Spanish National Radio at 3.45 am today saying that ‘everybody was fine and that there were no problems at that moment’. We can’t speak now, please do not call us, we are being controlled’ – these are the words of one of the 26 fishermen aboard the Basque fishing boat, Playa de Bakio, following the attack by pirates in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Somalia which has resulted in the kidnap of all its crew. The man who spoke to Spanish radios station Cadena Ser by telephone from the boat pleaded four times in a 12 second conversation that nobody try to make contact with the kidnappers. He also said that none of the hostages were injured, something which contradicts information released by the kidnappers which said that there were several injured crew members aboard the boat. According to a source connected to the kidnappers the boat is currently heading towards the small town of Gaan around 50 kilometres to the south of Obbia. Spanish military sources have confirmed that a frigate that was in the Red Sea is now on its way to the area. There have been several attacks by pirates in the Indian Ocean over recent years. There was an attack on a cruise ship on 4th April this year in which all the crew were taken hostage. The 30 crew members were released after a week following payment of a ransom fee. Action taken by the French special forces led to the detention of 6 of the pirates.The latest attack on the Basque fishing vessel appears to be another in the long list of incidents in this particular area in which 31 attacks were registered last year by the International Maritime Bureau.Spain appealed to France, the United States and NATO on Monday for help in ending a crisis sparked when pirates seized 26 crew members of a Spanish fishing boat off the Somali coast.The defence ministry said a Spanish military frigate was heading to the area off east Africa, where the pirates have demanded money for the release of the crew, a day after storming the vessel armed with grenade launchers.It said the ship would arrive in 24 to 36 hours.Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega chaired a meeting of senior cabinet members, including Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos and Defence Minister Carme Chacon, to discuss the crisis."We have sought the help of France and the United States," two countries with a military presence in the area, a Spanish government spokesman said.The defence ministry "has already entered into contact with NATO authorities," the government said in a statement.It said Madrid is also in contact with "Britain and other allied countries and friends with a military presence in the area".The coastal waters off Somalia, which has not had an effective central government for more than 17 years and is plagued by insecurity, are considered to be among the most dangerous waterways for shipping in the world.
On Monday, a major Japanese oil tanker was damaged and then chased by heavily armed pirates off the coasts of Somalia and Yemen but no one was injured, officials and crew members said.Spain's foreign ministry said the tuna boat, the Playa de Bakio, "was boarded and apparently seized while it was fishing in Somali waters" at 1:00 pm on Sunday, but that no one was hurt.Thirteen of the crew are Spanish nationals, it said, while Spanish media reported that their 13 crewmates are African nationals.Four pirates armed with grenade launchers seized the boat some 400 kilometres off the coast of Somalia, Spanish media said.Speaking in broken English on Spanish National Radio (RNE), a man who appeared to be one of the pirates said Monday they wanted "money", after snatching the phone from the boat's captain who had been contacted on board."I am the captain of the boat... we are all well and there is no problem, for the moment there is no problem," the skipper said in Spanish, before being interrupted by the pirate who said he was a member of a "Somalia militia."The newspaper El Mundo said on its Internet site Monday that the boat was headed for the Somali town of Gaan, about 50 kilometres from the southern town of Obbia.
The seizure came two days after a Paris court charged six Somalis with taking the crew of a French luxury yacht hostage earlier this month.The six were captured by French special forces, along with USD 200,000 (EUR 125,000) of suspected ransom money, after they released the 30-strong crew of the yacht on 11 April. They had held the group hostage for a week.The Spanish fishing boat was seized in the same area where the French yacht was attacked, RNE said.Last year more than 25 ships were seized by pirates in Somali coastal waters despite US navy patrols.
The International Maritime Bureau advises merchant ships to stay at least 200 nautical miles from the Somali coast.


Nine people died, one of them a six year old girl, and 22 more were seriously injured in a coach crash on the A7 Benalmádena bypass on Saturday

Posted On Tuesday, April 22, 2008 0 comments

Nine people died, one of them a six year old girl, and 22 more were seriously injured in a coach crash on the A7 Benalmádena bypass on Saturday evening. It happened at 1950 at the 224 km point above Arroyo de la Miel, when the coach, carrying a group of 47 Finnish tourists, driver and co-driver, came into a side contact with a recently purchased KIA four wheel drive vehicle.It is a very fast downhill stretch of road and it had been raining in the area for most of the day. Eyewitnesses said the four by four tried to overtake the coach on the inside, and hit the side crash barrier when doing so. He rebounded from there to hit the bus side on which led to the bus driver losing control with the bus ending up overturned moving down the central reservation until coming to a standstill. It’s understood that one of the uprights on the central reservation crash barriers sliced right through the overturned coach.The driver of the four wheel drive vehicle tested 0.50 milligrams of alcohol in his breath, double the legal maximum and is being blamed for the accident. This was confirmed by the Government Sub Delegate for the province, Hilario López Luna, who also said the KIA driver has been arrested. He is a 27 year old man from Málaga and is now in the Clínico hospital with slight injuries. His father was with him in the vehicle and he was also only slightly hurt.
The 47 tourists, driver, and two TUI guides, were all then trapped inside the wreckage of the bus, and despite the efforts of other drivers who witnessed the accident, had to wait some two hours before the emergency workers could gain access by cutting a hole in the roof of the vehicle. Later heavy lifting gear was brought in to right the vehicle. The coach driver and the guides are among the injured.
The bus driver has been named as 53 year old José Jiménez. His daughter told the Diario Sur newspaper that only that morning he had been talking to the family about the responsibility of transporting so many people. His wife and children spoke of his ‘professionalism and prudence’ at the wheel.
The Andalucian Health Service set up a mobile hospital at the scene, where a number of the passengers were attended to as soon as possible. The injured were then taken to different hospitals in the province – One youngster is in the Materno Infantil Hosptial where another woman has been admitted to the gynaecological ward, five injured are in the Carlos Haya hospital in Málaga, one of whom is said to be in a critical condition, five more were taken to the Costa del Sol hospital in Marbella and the rest, some seven to the Civil Hospital in Málaga. Other people were attended to in health centres in both Benalmádena and Torremolinos.
17 of the victims remain in hospital this morning, and one of them, a woman in her 50’s, is in a coma and on assisted breathing in the Carlos Haya hospital in Málaga. She has lost part of an arm also.
Forensic police have arrived from Finland to help in the investigation and also Finnish psychologists are helping the survivors, the first 14 of whom were finally flown home to Helsinki yesterday afternoon.
The Finnish Government has thanked the Spanish authorities and rescue workers, and noted that Spanish Foreign Minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos had informed the Finnish Government of the accident within an hour of it taking place.
The tourists were on their way back to Málaga airport from Marbella at the end of their holiday on the Costa del Sol. The coach was from the Tui España company, and had left from Marbella, picking up tourists en route in their return to the airport.
The road was closed direction Málaga for a time, leading to considerable delays in both directions on a busy Saturday night.
It is being described as the worst road accident in recent years in the province of Málaga and is the most serious coach crash seen in Spain since November 2001 when 20 pensioners lost their lives in Huelva.


British demand in Spain has slowed dramatically

Posted On Tuesday, April 22, 2008 0 comments

“British demand in Spain has slowed dramatically,” says Mark Stucklin, founder of spanishpropertyinsight.com, an independent online consul-tancy. “The latest nail in the coffin is the exchange rate, and prices have dropped 20% in some parts of the Costas since last summer.” Viva Estates is selling a two-bed flat in Elvira near Malaga for £240,000, although it is possible to pick one up elsewhere on the Costa del Sol for less than £200,000. In higher-end areas such as Mallorca, prices have stagnated, so vendors who need to sell are having to accept offers.
Strategy: If you’re an owner, hang on if you can. “Now is not a good time to sell,” says Stucklin. “There are just no buyers out there.” If you must sell, then be prepared to cut the price sharply. Those bringing the proceeds back to Britain can console themselves with the fact they are getting 10p more for each euro than at the beginning of the year. If you’re a buyer, you have a lot of choice, so shop around and haggle hard.


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

Posted On Tuesday, April 22, 2008 0 comments

Viva is down to one office and sells 200 homes a year if it is lucky. “It’s as if we’ve been hit by a tsunami,” says McCarthy, who is focusing on Hot Properties, a magazine he has set up to help people sell privately. “The property boom was over by 2004. Chris McCarthy, a Briton living in Marbella, set up Viva Estates, an estate agency aimed at selling property to the hordes of his fellow countrymen keen to buy on the Costa del Sol. At its peak, the company had 15 offices across southern Spain and was selling 2,000 properties a year. Last year, it was oversupplied, overpriced and illegal, then came the Spanish property market collapse, the US sub-prime crisis, Northern Rock, followed by UK house prices falling, rate increases, the mortgage freeze and the stock market collapse. It’s been like wave after wave hitting us.” Spain – and especially the south coast – consistently tops the list of the most popular overseas buying destinations for Britons, with an estimated 65% of the properties sold each year on the Costas going to UK buyers. With the British market in trouble, the Costa del Sol is feeling the draught. While the value of their own houses in Guildford and Birmingham is at a standstill or even falling, people are less willing to invest in a holiday home abroad. Other places popular with Brits, such as Florida and the Caribbean, are also beginning to hurt. Even in the south of France and Italy, markets are taking a knock, thanks to the strength of the euro, which has risen 15% against the pound since September, adding to the cost of buying. Couple this with tighter mortgage conditions for borrowers at home and abroad, and the picture is far from rosy. “There has definitely been a slowdown in the normal sales rates that one might expect,” says James Price, head of international residential development at Knight Frank. “It’s taking longer to get people to commit. There needs to be a compelling reason for them to buy abroad.”
“Super-prime property appears to be relatively unaffected by the tightening of lending conditions,” says Price, although he thinks even the top end of the market in most countries will begin to slow as turmoil in the financial world hits confidence. He warns: “The next 12 months will see a gradual slowing of price growth in the main international buying destinations, especially France, Italy and the Caribbean.” So what is really happening in the six most popular overseas destinations, and what should you do?


Monday, April 21, 2008

syndicate had been using Madrid as its centre in Europe and recruited Malaysian women as couriers to Brazil, Australia, Mexico and China.

Posted On Monday, April 21, 2008 0 comments

On Thursday, Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar said the ministry would seek Interpol's assistance in tracking international syndicates using Malaysian women as drug couriers.The previous day, it was reported that more than 20 Malaysian women in their 20s were detained by a drug syndicate in a house in Madrid.
The syndicate had been using Madrid as its centre in Europe and recruited Malaysian women as couriers to Brazil, Australia, Mexico and China.
It was believed that three African men and a Malaysian were key players in the plan to lure the women with promises of lucrative pay by working overseas.Two of their victims -- Norfaizura Azura Md Lias, 21, from Pangkor, Perak, and Dayang Sakienah Mat Lazim, 20, from Bukit Payung, Terengganu -- were detained by Malta police recently.


Sunday, April 20, 2008

Nine Finnish tourists including a seven-year-old girl died following a bus crash near the Spanish resort town of Benalmadena

Posted On Sunday, April 20, 2008 0 comments

Nine Finnish tourists including a seven-year-old girl died following a bus crash near the Spanish resort town of Benalmadena on the Costa del Sol yesterday. Some 16 others were injured, some seriously, when their bus veered off the road and over-turned after a collision with another vehicle.
The driver of car has been detained on suspicion of being over the drink driving limit The bus was taking the tourists to Malaga airport to catch their flight home when the accident happened.The driver of the four wheel drive vehicle tested 0.50 milligrams of alcohol in his breath, double the legal maximum and is being blamed for the accident. This was confirmed by the Government Sub Delegate for the province, Hilario López Luna, who also said the KIA driver has been arrested. He is a 27 year old man from Málaga and is now in the Clínico hospital with slight injuries. His father was with him in the vehicle and he was also only slightly hurt.
The 47 tourists, driver, and two TUI guides, were all then trapped inside the wreckage of the bus, and despite the efforts of other drivers who witnessed the accident, had to wait some two hours before the emergency workers could gain access by cutting a hole in the roof of the vehicle. Later heavy lifting gear was brought in to right the vehicle. The coach driver and the guides are among the injured.
The bus driver has been named as 53 year old José Jiménez. His daughter told the Diario Sur newspaper that only that morning he had been talking to the family about the responsibility of transporting so many people. His wife and children spoke of his ‘professionalism and prudence’ at the wheel.


Repossessions loom as the once buoyant homes market goes into freefall,

Posted On Sunday, April 20, 2008 0 comments

The Santa Ursula based publisher of The Tenerife Property Price Guide, today releases the results of its survey of Tenerife property prices, showing falls in prices for the three regions of Tenerife, (the South and South East, the North, and the Metropolitan region).
During the last six months, property prices have fallen by 3,48% in the South and South East (from Candelaria around the coast to Santiago del Teide). In the North, prices have fallen the least, by 2,64%, and in the Metropolitan region (Santa Cruz, La Laguna, El Rosario and Tegueste) prices have fallen by 3,27%. When general inflation is taken into account (2,1% over the last six months) the real falls are 5.6% in the South, 4,7% in the North and 5,4% in the Metropolitan region.John Gardner of Value It commented: “These are averages for these regions, and are based upon a survey of 6250 properties for sale. Within each region there have been greater falls in some areas and for certain property types, and a few areas are level with inflation or still seeing prices rise. Puerto de la Cruz has seen falls below the average for example, while the falls in Adeje are consistent with the southern region as a whole. The answer for people looking to buy in Tenerife is thorough research and knowing the pricing trends in the areas and for the property types. There is no substitute if you want to buy well and protect your investment. For those thinking of selling they can work out what would be a good or competitive price to ensure that they attract serious buyers”.


Saturday, April 19, 2008

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

Posted On Saturday, April 19, 2008 0 comments



The Costa del Sol Association of Builders and Promoters reported in February that sales of tourist property in southern Malaga province fell nearly 50 percent last year. It claimed the main problem was people being frightened by corruption scandals in which homes were built with licenses obtained through bribes.
Tourism and rampant construction over the past three decades have turned the Spanish coast from the French border all the way round and beyond the Rock of Gibraltar into a continuous mass of concrete.
In many cases, town halls bypassed planning regulations and took bribes in exchange for licenses.Spain says 40 percent of the coast is built on and nearly 70 percent of its beaches are surrounded by buildings.
"It was the politics of money today, forget about tomorrow." said Luis Cerrillo, head of the Ecologists in Action group in the Valencia region.
Spain, the world's No. 2 tourism destination, is the most popular choice for northern Europeans seeking to own a second home. Just British residents in Spain are believed to amount to nearly 1 million — though it's not certain how many own property.Most observers agree it is no coincidence that the coastal clean-up drive follows a real estate fraud scandal on the Costa del Sol in 2006 in which 80 people face charges.
Gordon Turnbull of Blue Med estate agents in the eastern Murcia region blames the corruption scandals and international banking crisis for dropping sales, but argues the coastal law might actually stimulate the market by making the coast prettier.
On two nearby beaches, he says there are the shells of two major apartment buildings, illegal and unfinished monstrosities.
"They put people off buying here," said Turnbull. "People appreciate seeing an eyesore getting knocked down. The government's not doing enough."

Enforcing a much-neglected 1988 law, the Socialist government is getting tough about what constitutes coastal public domain — the strip of land stretching back from the water's edge — and telling thousands of house and apartment owners their properties do not really belong to them."Out of the blue we've been told the house we have owned for more than 30 years is no longer ours," said retired British electronics engineer Clifford Carter, 59, who lives with his Spanish wife in La Casbah, a beach side complex in eastern Spain."The house was built legally, but now they say we can only live here until we die but can't sell the house or leave it to our children," said Carter.The fears of losing coastal villas come as Spain's real estate market is turning sour, a situation tied by some to the international banking crisis and its parent, the U.S. subprime mortgage scandal. While the troubles of Spain's overgrown coast are not directly tied to the banking crisis, both have involved shady business practices that often wind up in the lap of individual homeowners.Along the Spanish coast, a protest group formed in January says it already represents 20,000 people It notes that up to half a million others — apartment and villa owners and restaurant and hotel proprietors — could be affected. Most are Spaniards, but many are foreigners."This is the single biggest assault on private property we have seen in the recent history of Spain," said Jose Ortega, a spokesman for the group and lawyer for many of those affected.He says that at best, owners are being given 60-year concessions to live on the property or operate their businesses. Others, he says, are threatened with demolition.The government says the claims are exaggerated but insists the coast has to be saved.
"We're taking the law seriously," said the Environment Ministry's coastal department director, Jose Fernandez. "Previous governments didn't think it was important, while we have made it a priority."The government is finishing the process of drawing the line that designates what is state-owned and cannot contain private property along Spain's 6,200 miles of coast.
It plans to spend some $8 billion to fix up the coast. Some of the money will go to homeowners who, under the 1988 law, cannot sell to another private party but can sell to the state.Many people are suddenly finding they're on the wrong side of the dividing line. Ortega's group alleges the government is drawing it selectively, targeting individuals but shying away from tourist resorts.But it's not just individuals. The five-star Hotel Sidi lies a stone's throw from retired engineer Carter's house and the shoreline. Last December its owners were told it had been built on dune land protected by the 1988 law and must go. They are being offered a 60-year operating concession, after which it falls into state hands.
"We're afraid that they'll take away the property. It was built legally with all the papers," said Roger Zimmermann, the hotel's managing director. "This is our livelihood."Fernandez admits 1,300 structures have been demolished since the Socialists came to power in 2004 but insists most were constructed without permits. He denies the government has plans for mass demolitions or immediate expropriations. Barring exceptional cases, he says, people whose property is in the public domain will be able to continue living or working there.
Ortega says that is not comforting. "Today anybody who owns or wants to own a home or property on the coast can't be sure because at any moment the government can take it away from you without compensation," he said.
The economic impact on construction and tourism could be immense, Ortega argues.
This would be bad news for a real estate sector that has largely driven Spain's economy for the past decade but it now cooling sharply.


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

Posted On Saturday, April 19, 2008 0 comments


Holiday fraudsters netted £6million from bogus budget sites.A gang of fraudulent travel agents who scammed more than 20,000 sun seekers out of their holidays have been jailed for up to seven years each. fraudsters advertising budget breaks on teletext and the internet. Sixty-four-year-old Christakis Philippou was the ring leader. His mistress Evangelia Liogka oversaw the agencies and call centres, bankrupt accountant Timothy Entwistle masterminded the gang’s finances, while Peter Kemp managed the day to day running of their 26 front firms. Together, prosecutors say they made the perfect team. The scam was simple - set up bogus budget holiday sites advertising bargain breaks in Greece, Spain and Cyprus, take holidaymakers’ money then close the firm down. Between 2003 and 2006 such sites made £6million for the gang funding a luxury lifestyle of plush homes, fast cars and of course exotic holidays. Today the gang were brought to justice for defrauding an estimated 20,000 people. At Southwark Crown Court the gang were jailed for up to seven years each.
It was credit card companies and travel industry body ABTA that were left to pick up the tab for the gang’s crime. The victims of this scam say long term lessons must be learned. Mr Reynolds thought because he booked with an ABTA approved company he would be safe, now he wants them to be more careful about whom they approve.


Costa del Sol Home Information Packs are a legal requirement

Posted On Saturday, April 19, 2008 0 comments

Felipe Martinez de Marmol, from solicitors Martinez-Echevarria Perez & Ferrero Abogados, explained in further detail the regulations surrounding Decree 218, passed in 2005, which requires all agencies selling property on the Costa del Sol to have a Documento Informativo Abreviado (DIA) and a Ficha Informativa (FI) - similar to the UK’s Home Information Packs (HIPS). De Marmol believes the need to be compliant with the Decree is becoming increasingly important as officials from local government have been conducting snap inspections of offices on the Costa del Sol recently. He added that buyers needed to be taught to ask for these documents, as well as agents providing them.Javier Ledesma, President of AEGI, the Spanish estate agents association, who spoke about the future of the area’s property market leading up to 2020, acknowledged the concerns shared by several members of the audience surrounding Decree 218, however said it was a case of recognising it was there to stay and making sure individual firms were compliant.
“After two years we still haven’t taken Decree 218 seriously. While we might not agree with certain aspects of it, we must follow it. It is the law. Some 67% of real estate offices still don’t provide the mandatory information required by the executive order published in 2005 and we are in April 2008. People didn’t believe it before and thought it was a gimmick but it is not and we are in a delicate situation.”Other speakers examined issues surrounding the Costa del Sol's property market, such as concerns over its environmental sustainability, the best way to promote residential tourism and more detail about the Marbella PGOU plan.
The LPA has another conference that will examine these and other issues, in more detail, later this year.


British couple remanded in Benidorm

Posted On Saturday, April 19, 2008 0 comments

The accident occurred last Friday night on the CV-763 (km 3,4). The couple were driving back to their home on the San Rafael residential estate while the young motorcyclist was heading towards Alfàs del Pi. The victim, who was still alive as he was dragged for 2-3km underneath the British couple's car, died before emergency medics could get him into the ambulance. His family and friends, who say the boy's parents are "totally destroyed and unable to come to terms with what has happened,"


British couple in their fifties were remanded in jail by a judge in Benidorm yesterday charged with imprudent homicide. They were arrested last Monday after being spotted dragging a badly-injured motorcyclist they had knocked down after a previous accident by licence plate recognition cameras on the outskirts of La Nucia (Aliante). During yesterday's hearing, the man, who was driving, broke down and admitted being aware not only that he had hit something or someone and that, following the impact, he was aware that something or someone had got stuck under his vehicle. In his defence, the man claimed that he thought he had hit a stray dog and said that he failed to stop and investigate because he suffered a panic attack.
The degree of responsibility that should be attributed to the man's wife, who also admits being aware of the impact, remains to be determined.


Isabel Pantoja mugshot taken and put on file but who leaked the photos.

Posted On Saturday, April 19, 2008 0 comments


Isabel Pantoja, the famous singer, accused of tax offences and money laundering. was released on bail of 90,000 euros, but not before her mugshot had been taken and put on file. The photo appeared shortly afterwards in some of the media.
Now, hundreds of civil servants working for the Interior and Justice Ministries are being called on to say exactly why they felt the need to access the Isabel Pantoja file, and while some are able to show that they were working on the case and had good cause, many more are having to admit that it was sheer curiosity that led them to use their computer passwords to take a look at the file.
It will not be easy to sift through those suspected of passing on the photo to the media because of the huge numbers involved. However, passwords can be shared by several members of a team, so some of the people under investigation can show that they were not even in the office on the day in question.


International drug trafficking ring originating in Spain

Posted On Saturday, April 19, 2008 0 comments

Malta Police drug squad has smashed a international drug trafficking ring originating in Spain after capturing two young Malaysian women smuggling drugs through the Malta International Airport a few weeks ago.The case was kept under wraps by local authorities as the two women were also charged in Maltese Courts 'behind closed doors'. But the story was exposed in the Malaysian press which reported how Malaysian women are being lured by a Spanish drug syndicate to act as drug couriers in Europe. The Malaysian Star identified the women as Azura Maizura Alias, 21, from Pulau Pangkor in Perak and Dayang Sakienah Mat Lazim, 20, from Bukit Payung in Terengganu. the women were kept detained in a house in Madrid Spain which was heavily guarded by armed men. The women had their passports taken from them and some were even beaten up and raped. They would then be dispatched to certain countries to smuggle drugs and be used in money laundering activities.Azura Maizura was caught trying to smuggle 2 kilogrammes of cocaine through the Malta Airport and is reported to have pleaded guilty to charges on drug smuggling. She is liable to get a nine year jail term.Dayang Sakienah, who was caught on 27 January was charged with conspiring in drug trafficking and involvement in money-laundering after she was found carrying a EUR45,000 receipt. Two other victims of this drug ring have also been detained in Brazil and Mexico.“According to the source, the (drug) syndicate has made Madrid its operations centre in Europe and recruits Malaysian women to carry drugs to countries around the globe, including Brazil, Australia, Mexico and China,”


Juan Antonio Roca attempted robbery at Cala d'Or villa

Posted On Saturday, April 19, 2008 0 comments


A 45 year old Austrian woman with no previous criminal record is on bail pending trial after being arrested for attempting to steal a number of high-value items from a chalet in Cala d'Or (Mallorca) belonging to Juan Antonio Roca, who is one of the main suspects in the 'Operación Malaya' Marbella council corruption case. The woman was caught red-handed with various valuable paintings, candelabra, and mirrors in the back of her Renault Laguna car that was parked outside the seaside property that had been sealed off with police tape. Before her release on bail, the woman was held for several days at the Guardia Civil barracks in Manacor.
A spokeman for the investiagting team has indicated that the inquiry remains open and further arrests are not being ruled out.


Friday, April 18, 2008

A member of the crew of a boat which brought four stowaways to Alicante has been arrested by the police.

Posted On Friday, April 18, 2008 0 comments

A member of the crew of a boat which brought four stowaways to Alicante has been arrested by the police. It comes after the Capitan of the Slovak vessel handed over the four Turkish nationals to the National Police in Alicante Port after discovering the immigrants.Reports in Informacion newspaper indicate that the member of the crew who has been arrested charged the stowaways 2,500 € for allowing them on board. Three of the stowaways are reported to have accepted their immediate deportation, while a fourth has asked for political asylum.
Police say the boat initially departed from Istanbul with eight stowaways on board, but four of them got off the vessel at a stop over in Sicily.Three of the four have accepted deportation while the last has applied for political asylum.


Indignant Marbella, Justice Now.

Posted On Friday, April 18, 2008 0 comments


One person told 20minutos that part of the town thinks that the judiciary is giving in by letting Roca out of prison on bail.
The slogan for the demonstration was ‘Marbella indignada, justicia ya’ – Indignant Marbella, Justice Now.Some 2,000 local residents of Marbella took to the streets last night in demand that Juan Antonio Roca leave the town and lose his assets here. They are planning to ask the instruction judge in the Malaya case, Óscar Pérez, for a distancing order from the town, considering that ex real estate assessor has ill-treated the municipality.
Placards carried by the demonstrators also mentioned the ex Deputy Mayor of the town Pedro Román, who was also described as a ‘persona non grata’. They also made calls for Roca to be kept in prison until the Malaya case comes to court – it’s expected to get underway at the end of next year in Málaga.


Costa ski season will be dramatically shorter than at present

Posted On Friday, April 18, 2008 0 comments

By the end of this century, the ski season in the Pyrenees will be dramatically shorter than it is at present - if one exists at all - according to scientists who are predicting a sharp increase in temperatures and rapid decline in precipitation in the mountain range due to global warming.The study by Spain's High Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) warns that average temperatures will rise by at least 2.8ºC by 2100 in a best case scenario in which greenhouse gas emissions are low, and by around 4ºC in the worst-case, high-emissions scenario. At the same time, the amount of rain and snow fall is expected to plunge by between 10.7 percent and 14.8 percent per year."These models predict [temperature and precipitation changes] of sufficient magnitude to directly affect the availability of water, economic activities and the environment of the region," Juan Ignacio Lopez Moreno, one of the study's authors, said this week.The researchers base their predictions, which cover the period between 2070 and 2100, on six regional climate models that were able to accurately estimate climatic conditions between 1960 and 1990 in the Pyrenees.


Thursday, April 17, 2008

Francisco del Valle, the brother of the man accused of murdering five year old Mari Luz Cortes, has become the target of local anger and frustration

Posted On Thursday, April 17, 2008 0 comments

Francisco del Valle, the brother of the man accused of murdering five year old Mari Luz Cortes, has become the target of local anger and frustration.On Monday night, a crowd of around 100 to 150 people went to his house in El Torrejon, Huelva, and began hurling stones and other objects. The police intervened before the mob could break down the door.Francisco del Valle is now asking the authorities for assistance in moving to a ’safe’ location, somewhere outside the province of Huelva. He is asking the Junta de Andalucía to provide himself and his three children, aged 3 years, 10 years and 17 years, with temporary accommodation until they can make other arrangements. Francisco says that the recent events are having a traumatic effect on his family.The local authorities have pleaded for calm, emphasing that Francisco del Valle has been fully cooperative with the police during the investigation and does not deserve the treatment he has been receiving.

Del Valle denounced the events of Monday night but no arrests have been made. Police have, however, been maintaining constant surveillance of the house to prevent any further incidents.Juan José Cortes, father of the murdered girl, has stated that he was unaware of the incident until the next day, adding that was obviously borne out of anger and resentment. He said that although he was able to control his own anger, there were those who obviously could not. He expressed a wish for a speedy resolution to the situation.


Smuggling routes in the sub-Saharan Sahel region of Africa that were traditionally used for cigarettes, arms and illegal migrants

Posted On Thursday, April 17, 2008 0 comments


Smuggling routes in the sub-Saharan Sahel region of Africa that were traditionally used for cigarettes, arms and illegal migrants are now becoming highways for cocaine, heroin and hashish, with kidnapping and banditry rife, the United Nations chief crime fighter warned today.“The international community must act to prevent a further deterioration of the situation that could destabilize the entire region and have a dangerous spill-over effect,” he said. “Countries where these goods are headed should also do more to reduce the demand that is fuelling this dangerous trade.”He noted that criminals were also exploiting the region’s rich natural resources, and that the overall situation provided a lucrative source of funding for rebels, anti-government forces and terrorists in a vast inhospitable and remote area stretching across the width of Africa, where nomads and traders have for centuries moved back and forth across borders.Some countries like Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger have thousands of kilometres of almost open frontiers.Not only is this a threat to security, but also a drain on development. Badly-needed resources are being shifted away from education and health care into security. In one country alone, resources spent on border security and crime fighting last year were sufficient to have built 600 schools and health centres.
“These countries are being targeted by smugglers because they are vulnerable, and criminal activity is making them even more vulnerable,” Mr. Costa said. “We must break this vicious circle.”Among needs identifies for technical assistance were counter-narcotics, criminal justice reform, anti-corruption, border management, intelligence sharing, terrorism prevention and the battle against the illicit arms trade. Counties represented at the meeting included Burkina Faso, Chad, Cape Verde, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Togo, Niger and Senegal.


Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Spain "It's a spoiled generation. They've suffered little, matured little and are not well-educated,"

Posted On Wednesday, April 16, 2008 0 comments

Spain has become the top consumer of cocaine in continental Europe, according to a recent European Union study on drug use. By a United Nations count, 3% of Spain's adult population consumes cocaine; that's a bigger percentage than the erstwhile leader, the United States, at 2.3%. Around dawn on a Sunday, packs of young people are huddled at stoplights, or ambling down Paseo del Prado.Despite the hour, the day isn't just beginning for them. Like thousands of young Spaniards, they are ending a long night of hard-core partying that very likely included the unbridled snorting of cocaine.At crowded clubs and throbbing bars along Madrid's Gran Via, and on side streets radiating from the Puerta del Sol, the city's heart, a gram of coke is casually sold for 50 euros -- about $79 -- and quickly consumed in restrooms or nearby parked cars."It's easier to get cocaine than to get a library card," said Gustavo Rodriguez, a 31-year-old business student, recalling his nocturnal carousing before he went into rehab.Among younger age groups, the number of Spanish users has doubled, even quadrupled, during the last decade, the statistics indicate.Part of the reason for the dramatic increase is that Spain is the primary transit point for cocaine smuggled into Europe from Latin America. In cargo ships and on airplanes, hidden in machine parts, frozen octopus or just about anything else, tons of cocaine arrive at Spanish and Portuguese ports every month.And you can't be a transit point forever without eventually sampling the goods.It was a similar story a couple of decades ago for the world's top producing countries, Peru, Bolivia and Colombia; for years they boasted of being free of drug addiction in their own populations -- they merely grew and processed the stuff and shipped it onward. But it didn't stay that way.In Spain, the rise in consumption is also linked to a swift transition in Spanish society.

In barely one generation, this nation of 40 million moved from a long, repressive military dictatorship to a dynamic, youthful democracy with (until recently) a vibrant economy.With Spaniards' newfound freedom came a cultural reawakening and fast-paced change, an era called La Movida that also gave way to permissiveness and a breakdown in traditions. And though some of the hedonism of the '80s has evolved into something a little more sophisticated, a fresh crop of young Spaniards won't let go of a firmly held compulsion for frenzied celebration of the weekend."It's a spoiled generation. They've suffered little, matured little and are not well-educated," said Modesto Salgado, who runs one of Spain's main drug rehab programs. "They live for the moment, to enjoy."Salgado says Spain's predominant drug problem in the '80s and early '90s was heroin. Today, cocaine is by far the drug of choice: Nearly two-thirds of the patients in the 26 centers managed by his program, Proyecto Hombre, are cocaine abusers. Proyecto Hombre started the coke program only five years ago; it hadn't seemed necessary before that, Salgado said.At his rehab center in Guadalajara, a bedroom community 35 miles northeast of Madrid, patients are in yearlong residential programs or larger outpatient regimens. Most are in their late 20s and are middle- or upper-class professionals.
On a recent evening, the mostly male clients were standing in front of the new brick building, having a smoke. Their mothers and other relatives were inside attending a special meeting for families; some emerged tearful.Rodriguez, the business student, was there. A tall, strapping man with good looks and an easy smile, Rodriguez said the danger of cocaine is that it sneaks up on you. And, compared with heroin, it's still socially acceptable and, in the minds of many, associated with glamour and success. Plus, it's cheap -- a line costs about as much as two cups of coffee."You think you can live normally, but you don't see what it does to your health, over time," said Rodriguez, who added that he has kicked a 10-year habit. "I couldn't finish anything I started. My parents didn't know where I was or what I was doing. The tragedy is the core of my family life was destroyed."
The overwhelming majority of cocaine users in Spain, and of those who seek rehab, are men, Salgado and other officials said. Women still face more of a stigma than do men when it comes to using drugs and turning to treatment, said Antonio Cuadrado, a therapist at Proyecto Hombre.Police and some government officials question the ranking of Spain as Europe's top consumer. Authorities say they think they are getting a handle on the problem, and the Health Ministry says consumption among the young fell last year for the first time.But no one disputes the prevalence of the drug and the fact that cocaine being shipped through Spain is leaving a trail of dust and dope.Traffickers, peddlers and other purveyors of the powder "are finding a very good market here," said Jose Luis Conde Velazquez, chief of the drugs and organized crime police unit.Yet the government is still figuring out the best way to fight cocaine. Carmen Moya Garcia, an epidemiologist who heads the Health Ministry's National Plan on Drugs, said attention that has been focused on the interdiction of traffickers is finally shifting to include consumption.A four-year action plan launched last year by the government attempts to break the glorifying myths surrounding cocaine with TV and Web campaigns. And nightclubs, bars and other establishments of leisure are being asked to cooperate with authorities in prohibiting drug use on their premises, by posting signs and keeping bathrooms clear.
Moya said authorities have been able to argue to the clubs, with some success, that cooperation won't hurt business.Last summer, in party mecca Ibiza, the government sent a message by shutting down three clubs on the Mediterranean island with such names as Amnesia for a month or more, at the height of the season, as punishment for what police said was flaunting of drugs.Demand for rehab treatment has soared the way consumption has, and programs such as Proyecto Hombre are at capacity. The experts in those places say the crisis is a deeper phenomenon of questioned ideals and changing values, something that cannot be resolved merely by cracking down on clubs and rounding up small-time pushers, known here in slang as camellos."Society has gone from being very rigid to too permissive," said Cuadrado, the therapist. Cocaine abuse "is going to grow," he said. "We are only just beginning to treat this."


'Martin the Bag' Lance from Marbella arrested suspected of being the Cocaine boss of Marbella.

Posted On Wednesday, April 16, 2008 0 comments


Spanish police have arrested a British man suspected by French authorities of being the head of a cocaine trafficking network, the interior ministry said Monday.
It identified the man as Martin Lance N., 40, also known as "Martin the Bag", born in the central English town of Oadby near Leicester and a resident of the southern Spanish resort of Marbella.It said he was detained in the northeastern city of Barcelona.He is the object of an international arrest warrant issued by French authorities."He is suspected of being the head of a group involved in importing, manufacturing, producing, providing or acquiring narcotics, specifically cocaine," an interior ministry statement said. In particular, French police believe he was involved in smuggling 144 kilogrammes (317 pounds) of cocaine hidden in four mattresses that were found in Paris in June 2006.



The British man, Martin Lance N (40), known as 'Martin the Bag', who lives in Marbella and who is believed to be the leader of a gang which imported, manufactured, and distributed cocaine, was arrested in Barcelona. In separate raids in Barcelona, Mallorca and Málaga, Spanish police have arrested a German man, a British man, an Italian man and a Spanish man wanted by judicial authorities in Germany, France, Italy and Holland for drug-trafficking and fraud.
The investigation started in June 2006 when French police discovered 144kg of cocaine in four suitcases, which enabled them to identify the British and French members of the gang.


Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Juan Antonio Roca told the press on his release that he is considering returning to his job in Marbella Town Hall

Posted On Tuesday, April 15, 2008 0 comments

Juan Antonio Roca walked free from prison in Granada – two years since his arrest on charges of urban corruption, fraud, money laundering, embezzlement, the misappropriation of public funds, falsifying official documents and the illegal possession of firearms.Judge Óscar Pérez – who granted bail for the former chief of urban planning at Marbella town hall in late March – announced a bank transfer from Roca’s lawyers during a hearing at court number 5 in the Costa del Sol town.
Under the bail conditions, Roca has to attend court everyday and not go within 500 metres of an airport. This is over continuing police fears the former chaffeur, who is claimed to have amassed a 200-million-euro fortune during his time at the council, will flee Spain.Investigators believe he has hidden bank accounts in tax havens around the globe.

Residents of Marbella gathered in the town today to protest at the fact that the man at the centre of the Malaya corruption case, the ex municipal real estate assessor, Juan Antonio Roca, has been released from jail on 1 million € bail after two years on remand. Groups of locals and left-wing politicians from I.U. collected outside one of the properties owned by Roca in San Pedro Alcántara.Meanwhile the Marbella Town Hall issued a statement saying that they would continue to challenge the release in the courts. Town Hall spokesman, Félix Romero, said that their appeal would stay in place and they were waiting to hear the opinions of both the provincial and national courts on the matter, given the flight risk which Juan Antonio Roca represents.
For his part Juan Antonio Roca told the press on his release that the charges against him had been greatly exaggerated, to the extent that they should be in the Guinness Book of Records.
Under the bail conditions he has to sign in the court or with the police every day, and cannot go closer than 500m to any airfield.
20 minutos has reported meanwhile that after signing at the court today Roca said he is considering returning to his job in Marbella Town Hall. He described it as a possibility and a right he has, and also reminded the press that he still has not been sentenced for anything. He also said that he would, for now, remain living in Marbella, although revealed that he wanted to visit Murcia and Madrid next week.
"It is a possiblity (that he returns to his job) given that it is a right I have"
Meanwhile as one comes out, another goes back in. The ex Mayor of Marbella, Javier Muñoz, also charged in the Malaya corruption case in the town, returned to the Alhaurin Prison at 7,30am on Tuesday morning after enjoying his first three day pass. He spent the time with family and friends inside the villa ‘Mi Gitana’ with his partner, diva Isabel Pantoja, in the La Pera urbanisation in Puerto Banús. He arrived back at the jail in her four-wheel drive vehicle driven by her personal chauffer.Muñoz is also serving time for three separate sentences on town planning offences.


Angelo Caratenutto decapitated his mother and then went for a walk though the town hall square

Posted On Tuesday, April 15, 2008 0 comments

When police intervened at around 9pm last night, and took the package from the man, he told them that was his mother’s head.
It happened yesterday in Santomera in Murcia, and the Civil Guard say the man, named as a 35 year old called Angelo Caratenutto, has now been arrested. Reports indicate that he killed his mother in a bar in the town, and the Civil Guard say he has been admitted to psychiatric units on several occasions.He had decapitated his mother and then went for a walk though the town hall square with the head, wrapped in a rag under his arm. As he walked about barechested he could be heard saying,
‘I’ve killed her – now you are quiet, I love you so much’.The town of Santomera, with a population of some 14,000 is 30kms from Murcia city. The event has caused great upset there, with everyone surprised by the crime. Locals comment that the son was a fierce protector of his mother.


100 people in the El Torrejón district of Huelva have tried to lynch the brother of Santiago del Valle

Posted On Tuesday, April 15, 2008 0 comments



100 people in the El Torrejón district of Huelva have tried to lynch the brother of Santiago del Valle, the man accused of killing the five year old local girl Mari Luz Cortés. The group tried to get into the brother’s home and threw stones at the building, shouting that he had helped to cover up the crime.Francisco del Valle has however told the press that he is prepared to testify against his brother Santiago, while his wife has said they can no longer live in the area and have to move as both she and their 17 year old daughter had come under threat. National and anti-riot Police had to intervene late on Monday night to stop the aggression from progressing. The Government Sub Delegate for Huelva, Manuel Bago, commented that the brother did not deserve what was happening.Mari Luz’s father was among the protestors and commented that it was Francisco who brought his brother to the district and that initially he defended him.It’s not the first time that the locals have attacked the brother of the suspect. An earlier attack at the end of last month was caught on television.Meanwhile the parents of Mari Luz Cortés have launched a campaign and petition calling for life imprisonment for those paedophiles who are committed of murder.


Amy Fitzpatrick the hunt continues

Posted On Tuesday, April 15, 2008 0 comments


Detectives are continuing the hunt for Amy Fitzpatrick who vanished from Mijas Costa more than three months ago.
She was last seen at 10pm as she left a friend’s home in the tourist resort of Riviera del Sol, on the Costa del Sol, saying she was going to walk home.
Cops issued an appeal for information about a white Ford Fiesta with a UK number plate owned by a family friend, which went missing at the same time as Amy.
A government spokesman in the region said it was “difficult” to believe the youngster left voluntarily.
Police are now looking for a second car connected to the case, although no description has yet been released.
There has been no sign of Amy despite extensive searches in the region.
She has black hair, is 1.65m tall and was wearing black tracksuit bottoms and a Diesel T-shirt when she was last seen.


Secrets of the Duchess of Medina-Sidonia

Posted On Tuesday, April 15, 2008 0 comments

One of Spain’s most eccentric, blue-blooded and rebellious aristocrats, Doña Luisa Isabel Álvarez de Toledo, Duchess of Medina-Sidonia, died on March 7 leaving behind a scandal almost as big as the political scrapes that bedevilled her life spent championing the poor and defying Franco.
The three children of the 71-year-old Red Duchess as she was known, are grappling with the revelation that she had married her lesbian lover on her deathbed – and made out her will in her favour.
Her relationship with Liliana Maria Dahlmann, her 50-something private secretary who had worked with her for two decades, had been kept secret until their marriage – a civil ceremony – conducted by a council official just hours before her death.
Instead of the descendants of one of Spain’s oldest families, one of whose ancestors commanded the ill-fated Spanish Armada, inhabiting the ducal palace and taking control of the priceless collection of art and archives, the place has been taken over by Dahlmann.
The Duchess’ second son, civil engineer Don Gabriel Gregorio y Álvarez de Toledo, 50, who is reported to have last spoken to his mother a quarter of a century ago, said:
“My mother was a nightmare. She tried to deprive her three children of their inheritance.”
As to Ms Dahlmann herself, Don Gabriel said: “My mother tried to help Señorita Dahlmann when she came to Spain from Germany years ago and the two became lovers. My mother was part of a group of radical lesbians.
“When I heard she had married her secretary on her deathbed I thought it was typical of her.”
As widow, Ms Dahlmann can stay on at the huge palace, which is near Cádiz, for the rest of her life.


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