Work to rule threatens airports and border

Protests over wages by National Police officers could bring airports and border crossings to a standstill in July with officers threatening to scrupulously follow the rules - checking almost everyone entering or leaving the country, filing charges for all offences and filling in all the relevant paperwork.The protests are due to take place on Wednesdays and Thursdays throughout July in a bid to force the interior ministry to equate officers’ salaries...

Half a million British expatriates living on Spain’s Costa Blanca are to lose their right to free healthcare

Half a million British expatriates living on Spain’s Costa Blanca are to lose their right to free healthcare under a radical new law introduced by the provincial government.The Spanish authorities say that providing for 500,000 Britons - most of whom are over 50 - and other European residents living in the Valencia region is placing an impossible burden on the country’s health service.Valencia region can no longer afford expats’ bills as housing...

Spanish police say they have arrested six people on suspicion of smuggling heroin

Spanish police say they have arrested six people on suspicion of smuggling heroin from Turkey and distributing it just outside Madrid.Police say investigators have seized 28 kilograms (62 pounds) of heroin, five rifles, two guns, ammunition, a large amount of jewels and more than €185,000 (US$290,000) in cash during raids.The suspects, which included one Turkish national, allegedly used a distribution point in Canada Real Galiana de Valdemingomez,...

55-year-old, identified in German media as Mikhail R., was picked up at his Berlin apartment on Thursday on the basis of a European arrest warrant

A suspected Russian mafia lynchpin has been arrested in Berlin, following a swoop on Russian money launderers and arms traffickers in Spain, prosecutors said Saturday.The 55-year-old, identified in German media as Mikhail R., was picked up at his Berlin apartment on Thursday on the basis of a European arrest warrant requested by Spanish authorities.A court will decide whether to extradite the man, who is wanted on charges of money laundering, forgery...

Mark Thatcher faces eviction from his Costa del Sol hideaway

Mark Thatcher faces eviction from his Costa del Sol hideaway after his landlord branded him the tenant from hell.The disgraced son of former Tory Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is being taken to court to get him out of the £1.5million villa he has rented for two years.Exasperated landlord Stephen Humberstone claimed that Thatcher, 54, has broken antiques, messed up the garden and is months in arrears with his rent. The fellow Old Harrovian said:...

British mother has been arrested in Spain after she allegedly left her five-year-old son to burn on a baking hot beach for 12 hours

British mother has been arrested in Spain after she allegedly left her five-year-old son to burn on a baking hot beach for 12 hours while she went to work.The boy's mother, aged 19, reportedly left him playing in the sand at the popular resort of Benalmadena, in the Costa del Sol, where he suffered serious sunburn and had to be later admitted to hospital.According to locals, at around 10am the woman went to work at the top of the beach for five hours,...

Fat’ Freddie Thompson is lying low in Salou in Northern Spain

Fat’ Freddie Thompson is lying low in Salou in Northern Spain after he fled Dublin with a €40,000 hit-bounty on his head.Meanwhile, Thompson’s arch enemy INLA gangster Declan ‘Whacker’ Duffy has also fled Ireland in a last-minute bid to avoid assassination. Following a series of...

20 year old Romanian man has been arrested by police

20 year old Romanian man has been arrested by police in Madrid in connection with the death of a German pensioner couple who were stabbed to death last Monday night in their attic flat home in Teulada.The arrested man had been working as the gardener in the complex where the Germans, aged 78 and 85, had previously lived in Benissa, and police think that he knew that the couple had a large amount of money in cash as they were about to purchase a villa....

Amy Fitzpatrick psychic investigator Joe Power told Spanish police they should search a fenced-off area in the Costa del Sol

An Englishman who describes himself as a psychic investigator has claimed that clues to finding missing Amy Fitzpatrick are to be found in an area of land in Spain.Joe Power told Spanish police they should search a fenced-off area in the Costa del Sol for clues after he travelled...

Gennadios Petrov, the alleged head of the Tambovskaya-Malyshevkaya gang in Spain

Gennadios Petrov, the alleged head of the Russian mafia in Spain.Petrov is said to head the Tambovskaya-Malyshevkaya gang from the sunny climes of Calvi, one of the most exclusive villages in Majorca. He counted among his neighbours Pilar de Borbón, the sister of King Juan Carlos of Spain.Accustomed to handing out tips of €500 (£393) and not looking at the price tag when buying designer jackets, Petrov lived surrounded by tight security. But the...

Baltasar Garzón, travelled to Málaga those arrested in‘operación Troika’ face charges of illegal association, money laundering,

Baltasar Garzón, travelled to Málaga where he ordered one of the people arrested in the city, Spanish woman Leocadia Martín, to jail without bail on money laundering and other charges, and extended the detention time of Svetlana Kousmina, a Russian woman, wife to one of the men arrested in Marbella as part of the case. In Málaga provinces searches were carried out in Marbella, Estepona, Málaga City, Torrox and Nerja with another one of the heads,...

Francis Smith who lives in Alhaurin, Malaga,not guilty verdict

The case against a man accused of conspiring to distribute a staggering £2.6 million worth of cannabis has been dropped – because the evidence has been destroyed.Francis Smith had denied conspiring with van driver Roy Selby and others to distribute the 1.2 tonnes of cannabis in February 2006 near Rugby.Selby, now 43, from Stockton, was jailed for two-and-a-half years in August that year after he admitted possessing the cannabis with intent to supply...

Brink's-Mat bullion Detectives last week found six suitcases crammed with gold inside a London deposit box.

Police have begun a search of over 7,000 safety deposit boxes in what is believed to be a massive crackdown on British gangsters.Around 300 officers are involved in what is being described as a hunt for cash, guns, drugs and child pornography. They believe they could find contents...

Sir Mark Thatcher, son of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, branded a "dirty player"

"Spain is heavily mentioned by Simon Mann. It was where the plot started and that country has very good intelligence service," he said, adding that a special relationship still existed between the west African nation and its former colonial rulers. "And yet not a hint was given from Spain and we wonder why. Sir Mark Thatcher, son of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, branded a "dirty player" who hoped to reap huge benefits from the plot and...

25 people were arrested Tuesday in a new swoop against real estate corruption in Estepona, including the Socialist Mayor, Antonio Barrientos

25 people were arrested Tuesday in a new swoop against real estate corruption in Estepona, including the Socialist Mayor, Antonio Barrientos and several councillors. Also in custody are the municipal architect Arturo Cebrián, the Councillor for Hacienda , Francisco Zamorano.Police...

Monzer al-Kassar lived an openly lavish lifestyle as the so-called "Prince of Marbella" like a villain out of a James Bond movie.

Monzer al-Kassar has played a key role in some of the worst atrocities committed against Israeli and Jewish civilians, and his links to one Arab regime in particular - that of his native country, Syria - deserve special scrutiny at a moment when Jerusalem is just about to begin potentially historic negotiations with its government. Kassar, 63, is an international arms dealer, and, by some accounts, has spent much of his lifetime as a key supplier...

Man believed responsible for twelve armed robberies over the last two years that netted around a quarter of a million euros, was arrested in Huelva

Man believed responsible for twelve armed robberies over the last two years that netted around a quarter of a million euros, was arrested in Huelva last Friday. The 67 year old recommenced his activities in April 2006 after escaping from Villabona jail in Asturias, where he was serving time for 11 similar offences. After a lengthy investigation, the suspect was tracked down to a car dealership on the La Paz industrial estate where he had just bought...

Fraudsters: Evangelia Liogka and Christakis Philippou conned thousands of people into buying their 'bargain holidays'

Accountant Timothy Entwistle, 57, who lived in an 11-bedroom mansion near Yeovil, Somerset, and educated his three children at public school despite being a declared bankrupt, masterminded the finances.Accountant: Timothy Entwistle lived a luxury lifestyle in a £1m mansionFraudsters:...

ANTI-Russian mafia operation was carried out simultaneously in several places in Spain

ANTI-Russian mafia operation was carried out simultaneously in several places in Spain, including Marbella, Nerja, Malaga, Torrox, Palma de Majorca, Javea, El Campello, Valencia and Madrid.Spanish authorities said Friday they had broken up a massive Russian criminal network operating...

Alleged arms merchant Monzer Al Kassar has been extradited from Spain to the United States

A long-time Spanish resident known as the "Prince of Marbella" for his opulent lifestyle, Al Kassar is charged in a federal indictment unsealed last June with conspiring to kill Americans, supply terrorists, obtain anti-aircraft missiles and launder money, the police said.US officials...

Monzer Al Kassar Marbella property siezed and all funds contained in three separate bank accounts

Indictment seeks the forfeiture of an estate located in Marbella, Spain, and all funds contained in three separate bank accounts. The forfeitures represent the alleged proceeds obtained from the charged offenses.Michael J. Garcia, the United States Attorney for the Southern District...

25,000 armed police were used to get traffic moving and restore calm after clashes between protesters and lorry drivers who refused to strike.

25,000 armed police were used to get traffic moving and restore calm after clashes between protesters and lorry drivers who refused to strike.Authorities promised to provide police escorts to drivers wanting to work in an effort to restore the flow of supplies across the country, after fuel pumps ran dry and supermarket shelves emptied.On Wednesday, a driver working for a non-striking company suffered burns to 25 per cent of his body when his vehicle...

Holidaymakers have been warned that fresh food supplies are running low in Spanish shops Supermarket shelves in Marbella were almost empty yesterday

Holidaymakers have been warned that fresh food supplies are running low in Spanish shops and restaurants after the third day of a truckers' strike.Supermarkets, bars and eateries have been unable to restock essentials such as meat, fish, fruit and vegetables. Some restaurants in the Costa del Sol were yesterday offering reduced menus and many feared they will be forced to shut within days.The striking drivers have blocked off wholesale food markets...

Costa del Sol, where hundreds of foreigners, especially Britons, have unwittingly purchased illegally-built homes.

article over the weekend in the Spanish daily EL Pais, entitled ‘La Axarquia, a building and whitewash catastrophe’, shed light on the urban planning and illegal building problems in the La Axarquia region of the Costa del Sol, where hundreds of foreigners, especially Britons, have unwittingly purchased illegally-built homes.La Axarquia is a county of 29 coastal and interior municipalities in eastern part of Malaga province, and is also part of the...

Benalmádena 34 cars and four motorbikes were burned out

34 cars and four motorbikes were burned out in a fire in the early hours of Friday which took place outside the Tio Charles urbanisation in Benalmádena.The blaze started just after 4,10 am and was declared to be extinguished just after three hours later. Firemen from Benalmádena and Fuengirola attended the scene. Despite the ferocity of the blaze there was no need for any people to be evacuated from the ar...

four year in prison after more than 3,150 child porn images were found on his computer

The court in Sevilla has sentenced a man to four year in prison after more than 3,150 child porn images were found on his computer together with 157 videos, all of which he shared with other users of the internet.EFE news agency reports that 32 year old C.T.R. was discovered when he took his lap-top computer in for repair and the shop informed the police on finding the contents. Police say that there were images of children, some aged under 13, taking...

Mark Thatcher in hiding at Casa Flores rumours abound of kidnap squads Russian gangs has been mentioned being recruited to snatch Sir Mark

It would be hard to find a better bolt hole than the Casa Flores, a luxury villa hidden in dense forest on a mountain above San Pedro de Alcantara, southern Spain. Casa Flores is part of a complex called El Madronal. Unlike the high-density “urbanisations” that now disfigure the...