Courts in Málaga are taking as long as four years to hear cases

Courts in Málaga are taking as long as four years to hear the most simple of cases, according to a report in the Diario Sur newspaper today. The number is noted by the General Council for Judicial Power, the body which oversees the judiciary in Spain, which notes that things are particularly bad in Estepona, Marbella and Fuengirola.The other side of the coin is in Antequera where cases are generally completed in some eight to ten months.The Deacon...

Jack McGill on the run from Spanish police after skipping bail following his arrest with Harrison in October 2006.

Ex-drug dealer Jack McGill’s body was discovered hanged in woodland, it emerged yesterday. McGill, 52, had been on the run from Spanish police after skipping bail following his arrest with Harrison in October 2006. They were accused of attacking two men in Malaga. The uncle spent five months on remand in jail before bail was posted – while his ex-WBO featherweight champ nephew was freed within weeks. McGill’s body was found in Glasgow. Last night...

Banesto corruption allegations

Former International Monetary Fund head Rodrigo Rato appeared before a judge Tuesday probing corruption allegations at Spanish bank Banesto whilst he was economy minister, Spanish media said. Rato, his brother Ramon, the head of Santander bank Emilio Botin and 12 others are being investigated in connection with the 1999 purchase by Banesto of 45.3 percent of the Aguas de Fuensanta water utility company from the Rato family.In his one-hour appearance,...

Cargoes of cannabis over the Strait from Ceuta to the Costa del Sol

Details have been released of a National Police operation against a drug smuggling gang which operated between Ceuta and the Costa del Sol, and which brought large amounts of cannabis into Spain illegally. Central government offices in Ceuta said eleven arrests have taken place in Marbella, Estepona and Ceuta, and that six of them were from the Autonomous City, two from Málaga province, and the remaining three were Moroccan.It has been a joint investigation...

Double whammy due to hit Costa del Sol

Families planning a summer holiday abroad face paying up to a fifth more than they did last year.Researchers from price comparison website Travelsupermarket.com compared popular packages for 2008 with similar ones from last year.They found that a two-week self-catering break for a family of four (two adults and two children) in Benalmadena on the Costa Del Sol has risen by £246 to £1,504.The rise is blamed on the double whammy of rocketing jet fuel...

Three Spanish nationals and ten Moroccans between the ages of 18 and 51, were arrested on Thursday

Police in Spain said Sunday they had smashed a drug trafficking ring with the arrest of 13 mostly Moroccan men in Barcelona and the seizure of narcotics worth 41,000 euros (64,000 dollars), AFP informed. The 13, three Spanish nationals and ten Moroccans between the ages of 18 and 51, were arrested on Thursday following an investigation that lasted several months, police said in a statement. "The operation remains open and more detentions have not...

Isabel García, the wife of Santiago del Valle, the man accused of the killing of the five year old girl from Huelva

Isabel García, the wife of Santiago del Valle, the man accused of the killing of the five year old girl from Huelva, Mari Luz Cortés, suffered a nervous attack while declaring before Instruction Court 1 in Huelva about the case. The extent of her indisposition was such that the hearing had to be suspended.She arrived at Huelva Provincial Court at 4,45pm yesterday evening and was first subjected to a forensic investigation to determine her mental...

Mediterráneo Casino in La Vila Joiosa in tax fraud

Mediterráneo Casino in La Vila Joiosa has been declaring five fewer tables to the authorities than it has actually be running since 1999. The allowed the company to escape and estimated 1.1 million € in municipal taxes.The casino is one of the largest in Spain and has been paying taxes on 15 tables instead of 20. Director, Antonio Baraja Mayordomo, told El País that he had no idea how many tables were in use, but claimed all was legal. Currently...

Legal action started against the promoter, Ellamare Holdings S.L. which now faces a fine as large as 100,000 €.

Manilva Town Hall has ordered the immediate halt to building on the front line of the beach in an area of land not suitable for building because it is catalogued as being of environmental interest in the province’s protection plan.The land concerned is known as Punta Chullera, and the local environment councillor, Emilio López, has also ordered water and power supply companies to stop servicing the area.Legal action will now be started against the...

British man has been arrested in Spain in connection with rape offences

A British man has been arrested in Spain in connection with rape offences committed in south-east London, police have said.The 49-year-old is accused of raping the same victim repeatedly over a number of years. Sources named the man as Ricky Devine. He was held in Alicante on the Costa del Sol earlier this month.He is being held under a European Arrest warrant and faces extradition to the UK. The offences are alleged to have taken place in Bexley...

Benalmadena coach crash that killed nine tourists from Finland drunk driver was travelling at 155km an hour

Jesús GR, the driver responsible for a coach crash on the A-7 motorway near Benalmadena on April 19th that killed nine tourists from Finland and left 42 others injured, was travelling at 155km an hour, according to the conclusions of the Guardia Civil's Accident Reconstruction team. The driver, who was transferred to jail following his eventual release from hospital, tested over the limit for alcohol and initially claimed to have been going no faster...

65 year old man was arrested in Benidorm over the death of his 53 year old wife, who fell from a 12th floor balcony

65 year old man was arrested in Benidorm over the death of his 53 year old wife, who fell from a 12th floor balcony at their home in the Cénit building on the calle La Pipa . It seems that the victim had denounced her partner for domestic violence on a number of previous occasions, but had never applied for a restraining order which meant they still lived together. Autopsy results confirm that the woman died in the fall, but it was impossible to...

Philip Michael H ,Darrel Lee A accused of putting their hands up the skirts of three air hostesses several times during a flight from the UK.

According to a report in El Mundo, two British men - Philip Michael H (32) and Darrel Lee A (37) - were arrested by Guardia Civil officers at Son Sant Joan airport in Palma de Mallorca. They are accused of putting their hands up the skirts of three air hostesses several times during a flight from the ...

Yulisa Antonia Pérez from the Dominican Republic, whose corpse was found on a rubbish tip near Arrecife stepfather arrested

stepfather of 18 year old Yulisa Antonia Pérez from the Dominican Republic, whose corpse was found on a rubbish tip near Arrecife (Lanzarote) at the end of last year, five days after she was reported missing, has been re-arrested and charged with her murder. The suspect was first taken into protective custody on the day Yulisa's body was found after being accused of her murder by some within the local Dominican community, who were threatening to...

Salamanca matador Javier Valverde is reported to be recovering satisfactorily after being seriously gored at Estepona bullring

Salamanca matador Javier Valverde is reported to be recovering satisfactorily after being seriously gored in the right buttock yesterday by the second bull - his first - of the afternoon at Estepona bullring. The matador underwent emergency surgery at the ringside infirmary, where his team presented him with one of the bull's ears, before being transferred to the Costa del Sol Hospital in Marbella. According to his doctors, Valverde sustained three...

Two youths were arrested yesterday after a 37 year old man from Vallmoll was stabbed to death outside a Reus night club

Two youths were arrested yesterday after a 37 year old man from Vallmoll was stabbed to death outside a Reus night club during the early hours of Saturday morning. The arrests were made on the basis of a statement of a third youth, who turned up at Reus police station on Sunday morning after hearing a radio news bulletin, saying that a man had been killed in the town overnight and fearing that one of his two companions may have been responsible....

stag party-goers Bus driver arrested during the early hours after a positive breath test

The 45 year old driver of a bus carrying a party of nineteen stag party-goers was arrested during the early hours of yesterday morning after a positive breath test at a routine police control, leaving his passengers to make their own way back to Sevilla city-centre on foot. The man was stopped at around 4.30am on the SE-30 near the Tablada/ exhibition centre exit. He was taken into custody after officers also discovered that his licence had already...

Spain has announced the arrest of five hackers

Spain has announced the arrest of five hackers said to be responsible for attacks on over 21,000 web pages and more over two years.Back in March, hackers shut down the site of one of Spain’s political parties following an election. The Spanish police began to investigate, and last week announced they’d arrested the culprits, the BBC has reported.They’ve been accused not only of the Spanish crime, but also with attacking government sites in Asia,...

"Helldorado" - paradise that has mutated into a nightmare.

"for sale" signs are the most stark warning yet that the Spanish property bubble has finally burst. Here in Southern Spain, bitter expats talk about "Helldorado" - paradise that has mutated into a nightmare. Tumbling property prices, a glut of new properties still flooding onto...

Helldorado as Costa del Sol's biggest estate agents file for voluntary insolvency

Costa del Sol's biggest estate agents has filed for voluntary insolvency has deepened the gloom over southern Spain's property market. Viva Estates was one of the area's biggest success stories. It was set up ten years ago by an Englishman, Chris McCarthy, using the cricketer Ian Botham to raise its profile and within a few years operated from 15 offices. In the past 12 months, all but one of those offices has closed and more than 100 staff have...

Nerja teacher has been arrested on charges of sexually abusing an 11 year old

32 year old Nerja teacher, named with the initials A.P. and who works at the Nueva Nerja Primary School, has been arrested at his home in Torrox, on charges of sexually abusing an 11 year old member of his family.The married father of two was arrested in Saturday evening charged with continued abuse of the 11 year old girl. He is well known in Nerja and also works as a Civil Protection volunte...

Police are investigating the death of a 35-year-old woman who was found in a swimming pool

Police are investigating the death of a 35-year-old woman who was found in the swimming pool at the house where she lived in the Arroyo Gragea area of Alhaurin de la Torre. Police initially suspected her husband, from whom she was separated and whom she had reported on several occasions...

men on two motorbikes stole 5,000 euros from a man who had just withdrawn the money from a bank in Los Boliches

Four men on two motorbikes stole 5,000 euros from a man who had just withdrawn the money from a bank in Los Boliches, Fuengirola, firing blanks to intimidate him and managing to take the envelope full of money, which they seem to have known he was carrying, from him. They then escaped on the motorbikes, one a white Yamaha scooter which had been stolen from Mijas some days earlier.National Police circulated a bulletin in an attempt to trace the robbers,...

Eight suspects detained and a considerable amount of drugs seized was the outcome of a large-scale police operation carried out recently in Olhao

Eight suspects detained and a considerable amount of drugs seized was the outcome of a large-scale police operation carried out recently in Olhao and Faro. Thirty police investigators assisted by a team of the PSP Police Special Forces performed nine house searches and confiscated 6,000 individual doses of cocaine, one firearm, 40 mobile phones and 13,500 euros in cash. According to a police source, the suspects were part of an organised crime gang...

Sentenced a 46-year-old Portuguese woman, who was found to have almost 500g of cocaine

Sentenced a 46-year-old Portuguese woman, who was found to have almost 500g of cocaine in the home she shared with another woman in La Joya area, to three years in prison for a crime against public health and set a 1,000-euro fine for selling substances that endanger public health. The sentence was reduced due to the woman’s addiction to the substance which she sold out of a broken window to pay for her own habit and which had diminished her mental...

Aloa sailing ship, which sails under a German flag, had been moored in the Almerimar Port in El Ejido and was being prepared to distribute hashish,

code-named ‘Operacion Testa’, and carried out by members of the Customs Vigilance Service (DAVA) and the Guardia Civil, led to the arrest of two people found to be carrying some 2,100 kilos of hashish on a boat 10 miles south of Almeria Port.The operation began last November, targeting pleasure boats in the area which were believed to be transporting drugs. The Aloa sailing ship, which sails under a German flag, had been moored in the Almerimar Port...

Juan Pedro G, former leader of Ojén, is on trial this week charged with crimes against the environment

Former mayor is facing prison for agreeing to the installation of a rubbish dump, which resulted in the pollution of a nearby stream.Juan Pedro G, former leader of Ojén, is on trial this week charged with crimes against the environment. Due to the location of the dump, the mouth of the brook known as El Arroyo Segundo was contaminated.In addition to a custodial sentence, the ex-mayor could also be forced to pay the costs of cleaning up the stre...

1,000-square metre plantation of cannabis sativa (hemp) in Dos Hermanas

Two brothers, M.P.M. and F.P.M. owners of a 1,000-square metre plantation of cannabis sativa (hemp) in Dos Hermanas (Sevilla) claimed in court last week that the bushes, planted in perfectly straight lines and equipped with a drip irrigation system, provided shade for their 80 valuable fighting cocks and chickens. They denied cultivating the hemp for drugs and explained that the plants were both male and female unlike those grown for cannabis, which...

Corruption case prosecution will be asking for a six-year jail sentence for Hidalgo and Gibert

The former mayor of Andraitx, Eugenio Hidalgo, together with Jaime Gibert, the former Andraitx planning inspector, Jaime Massot, an ex-Balearic government planning chief, and a former legal advisor, Ignacio Mir, are expected to be present on the first day of the proceedings.The prosecution will be asking for a six-year jail sentence for Hidalgo and Gibert, with two years for Massot and 12 months for Mir.This case came to light 18 months ago when...

400,000 mainly small investors in Spain had put their money in stamps, through programmes marketed by two companies, Afinsa and Forum.

With today being the second anniversary of Spain's biggest stamp scandal, it has emerged that the Spanish authorities have requested the cooperation of Gibraltar, via Interpol, to try and establish a possible Gibraltar link.Over 400,000 mainly small investors in Spain had put their money in stamps, through programmes marketed by two companies, Afinsa and Forum. But, in total, they ended up losing 6 billion euros.Spanish police suspect that the ex...

Santiago del Valle disposed of the infant girl's body in a sewer around 300 metres from his apartment in Huelva

Santiago del Valle, a convicted paedophile arrested in March for the murder of five-year-old Mari Luz Cortés, has told a judge that he disposed of the infant girl's body in a sewer around 300 metres from his apartment in Huelva.Mari Luz's body was found in an estuary outside the city 54 days after her disappearance on 13 January.In his court testimony from 27 March, which was made public this week, Del Valle admitted to enticing Mari Luz into the...

Drug arrests came after two boats ran out of fuel and had to wait in the estuary for a third to bring fresh supplies of gasoline

Eleven people have been arrested in connection with the smuggling of 5,100 kilos of hashish.‘Operación Carabela’ began last December and was an investigation into an international network of drugs smugglers bringing hashish into Spain via the Guadalquivir river and then distributing...

Spanish police have seized more than 700 priceless artifacts

Spanish police have seized more than 700 priceless artifacts plundered from archaeological sites in South America and smuggled to Europe, they said on Tuesday.The pieces, predating the Spanish conquest, included dozens of valuable golden objects, masks, vessels, pendants and maces,...

No help for theSpanish property market as Spain teeters on the brink .

The Spanish Minister for Tax and the Economy, Pedro Solbes, has said that he is against doing anything to halt the adjustment of ‘the excesses’ of the construction industry which had been seen over recent years.Earlier in the week the Minister admitted that the slow-down in the sector had been far quicker than he had expected, but his comments today before the Economy and Tax Commission in Congress show that he thinks the market needs to correct...

six of the ex GIL councillors, in Marbella Town Hall between 1995 and 1999, have finally accepted the deal offered to them by the Prosecutors’ Office

The Málaga environmental prosecutors office has reach a pact with the ex Mayor, Julián Muñoz and five others, Marisa Alcalá, Dolores Zurdo, Rafael González, Manuel Calle and Mario Jiménez, who have each accepted a 12 month prison term on each charge. As there are dozens of charges...

National Police today carried out raids against the Municipal Police force in the Madrid town of Coslada, headed by the Chief of the local police

National Police today carried out raids against the Municipal Police force in the Madrid town of Coslada, headed by the Chief of the local police Ginés Jiménez Buendía. Nearly 30 municipal policemen were arrested in the operation accused of taking part in the extortion of bars, shops and prostitutes in the town. Searches were carried out in both the Coslada police station and the homes of the police chief, and some of the others arrested, including...

Julián Muñoz, are refusing to accept the prosecutor’s demand that all those charged with perversion of the course of justice

The idea of a forming a plea bargain pact with the prosecutor has, according to El País, split the ex-GIL party councillors in Marbella who face corruption and other real-estate related charges.Defence lawyers are trying to get the prosecutor’s offer of short jail terms replaced...

Santiago del Valle lured Mari Luz Cortés with a teddy bear

El País newspaper today prints what it says is the statement made by Santiago del Valle in court in Huelva. He’s the man who is accused of killing the Huelva five year old Mari Luz Cortés on January 13th. The newspaper says that his version of events is denied by the police and other...

Arrested Joseph Henry B. member of the crime network involved in the drug shipments

Udyco sources indicate that the hashish was hidden in the bottom of containers in which the man's company, located in an industrial park in Mijas Costa, shipped high-voltage batteries to Great Britain via France. Police first became suspicious of the man's company when they noticed that, although there was little activity in the Mijas warehouse, the company made periodic shipments to France, which were then sent on to Britain through an international...

Convicted paedophile Santiago del Valle has committed other crimes.

Mari Luz Cortes grandfather Juan Cortes said: "The authorities should investigate him fully because that way they may be able to discover what happened to Madeleine. We are sure he is hiding other secrets from the police." Relatives of five-year-old Mari Luz Cortes claim convicted paedophile Santiago del Valle has committed other crimes. Mari Luz was found dead near her home in Huelva 54 days after she went missing last January. The city is 90 minutes...

Spanish police to gain rights of arrest in the U.K.

Detectives from Europe will be able to carry out investigations and even make arrests on British soil as part of specialist squads designed to combat international crime.Members of the European police force Europol – which includes Britain and France – can now form Joint Investigation Teams using officers from each national force.They will include officers from the Metropolitan Police and the Serious Organised Crime Agency and will target criminal...

Coín’s crime wave

Coín’s Local Police made 70 arrests during the month of April, double the monthly average of 30 to 30 and the largest number in the force’s history. Just under two thirds of the arrests were made in the town itself. The rest were made in Alhaurin el Grance, Guaro, Monda and Tolox, which come under Coín’s jurisdiction. Most of the arrests involved robbery, followed by drug trafficking. Meanwhile, a spokesman for the National Police in Malaga city...

Julian Muñoz and Marisol Yagüe would serve between six months and a year in prison for each crime they are found guilty of, without having to appear

Former GIL party councillors in Marbella who have been charged with corruption or some irregularity regarding town planning permissions in the town have been offered a deal by the Prosecutor’s Office. Under the deal, former mayors Julian Muñoz and Marisol Yagüe would serve between six months and a year in prison for each crime they are found guilty of, without having to appear in court, as well as a ten year ban on holding public office. This deal...

Mari Luz Cortés family set out on a pilgrimage around Spain

family of Mari Luz Cortés set out on a pilgrimage around Spain last week to collect signatures in a campaign to tighten the laws against pederasts. Mari Luz disappeared from her home in Huelva on January 13th when she popped out to buy sweets from a nearby kiosk. Her body appeared 55 days later in a stream and one of the family’s neighbours, Santiago del Valle, a convicted child molester, was arrested. Del Valle had been sentenced to jail two years...

Spanish land prices are falling in response to the downturn in the property market.

price of urban land in Spain fell by a national average of 2.7% to 277 euros/m2 in the last quarter of 2007 compared to the previous year, according to figures from the ministry of housing. On a quarterly basis, land prices fell by 2.8%. Regional variations in falls were substantial,...

Illegal Hotel in Almeria will have to be torn down.

Spanish supreme court has just ruled that hotel built on the El Algorrobico beach in the Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park in Almeria is illegal. The hotel, promoted by a company called Azata del Sol, was the first stage in a plan to build a massive resort including the obligatory...

Spanish property market is a disaster, with transactions plummeting by more than 40%

Spanish property market is a disaster, with transactions plummeting by more than 40% during February (compared to February 2007) in key regions such as Catalonia. Despite the fact that newly built properties are selling better than resales, developers are also having a terrible time...

Two of Spain's respected savings banks, 'La Caixa' in Barcelona and 'Caja Madrid,' were found liable,

A six month trial has led to the conviction of eight people, on charges of fraud and embezzlement in the 'Gescartera' brokerage house, during June 2001. Gescartera was rumbled and lost its licence, when it was discovered that over 100 million euros of some 2,000 clients' money was missing. The collapse caused massive political unrest and the resignations of the Junior Finance Minister and President of Stock market regulator 'CNMV.' Judges passed...

Two men have been arrested in Cadiz in connection with the rape of ten women

Two men have been arrested in Cadiz in connection with the rape of ten women, a crime which an innocent man has already served a ten year sentence for committing. The enquiry was re-opened as new evidence relating to the rapes, which took place between 1995 and 2000, came to light. The man who was originally tried and convicted for the crime was sentenced when one victim claimed to recognise his voice, despite the fact that his DNA did not match...

Torrevieja Estate agents aren’t selling anything, developers are going bust, retail sales are falling by 10% to 15%, local business are struggling

According to a recent article in the Spanish press the situation in Torrevieja is deteriorating rapidly. Official unemployment has surged from 1,700 in 2005 to more than 5,000 today. Given that the construction sector employs an army of illegal immigrants, who are the first to lose their jobs, real unemployment is likely to be much higher. Estate agents aren’t selling anything, developers are going bust, retail sales are falling by 10% to 15%, local...

Major Alexander Matthew Blake, died on Wednesday when hang gliding in the area of Cenes de la Vega in the Sierra Nevada in Granada

British naval officer, Major Alexander Matthew Blake, died on Wednesday when hang gliding in the area of Cenes de la Vega in the Sierra Nevada in Granada. He was in Andalucía to take part in a military exercise in Málaga, and is said to have lost control during a dangerous aerobatic manoeuvre around 6pm on Wednesday night.EFE news agency reports that the man was attended to by the Guardia Civil and emergency services, but they could do nothing to...

Family of a 5-year-old Mari Luz Cortes who was murdered this year have begun a protest trip across Spain to press for life sentences for paedophiles

Family of a 5-year-old Mari Luz Cortes who was murdered this year have begun a protest trip across Spain to press for life sentences for paedophile killers.Mari Luz Cortes vanished on January 13 as she walked home from a sweet shop in Huelva, southern Spain. Her decomposed body, still dressed in the clothes she wore that day, was found on a river-bank near her home two months later.The man suspected of killing Mari Luz, a convicted paedophile, was...

Right now, Catral is infamous for its illegal houses

Over the past decade, developers built about 100,000 illegal homes in Spain, and consumer advocates say thousands of those are now threatened with demolition as regional governments try to deter clandestine construction. The crusade may discourage the foreign buyers who fueled Spain's housing boom, deepening a slump that began last year. Leo Levett-Smith and his wife, Jean, thought they did everything right when they bought their retirement home...