Three people have been arrested in Almonte, Huelva, for allegedly building on protected land close to the Doñana Nature Park.

Three people have been arrested in Almonte, Huelva, for allegedly building on protected land close to the Doñana Nature Park.The buildings were to have been used for rural tourism, but the German owners of the land, the two German and Austrian promoters of the project in Alto de las Niñas, are now being held. A judicial order has taped up the site and the two buildings, built to host six beds in one and stables for 14 horses in another. A neighbouring...

Drug smuggling gang which trafficked in hashish have been arrested by National Police and Guardia Civil in Valencia and Murcia.

Drug smuggling gang which trafficked in hashish have been arrested by National Police and Guardia Civil in Valencia and Murcia. The gang brought the drug over from Morocco using yachts and recreational boats. 25 people have been arrested Police say they started their operation in March last year and over its four phases have arrested 25 people and recovered nearly 7,000 kilos of the drug, as well as two firearms, three boats and six vehicles. The...

Italian Mafia in Spain

Italian Mafia in Spain. Twelve capos have been arrested in the past three months, forcing police to admit that the Camorra and N’drangheta from Calabria and the Sicilian Mafia are now a very real presence on the Iberian peninsula.Many come to Spain attracted by the opportunity to...

Marbella businessman Fernando Moreno died during the bungled kidnapping and ransom attempt.

Marbella businessman Fernando Moreno died during the bungled kidnapping and ransom attempt. It’s taken just six days for the National Police to establish what happened, with the arrest of one of the accused on Monday and a second on Tuesday, resulting in the case being solved yesterday,...

more than a million flats for sale currently in Spain, forecast is they will take three years to sell at a 30% discount

Price of housing in Spain has to fall a further 30% for the market to adjust as needed, according to a study by the Confederation of Spanish Savings Banks, FUNCAS. The report defends the lack of credit coming from the banks, describing the closing of the tap as ‘absolutely rational’.The study showed that there are more than a million flats for sale currently across the country, and forecast they will take three years to sell.The study was presented...

Body of San Pedro de Alcántara businessman, Fernando Moreno, was found bound and gagged close to the Istán road.

Body of San Pedro de Alcántara businessman, Fernando Moreno, was found bound and gagged close to the Istán road .Nine who were close to the 76 year old Marbella businessman, Fernando Moreno Espada, have been brought in for questioning by the police as they investigate his death during an express kidnapping attempt last week. Searches have been carried out in several homes in Urbanisation La Campana, San Pedro Marbella, Torremolinos and Málaga, and...

largest bust of a euro counterfeiting ring ever. Euros were tracked out of Italy to Spain

Italian police conducted an early- morning dragnet across the country to round up more than 100 people in what they described as the largest bust of a euro counterfeiting ring ever. About 700 of Italy’s Carabinieri police together with Rome’s anti-counterfeiting squad carried out 96 arrests in nine regions of the country. A total of 109 arrest warrants were issued. Four laboratories for printing fake euro bills and minting phony coins were discovered,...

Banco Santander, Spain’s largest bank, has offered to pay 1.38 billion euros, or $1.8 billion, to reimburse private banking clients

Banco Santander, Spain’s largest bank, has offered to pay 1.38 billion euros, or $1.8 billion, to reimburse private banking clients who had invested with the disgraced financier Bernard L. Madoff, a settlement that could prompt other financial institutions to follow suit. The offer, which does not apply to institutional investors, was announced Tuesday as investors brought a class-action suit against the Spanish bank in Federal District Court in...

Spanish police investigated more property corruption scandals in 2008 than in previous years

Spanish police investigated more property corruption scandals in 2008 than in previous years, it has emerged.They examined 164 cases, up 40% from 117 cases, figures from the Ministry of the Interior show. The number of arrests also increased from 134 in 2007 to 207 last y...

Search and arrest operations were undertaken by the Spanish national police together with the economic crime and money laundering group,

SFO spokesman said: "Search and arrest operations were undertaken by the Spanish national police together with the economic crime and money laundering group, the superior chief police of Catalunia with the support of the fraud unit Udes Madrid and the local police of Elche (Alicante) alongside SFO investigators of the SFO and City of London Police last week at four residences and two business premises in Madrid, Barcelona and Alicante. "Six people...

Forged Euros tracked down to Italy

Italian police have dismantled a vast network of euro counterfeiters, arresting 94 people across the country, an officer told AFP on Wednesday. We arrested 94 people in Italy, in 16 of the country's 20 regions,said police spokesman Colonel Carlo Pieroni, adding that most were inthe impoverished southern regions of Campania and Calabria.Police seized 1.23 million euros (1.6 million dollars) ofcounterfeit notes as well as forged documents and revenue...

Spanish national police have arrested six men in connection with a massive $600million shares fraud

Spanish national police have arrested six men in connection with a massive $600million shares fraud on the London Stock Exchange. Officers from the National Police Economic Crimes and Money Laundering Unit pounced in raids across the country as part of an investigation started by Britain’s Serious Fraud Office four years ago. Four men were arrested in Barcelona and one each in Madrid and Elche, just inland from the Costa Blanca near Alicante, in...

Antonio Caiazzo, 50, and Francesco Simeoli, 40, arrested in Spain

Antonio Caiazzo, 50, and Francesco Simeoli, 40, are believed to be heads of a clan in the Naples-area mafia, the Camorra, Naples police said in a statement.Caiazzo has been on the run since March 2007 after being sentenced to 12 years in prison by a Naples court.Simeoli, believed...

Spanish National Police from the organised crime group have seized eight luxury houses, a Lamborghini sports car and a yacht from Ian Donaldson.

Spanish National Police from the organised crime group have seized eight luxury houses, a Lamborghini sports car and a yacht from Ian Donaldson.Amateur racing driver Ian Donaldson's property portfolio on Tenerife includes a £1million clifftop villa. The 30-year-old - once accused of abducting an underworld rival at gunpoint - is being probed along with Ronald O'Dea, 42, and James McDonald, 39. O'Dea and McDonald, of Glasgow, have been arrested as...

organised crime unit of the Spanish police is investigating the murder of Richard KeoghIt

It has emerged that the murder may have been ordered by a Northside criminal gang. Organised crime unit of the Spanish police is investigating the murder of Richard Keogh (30), . Security sources in Spain say the killing is believed to be drugs related.Keogh, a father of four children aged between two and nine years, was wounded several times after at least 10 shots were fired in a drive-by shooting in Benalmadena Costa near Marbella.He was walking...

Richard Keogh was shot seven times after leaving a meeting with a South American drug dealer

Richard Keogh was shot seven times after leaving a meeting in a bar with a South American drug dealer.Keogh’s killer stood over him discharging shots into his body and head as he lay on the pavement outside a hotel and casino complex on the Costa del Sol.The drug-dealing contact...

Richard Keogh was gunned down by a hitman who lured him on to the street with a phone call.

Richard Keogh was gunned down by a hitman who lured him on to the street with a phone call.As the 30-year-old man left his bar rendezvous with a South American pal, a car stopped and a hitman emerged. He fired at Keogh, hitting him once in front of his girlfriend, before chasing...

Alan Dickson lived in Malaga where he took on a job and cared for his ailing mother before coming to the attention of Spanish police.

Alan Dickson fled following his Christmas holiday release from Castle Huntly open prison at Longforgan in 2006.He lived in Malaga where he took on a job and cared for his ailing mother before coming to the attention of Spanish police.Dickson had been jailed for 10 years in March 2002 after being “shopped” by one of his drug couriers.The 38-year-old, formerly of Falkland, sent the couriers back to Scotland laden with cannabis resin-laden suitcases...

Arrests in the Body in the suitcase

25 year old man and a 40 year old woman have been arrested in connection with the death of a man whose body was found last Tuesday inside a suitcase which had been abandoned on waste ground in Benimaclet in Valencia.It seems the two arrested on Friday were romantically involved, and were arrested after the daughter of the woman alerted police to the fact that her boyfriend was missing. His description matched that of the man found in the suitcase....

Juan Antonio Roca, the ex Municipal Real Estate assessor, has been sentenced

Juan Antonio Roca, the ex Municipal Real Estate assessor, has been sentenced in the fourth section of the Penal Hall of the National Court in Spain to six years ten months in prison. Roca was sentenced to five years in prison for the misuse of public funds, and an additional 22 months for document falsification.He and two others charged in the Saqueo case also have to pay back 23 million to Marbella Town Hall.José Luis Sierra, the ex judicial advisor...

Banco Santander SA,Spanish authorities want to know what officials at Banco Santander knew about Madoff’s alleged fraud

Banco Santander SA, one of the largest banks in Spain, has been caught up in the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme scandal. And now, Spanish authorities want to know what officials at Banco Santander knew about Madoff’s alleged fraud, and when they knew it.Numerous individuals, institutions and hedge funds lost money because of Madoff’s alleged scheme. But according to the Associated Press, losses for Banco Santander’s clients were among th highest of...

Female Striptease performance at Spanish jail angers guards

A prison guards' union says a female stripper performed at a Spanish jail and authorities did nothing to stop it.The union says the woman took her clothes off before male inmates Jan. 2 and committed several lewd acts at the prison in Picassent in the eastern Valencia region.An official with the Spanish Penitentiary System called it an inappropriate "musical performance" and said an investigation was trying to find out who authorized it.The union...

Spain faced a "very high risk" of suffering another Islamist attack

Six people of Pakistani origin were arrested on suspicion of " fraud" Tuesday in Barcelona, northeastern Spain, Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said.Earlier in the day, a source close to the inquiry had said police detained 10 suspected Islamic extremists in raids in Barcelona, Madrid and the Canary Islands in an operation ordered by top antiterrorist judge Baltazar Garzon.Rubalcaba gave no further details as to possible charges, but a...

Banco Santander SA sold Bernard Madoff investments Branch managers channeled customers with money from property sales or inheritances

Banco Santander SA sold Bernard Madoff investments Branch managers channeled customers with money from property sales or inheritances to private banking salespeople, lawyers for the investors said. A retired school teacher put 300,000 euros ($388,000), half her savings, in a structured product linked to Madoff, said Jordi Ruiz de Villa, an attorney at the Barcelona law firm Jausas. The vendor invested 325,000 euros of lottery winnings in a similar...

alleged Moroccan drug trafficker, who has been arrested in Melilla, has confessed to having carried out several assassinations,

alleged Moroccan drug trafficker, who has been arrested in Melilla, has confessed to having carried out several assassinations, and of hiding the bodies in a well in Murcia. He claimed that another Moroccan and a Spaniard of gypsy origin took part in the killings.Firemen, the Guardia Civil and some soldiers spent Wednesday searching for the bodies and reports now indicate that at least two have now been found. One of the bodies is thought to have...

EEC report on Land Grab law and real estate abuse in Valencia

European Parliament is threatening to freeze funding to Spain unless real estate abuses are brought to an end.Attack on the Spanish judicial system contained in the report from Danish M.P. Margarete Auken, was not welcomed by the Spanish. Spanish Euro MP’s from both the Socialists PSOE, and the Partido Popular, say they will add amendments to the draft of the report on the land grab and other alleged real estate abuse carried out in Spain, which...

Judges in Madrid have voted by a wide majority in support of strike action

Judges in Madrid have voted by a wide majority in support of strike action, voting 103 votes to 19 to take the strike action which is to start on February 18. The decision in Madrid follows similar decisions to take action in Murcia, Extremadura, Zamora, Málaga and Sevilla on the same day.The judges say they are short-staffed and need more resources so as to carry out their jobs. Despite some concessions from the Ministry, the protests for now remain...

Spanish Civil Guards arrested six Pakistani nationals Tuesday

Spanish Civil Guards arrested six Pakistani nationals Tuesday, accused of sales tax fraud, a Civil Guard spokesman in Madrid told CNN.The spokesman declined to confirm Spanish media reports that the suspects may have been involved in financing Islamic extremist activities.But the arrests occurred across Spain in an operation directed by Spain's anti-terrorism National Court.The suspects were detained in Barcelona, the southeast region of Valencia,...

Sub-Saharan man has been killed in a street fight

Sub-Saharan man has been killed in a street fight in El Ejido, Almería. The man from Mali is said to have died at 0930 on Tuesday morning after being hit with a stick by a countryman, who has now been arrested.National Police are investigating the reasons for the disturban...

Juan Antonio Roca,fourth section of the Penal Hall of the National Court is to make public the sentence

The fourth section of the Penal Hall of the National Court is to make public the sentence against the ex Real Estate Assessor of the Marbella Town Hall, Juan Antonio Roca, and the five others accused in the Saqueo money laundering corruption case, on Friday.The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor...

Case to answer against the mayor of Alhaurin el Grande and his wife .

It seems that more than 150,000 euros entered their bank account from unknown sources and plots of land were acquired without any payment being made . The prosecutor is talking about bribery , money laundering and the planning of crimes .It appears that 23 other people are involved in what has become known as the ” Troya ” corruption case .It all started in 2007 when an investigation discovered that money was exchanging hands with the town hall in...

Spain was last week one of three eurozone countries warned over its public finances

"I wish we could leave the eurozone. That way we could devalue."Spain was last week one of three eurozone countries warned over its public finances in the space of three days, underlining the parlous state of the single currency economies. Credit rating agency Standard & Poor's said Spain could face a downgrade after entering recession in the fourth quarter, citing concerns about its high private sector debt as well as its deteriorating public...

Discount grocer Kwik Save, has been resurrected on the Costa del Sol.

Discount grocer Kwik Save, has been resurrected on the Costa del Sol.Peter O'Toole, a former director at Irish grocer Musgrave, bought the rights to the name from the administrator and opened a 5,000 sq ft store in Torremuelle late last year.O'Toole said initial reactions to the opening have been positive among the large British ex-pat community. "Most people have been really enthusiastic because there are no real discounters here," he said.He added...

Woman was shot in the leg by a man who tried to steal her car on Avenida Juan Carlos I in Estepona.

Woman was shot in the leg by a man who tried to steal her car on Avenida Juan Carlos I in Estepona. On Tuesday a Mercamálaga employee was jumped and mugged of more than one thousand euros takings which he was on his way to bankTwo thieves armed with a gun and a knife jumped a man as he was about to leave for work in Vélez-Málaga on Friday morning, and stole a case he was carrying which contained 60,000 euros worth of jewellery. The victim, a jewellery...

Mayor of La Linea, Juan Carlos Juárez, has been suspended from his post for six months by the Penal Court 2 in Algeciras

Mayor of La Linea, Juan Carlos Juárez, has been suspended from his post for six months by the Penal Court 2 in Algeciras on a charge of obstructing justice.The ex GIL party member also has to pay 720 € in the so-called Caso Palex.It dates back to 2001 when the La Linea Town Hall was ordered by the Andalucian High Court to pay 1.84 million € to the Palez company which had the job between 1994 and 1998 of supplying hospital dialysis services, but the...

Nigerians continue to send thousands of false lottery letters from Andalucía and the Mediterranean Coast.

Nigerians continue to send thousands of false lottery letters from Andalucía and the Mediterranean Coast.The Nilo case led to the arrest of 310 people and the searching of 180 different premises, when the Málaga group was sending between 15,000 and 20,000 letters a day. But even now the police say that they are arresting a new group every two or three weeks.The United States Department of Justice estimates that there have been 2.8 million victims...

Spanish ADSL is the slowest and most expensive in Europe

The Spanish Association of Internet Users has complained about the slowing growth rate of ADSL and cable connections in the country, and called for price reductions. They claim the Spanish ADSL is the slowest and most expensive in Europe.Last November there were 86,404 new ADSL connections, down 40% year on year.The Association says that it wants to see universal access to the web, sustained by public money. In the meantime they are calling for a...

Dubai the new Costa del Crime

Crime bosses are fleeing to the United Arab Emirates state because there is no extradition treaty with the UK. Dubai has become a paradise for British fugitives on the run.They are also using the property market there as an easy way to launder their millions. Traditionally criminals fled to Spain's Costa del Sol, but because of the success in extraditing gangsters such as road rage killer Kenny Noye it is no longer considered safe.Among those believed...

Spanish Bank guarantees that are in order are not being honoured as the Spanish property market goes into freefall.

Bank guarantees, or Aval Bancario, from developers have been compulsory by law on off-plan purchases in Spain for the past 40 years. They mean that if a developer fails to build on time, or goes into administration and does not build at all, buyers should get most or all of their money returned. Until recently they worked well. As the holiday home market boomed, few developers went bust and buyers would accept minor delays. If a buyer did claim a...

Uruguayan Police capture international drug gang that moved cocaine to Spain

Uruguayan police disrupted an international cocaine moved to Spain, with the arrest of 14 people, including two Spanish and one Venezuelan, and the seizure of 124 kilos of that drug and 250,000 euros ( 322,500 U.S. dollars), police sources confirmed tod...

The Coast of the Death 4 tons of Cocaine siezed in Galicia

National Police have siezed 122 cocaine bundles, about 4,000 kilos, that had been disembarked on the beach at Morte, in the municipality Coruna . A person, has been arrested on the beach. The Coast of the Death four tons of cocaine disembarked on a the beach.Spanish authorities seized some four tonnes of cocaine in northwestern Spain on Monday and detained one person as part of their operation, police and customs agents said, cited by AFP.The authorities...

New Zealander died in hospital alleged that a Briton was the instigator of the attack.

New Zealander died in hospital in Cádiz on Christmas Eve after being involved in a brawl in La Línea on December 19. It is alleged that the victim and a Briton were involved in a row which first broke out in a pub in Gibraltar and then for reasons unknown the pair decided to go to La Línea where the deceased man lived. Eyewitnesses say that the second encounter took place in La Atunara after a further row between the two. The injured man received...

British families started legal proceedings against builders Peinsa after the company reported that La Tercia Real golf resort would not be built

British families have started legal proceedings against builders Peinsa after the company reported that La Tercia Real (LTR) golf resort would not be built. The Hearns and Hunter paid 80,000 each to the builder two years ago for off-plan properties at the complex near Sucina, Murcia. They sold their homes in the UK to finance the deposit of their dream homes and moved into rented accommodation to wait for them to be built. Now they have no property...

Estepona Town Hall's outstanding debt with Telefónica has forced the company to cut off the council's telephones.

Estepona Town Hall's outstanding debt with Telefónica has forced the company to cut off the council's telephones. The telephone company decided to bar outgoing calls from the Town Hall as a result of the local authority's outstanding debt of more than 200,000 euros. A few days ago a payment of 50,000 euros was made to the company to ensure that the telephones at the Local Police, fire station and Mayor's office weren't cut off t...

500 British residents demonstrated in Almeria

British residents of Almería, demonstrated on Friday in Almeria and marched to the offices of the Regional Government Housing Delegate in the city.The march was organized by AULAN, Abusos Urbanisticos Almanzora, No, and came a year to the day that the house belonging to the British couple, Len and Helen Prior was knocked down. Luis Caparrós, the Housing and Town Planning delegate met representatives from the march, including the Priors. He gave an...

Juan Antonio Roca,has a placed reserved for him in Marbella Town Hall

ex Municipal Real Estate Assessor, Juan Antonio Roca, has a job to go to when he is released from prison. He has a placed reserved for him in Marbella Town Hall and they say that legally they are unable to sack him.Roca was promised a place in a local municipal body when the department...

Toll charge on the Costa del Sol motorway has been increased by between 3.5 and five per cent

Toll charge on the Costa del Sol motorway has been increased by between 3.5 and five per cent on the Malaga-Estepona stretch following the approval by the Development Ministry. This means that drivers of cars or motorbike riders will now have to pay 3.75 euros between Malaga and Marbella as opposed to the 3.60 euros it cost in 2008, which is a 4.1 per cent increase. This is the standard tariff between October and May, except during Holy Week.Throughout...

Juan Antonio Roca charges of embezzlement, money laundering and bribery. That trial will begin sometime in 2009.

The Roca years will have a long-term effect on the economy of Marbella, says Angeles Munoz, who was elected mayor in 2007. Even in Marbella’s waterfront Puerto Banus area, where tourists stop to have their pictures taken in front of Maseratis or megayachts, real estate prices are...

John Vasey was accused of carrying £2.5m of cannabis across the border from Spain

John Vasey today told of his shock at being sentenced to five years behind bars.The lorry driver from Rickleton Village, Washington, was due back before a French court today for an appeal hearing, more than four years after first facing drug smuggling charges. The 48-year-old had just started piecing his life back together after he was accused of carrying £2.5m of cannabis across the border from Spain.After a nightmare 14-month spell in jail after...

Sean Woodhall, 43, a convicted fraudster known as “Slippery Sean”, that he staged the mysterious plane crash.

Claims are being made that a group of businessmen who went missing in a mysterious plane crash staged their deaths and fled with 

millions of pounds.The four debt-ridden Britons were officially on board a small Brazilian charter plane that crashed along the country’s coastline...

Shipwrecked Zodiac dinghy was spotted roughly 22 miles off Cape Vilano last Wednesday by a passing Portuguese ship

Three Spanish men were rescued by the crew of the 'Pesca I' coast guard helipcopter yesterday lunchtime after their shipwrecked Zodiac dinghy was spotted roughly 22 miles off Cape Vilano last Wednesday by a passing Portuguese ship. All three are reported to be well despite suffering from minor injuries and mild hypothermia. They were taken to Peinador airport in Vigo, from where they were transferred to Meixueiro Hospital Hospital to receive medical...

British national who lived in Orihuela found dead in an irrigation canal

It has been confirmed that the 18-year-old youth found dead in an irrigation canal in San Miguel de Salinas (Alicante) early yesterday morning was a British national who lived in Orihuela. His body was found on the service road that leads to the Villamartín residential estate at 7.45am, around three quarters of an hour after a passer-by had found his damaged moped and reported a possible accident to the emergency services. It appears that the lad...

Sean Woodhall, links to a suspected £100million property scam Ocean View Properties(courtesy ofhttp://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/82370/Vanished)

Sean Woodhall, had links to a suspected £100million property scam and was due to settle his divorce within days. Born Sean Lovelock in London in 1965, he grew up in Cambridgeshire but made his business career in the Birmingham area. At 30 he changed his name to his mother’s surname,...

Missing Amy Fitzpatrick father in Ireland

Could you please put information on your website about Missing Amy Fitzpatrick father in Ireland He has now hired a private detective to help in the search for Amy Anyone with information can contact Private Investigator Liam A Brady.www.liamabrady.ie...

peaceful protest march in Almeria

peaceful protest march in AlmeriaCity this Friday, January 9th 2009 - a year exactly after Len and Helen Prior's housewas demolished by the Junta de Andalucía. It's being organised by AULAN, AUAN (both anti-property abuse associations in Almeria), Ciudadanos Europeos and others. This is our first big opportunity to show that the arbitrary treatment towards property owners must be stopp...

Peaceful protest march in Almeria

peaceful protest march in AlmeriaCity this Friday, January 9th 2009 - a year exactly after Len and Helen Prior's housewas demolished by the Junta de Andalucía. It's being organised by AULAN, AUAN (both anti-property abuse associations in Almeria), Ciudadanos Europeos and others. This is our first big opportunity to showthat the arbitrary treatment towards property owners must be stopp...

Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Thani had €50m stolen from his account at Barclays in Marbella

Barclays has settled a legal claim raised by a senior member of the Qatari ruling family over an alleged €50m (£48m) fraud. The settlement, which has been secretly thrashed out over the past few weeks, related to claims from Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Thani, brother of the Emir of Qatar, that €50m had been stolen from his account at Barclays in Marbella between 2001 and 2003. The sheikh's wife Princess Kasia Al-Thani, who first discovered the fraud and...