Nine houses in Garrucha and Mojacar have been burgled, with the intruders amassing a haul worth thousands of euros in cash and home entertainment unit

Nine houses in Garrucha and Mojacar have been burgled, with the intruders amassing a haul worth thousands of euros in cash and home entertainment units.Five youths, aged between 14 and 16, who have been taken in for questioning, are thought to have stolen around 6,000 euros’ worth of audiovisual equipment, including home cinema equipment, LCD-screen televisions, Playstation 3 consoles and other multimedia items, which they sold on to a 53-year-old...

Stolen car gang thought to be behind the theft and alteration of top-of-the-range vehicles for re-sale has been broken up in Estepona.

Stolen car gang thought to be behind the theft and alteration of top-of-the-range vehicles for re-sale has been broken up in Estepona.They are said to have stolen the cars from dealers and garages and modified their chassis numbers, registration plates and other elements that could...

Socialist Mayor of the village of Alcaucín in Málaga is among 13 people arrested in Spain’s latest corruption scandal.

latest corruption case in Spain has broken in the Axarquía area of Málaga province Socialist Mayor of the village of Alcaucín in Málaga is among 13 people arrested in Spain’s latest corruption scandal.José Manuel Martín Alba, a labourer by trade, has been detained as investigations continue into the building and sale of homes on non-buildable land. Searches were carried out on Friday in the homes of the Mayor and members of his family.The PSOE Socialist...

Socialist Mayor of the village of Alcaucín in Málaga is among 13 people arrested in Spain’s latest corruption scandal.

Socialist Mayor of the village of Alcaucín in Málaga is among 13 people arrested in Spain’s latest corruption scandal.José Manuel Martín Alba, a labourer by trade, has been detained as investigations continue into the building and sale of homes on non-buildableland. Searches were carried out on Friday in the homes of the Mayor and members of his family.The PSOE Socialist party says they will expel all those indicted from the party.The 13 arrests...

Special anti-drug unit set up by the Spanish tax administration agency has intercepted a vessel carrying 5 tons of cocaine in the Atlantic,

Special anti-drug unit set up by the Spanish tax administration agency has intercepted a vessel carrying 5 tons of cocaine in the Atlantic, the agency said Friday. The five Venezuelan crew of the 16-metre-long Dona Fortuna were detained in the operation, which took place some 1,500...

Spanish authorities Tuesday said it dismantled an alleged Dominican drug trafficking network

Spanish authorities Tuesday said it dismantled an alleged Dominican drug trafficking network, in a Police operation that led to the arrest of 10 ten people, accused of trafficking cocaine from that Caribbean nation and "other Central American countries," to Spain, Scotland and Italy.A source said the operation began at the end of last year in Spain when Police uncovered a ring of "citizens from the Dominican Republic dedicated to introducing large...

British man who is accused of beating another Briton to death in a house in Vista Mar I, Playa Flamenca, Orihuela Costa

29 year old accused, named as Dezzie S. will be back in court on Friday.The court case against the young British man who is accused of beating another Briton to death in a house in Vista Mar I, Playa Flamenca, Orihuela Costa, and then setting fire to the body and home to get rid...

British holidaymakers are deserting Spain in their droves latest figures show.

British holidaymakers are deserting Spain in their droves latest figures show. Spanish tourism bosses said 148,000 fewer Britons visited last month compared to January 2008 - a drop of 20.5 per cent. It is the lowest number since records began 15 years ago. A source at the Ministry...

Robert Orchard, 65,had lived on the ‘Costa Del Crime’ for 13 years but had not been tempted to join the drugs culture until he had a cancer scare.

Cynical Robert Orchard, 65, had not seen daughter Cheyrl and grandson Robert, nine, for five years when he invited her on an all-expenses-paid sunshine trip to Marbella.He planned to drive her back to her home in Stirling aboard a new camper-van he had bought for the trip.What she didn’t know was that Orchard had stashed cannabis resin valued at more than £800,000 underneath the bunk-bed in which herson was sleeping.The van was stopped at Dover Docks...

Monzer al-Kassar, 63, described by prosecutors as one of the world's most prolific arms dealers, was convicted in November

Monzer al-Kassar, 63, described by prosecutors as one of the world's most prolific arms dealers, was convicted in November of agreeing to sell weapons to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, to protect a cocaine-trafficking business and attack U.S. interests.U.S....

Removal companies in Malaga on the Costa del Sol are saying that the number of Brits who are returning to the UK is on the increase

Removal companies in Malaga on the Costa del Sol are saying that the number of Brits who are returning to the UK is on the increase and the number who are booking them to move out here is decreasing .A trend of the credit crunch .There are many reasons for doing this and some of them involve walking away from financial committments which they cannot meet .Rents , mortgages , business taxes to name but a few .Pensioners are more pragmatic as most...

Maras are much more dangerous than the Sicilian Mafia or the Camorra of Naples and they are coming to Spain

Violent gangs like the Latin Kings are almost inactive in Spain, but the country is becoming worried about the possible arrival of more dangerous gangs from Central America.The alert was given by Pedro Gallego, a Civil Guard sergeant who lived in Honduras for four years, during which...

Metrovaces Spain's biggest property firm said that it lost €738m last year, the biggest loss in its history, as the value of its holdings dived

Spain's biggest property firm said on Friday that it lost €738m last year, the biggest loss in its 90-year history, as the value of its holdings dived following the collapse of the real estate markets in Spain and the UK.The purchase of HSBC's tower in Canary Wharf - the biggest property deal in British history - has helped sink its Spanish buyer, Metrovacesa.Owners of the beleaguered building company, the Sanahuja family, will hand control of the...

Landsbankis complex fraud involving 40 million euros has hit residents of Marbella on the Costa del Sol

Another complex fraud involving 40 million euros has hit residents of Marbella on the Costa del Sol .It involves an Icelandic Bank , and its Luxumbourg subsiduary plus a Luxumbourg Insurance Company . The case is being investigated by a San Roque court but the main losers are 100 Brits living in Marbella .The latter company has been denounced for deceitful publicity and fraud by a law firm which is representing 28 of the residents .Among those included...

36 year prison sentence for a British man who is accused of setting a house fire, stealing a car, and beating another Briton to death in Orihuela

36 year prison sentence for a British man who is accused of setting a house fire, stealing a car, and beating another Briton to death in Orihuela Costa.The attacked happened on January 4 2005, when the 29 year old accused, named with the initials D.S., went to the victim’s house in Vista Mar I in Playa Flamenca.An argument turned into a fight and the accused is charged with beating the victim with a sharp object bursting his aorta and causing his...

Las Maras, could be established in Spain within three years.

Civil Guard sergeant, who lived for a time in Honduras, has warned that a latin gang, more violent than the Latin Kings, called Las Maras, could be established in Spain within three years. Sergeant Pedro Gallego warned that the Latin Kings and the Ñetas, who used to have a higher...

Immigrants harassed by police who are allegedly under pressure to fulfill arrest quotas.

memo leaked to Spanish media this week is purported to have instructed one particular police station in the Madrid area — not in Lavapies — to arrest 30 undocumented immigrants per week.Spain's sizable immigrant population already faces soaring unemployment in a souring economy and a government pushing jobless foreigners to go home. Now they complain they are also being harassed by police who are allegedly under pressure to fulfill arrest quotas.In...

Around 70% of Santander’s retail clients affected by the Madoff scandal have accepted a settlement offered to them by the Spanish bank

Around 70% of Santander’s retail clients affected by the Madoff scandal have accepted a settlement offered to them by the Spanish bank, lawyers told a US court in Miami on Thursday as part of a class action lawsuit. Meanwhile between 7% to 9% have refused the offer and prefer to continue with their legal proceedings.Santander’s retail clients were exposed to the Madoff alleged Ponzi scheme via the Optimal Strategy US Equity fund run by Santander’s...

Users of pre-paid cards will find their service suspended in November if they have not identified themselves

new advertising campaign ‘Identifícate’ is to be launched by the Spanish government Interior Ministry at the end of this month with the objective of getting the 20 million mobile phone users with prepaid cards to register before a deadline date of November 7.It’s part of legislation passed in October 2007 under which unidentified mobile phone users will be cut off, as operators will be legally obliged to deactivate the cards which remain unidentified....

Costa Blanca Crime

Robbery took place last week in Callosa de Segura town centre when two armed men got away with almost 4000 euros .The robbery took place at a gas distribution centre .The men entered the offices wearing motorcycle helmets and threatening staff at gunpoint , telling them to empty the tills .The Guardia civil are investigating the incident .There has been an increase in crime of this type during the last few months...

OFFICERS of the National Police have arrested six persons from Marbella, Alicante and Ibiza suspected of defrauding 70 businessmen and women

OFFICERS of the National Police have arrested six persons from Marbella, Alicante and Ibiza suspected of defrauding 70 businessmen and women by pretending to invest large sums of money in foreign companies in exchange of a profit share, and pocketing the administration and legal costs of these transactions; a figure that is estimated at four million euros.The investigation that lead to four Marbella residents and one from Ibiza and another from Alicante,...

Torremolinos arrested fifteen people in connection to the sale of luxury stolen cars.

Guardia Civil, directed by the court in Torremolinos, has arrested fifteen people in connection to the sale of luxury stolen cars. Ten of the group have already been sent to prison on remand, and one of them is accused of importing the stolen vehicles from Germany. Two were granted bail of 10,000 € and three were released.Diario Sur reports that even more people are implicated in the network, and that it is a foreigner allegedly at the centre of...

Banco Santander has suspended payments in its largest real estate fund

Banco Santander has suspended payments in its largest real estate fund in a decision which has left 43,200 clients with their investment frozen.The fund, Santander Banif Inmoboliario, has assets of 3.2 billion, but those who now ask for their original investment will be paid ten per cent.It comes as the bank finds the fund unable to meet recent requests for withdrawals amounting to 2.617 billion, some 80% of the total.The decision to freeze the fund...

Self-confessed killer of 17 year old Marta del Castillo from Sevilla, 20 year old Miguel Carcaño, and his friend Samuel Benítez

self-confessed killer of 17 year old Marta del Castillo from Sevilla, 20 year old Miguel Carcaño, and his friend Samuel Benítez who helped to throw the body of Marta into the Guadalquivir River, have been ordered to prison in Sevilla today without bail.Dozens of people waited outside...

Search for the body of Marta del Castillo

Search for the body of Marta del Castillo, the 17 year old from Sevilla who went missing three weeks ago, and whose friend, 20 year old Miguel Carcaño D. has now confessed to her killing, has been extended downstream in the Guadalquivir River where Miguel said he threw the body, helped by his friend Samuel B.P.Police say the search has been extended as far as Sanlúcar de Barrameda 80kms away, and that it is being complicated by the 17 metre depth...

Miguel Carcaño, the 20 year old who has confessed to the killing of missing 17 year old Marta del Castillo in Sevilla

Miguel Carcaño, the 20 year old who has confessed to the killing of missing 17 year old Marta del Castillo in Sevilla, has been currently going out with a 14 year old girl, Rocio. Miguel Carcaño will appear in court in Sevilla on Monday charged with the murder of 17 year old Marta del Castillo.She has told the press that although she knows that he is the killer, she cannot believe it. She said she knew that he was quite a jealous man, and when she...

Amer Hady Saed British property developer had suffered a severe blow to the head and cuts as if he had been defending himself against a knife attack

The victim, named in reports as Amer Hady Saed, 68, had suffered a severe blow to the head and cuts as if he had been defending himself against a knife attack, the Spanish newspaper El Pais said. Body of a British property developer has been found at a luxury villa in southern Spain.His...

Hundreds of Marbella residents affected tens of millions of euros disappeared. A court in San Roque (Cádiz) investigating an alleged scam Lansbanski

Hundreds Marbellas British residents wiped out tens of millions of euros disappeared. A court in San Roque (Cádiz) is investigating an alleged scam perpetrated against foreign residents in Marbella, in an amount that could exceed 40 million euros. In the spotlight is the Icelandic capital Lansbanski bank recently nationalized due to the international financial crisis, and its subsidiary Luxembourg Luxembourg SA Lansbanski, now in liquidation after...

Cyril Jacquet shot his mother three times using his father's automatic pistol after she entered the family home.

Cyril Jacquet, 29, and his girlfriend were among the contestants on a new show to be aired on the Antena 3 channel on Sunday night. But the pair were pulled from the programme after rumours surfaced on the internet that he had murdered his parents when he was 15 years old.In 1994, Jacquet shot his mother three times using his father's automatic pistol after she entered the family home. A few hours later, Jacquet used the remaining seven bullets for...

large-scale fraud on the London Stock Exchange Six people are arrested

Six people were arrested in Barcelona, Madrid and Alicante, accused of large-scale fraud on the London Stock Exchange, netting more than 450 euros. Behind the swindle were ex-Mossad agent, Abraham Hochman, and Diego Magin Selva, former adviser to the disgraced Spanish banker, Mario Con...

Félix Martínez Touriño, has been shot dead in the street.

36 year old director of the Centro de Convenciones in Barcelona, Félix Martínez Touriño, has been shot dead in the street. His attacker shot him in the head in the San Gervasi area of the city yesterday and then made his escape on foot. Witnesses said the attacker was wearing a hat and scarf. Police are still to make an arrest and Los Mossos d’Esquadra say they are keeping all possibilities open in their investigations as to the motive for the k...

17 year old teen is still missing in Seville

17 year old teen is still missing in seville .She went missing on the 24th January after visiting friends .Her ex-bfriend gave her a lift almost to the door of the building in which she lived with her parents and two younger sisters .It is now thought that she mayhave entered the flat andd gone out again as her father is almost 100% certain the internet router was switched off when they went out but when he and the rest of the family returned in...

Guardia Civil officers arrested a known drug dealer in the town centre

Guardia Civil officers arrested a known drug dealer in the town centre .The man was approached by the police and as they did so he ran off into a nearby cafe .Officers followed him and did a search when they discovered a small quantity of cocaine in his pocket .As they were about to arrest him a fracas broke out in the bar and the man once again ran off into the kitchen , dropping a box in the process .The box was found to contain bags of a white...

Torrevieja crime in broad daylight

Torrevieja a man had parked his car in the town centre for only five minutes and the thieves attacked .They were well organised and had look outs on bicycles .When the time was right the car window was smashed and the CD player and and CD’s were stolen .Passers by saw it all happen and understandably did nothing .One never knows these days when there is a knife waiting to be used .The thieves were thought to be Russian .This man had experienced another...

last week a judge in Madrid had granted a warrant to arrest Ian Donaldson 30-year-old amateur racing driver from Paisley.

Ian Donaldson spent last Saturday night with pals in Glasgow's Karbon club, despite being the subject of an international arrest warrant. "He had a team of pals with him and didn't seem to have a care in the world. "He certainly didn't look like a man who is wanted by the police across Europe. "It's puzzling as to why the police in Scotland haven't arrested him." Donaldson - once cleared of a gangland kidnap - faces drugs and money-laundering charges...

Amy Fitzpatrick disappeared on the evening of New Year’s Day 1st January 2008

Amy Fitzpatrick disappeared on the evening of New Year’s Day 1st January 2008 at approximately 10pm when she left her friend’s house in the tourist resort of Riviera Del Sol on the Costa del Sol to take the 10 minute walk home....

Pancake the scouser, and is involved in drug trafficking and carrying out assassinations in Málaga province

Violent British gang which has been carrying out extortion of local businessmen on the Costa del Sol has been linked to several shooting incidents.The group is known as ‘Pancake’, because it is allegedly led by the known British criminal referred to as ‘Pancake the scouser’, and is involved in drug trafficking and carrying out assassinations in Málaga province. Most of the members are originally from Liverpool and Manchester.La Opinión de Málaga...

Robbed 1.5 million € from a businessman at the doors of a bank in Alicante.

Five men and two women, all from Argentina, and with criminal records back home, have been arrested for taking 1.5 million € from a businessman at the doors of a bank in Alicante.The police say that the group had been following the businessman for two months and had tried to rob him on another two occasions without success.Finally they took 1.5 million € at gunpoint from the footwear entrepreneur just as he was about to pay in the cash to the bank.National...

Spanish law firm three million people were affected by the Madoff affair

There are up to three million "direct and indirect" victims worldwide of the alleged fraud by US broker Bernard Madoff, a Spanish law firm that has filed a US lawsuit in the name of some of the victims said Tuesday."Our calculations are that at least three million people were affected by the Madoff affair, three million people who could be directly or indirectly affected by the case," Javier Cremades, the president of law firm Cremades Calvo-Sotelo,...

Ley de Costas, Coastal Law.property can now be bought and sold, and indeed passed in inheritance, provided the building was built legally before 1988.

Spanish Government has added a last minute amendment to the Ley de Costas, Coastal Law. The change comes as an attempt to lessen the barrage of criticism the law has received from Europe, following complaints from the British and German embassies.The law is in fact not a new one, but is now 20 years old, but only recently has the current Minister for the Environment, Carmen Narbona, started to enforce it.The 1988 law declares that the beach is public...

17 year old Marta del Castillo, who vanished from Sevilla nine days ago

Eva Casanueva, the mother of the 17 year old Marta del Castillo, who vanished from Sevilla nine days ago, has spent most of that time in bed just waiting for news. On Monday she made the effort to attend to the questions of the media. There are no firm clues to go on, although rumours that the boy who said he dropped Marta off at her home on the Saturday night is under suspicion. An expert dog has indicated that the clues may be in the Triana part...

‘Latin King’ gang have been arrested in Orihuela

Four Ecuadorians aged between 15 and 23 have been arrested in Orihuela for allegedly being members of the ‘Latin King’ gang. Among those arrested is the man thought to be the leader of the organisation in the province, a 21 year old.The arrests come after a complaint to police from...

Spanish Internet Users Paying Extortionate Prices

The Spanish Association of Internet Users has made a formal complaint with regard to the slowing growth rate of ADSL and cable connections within the country, calling for price reductions. It went on to say that as such an affluent source of revenue and potential economic growth it feels that universal access to the web should be sustained by public mon...

Nationalisation of tens of thousands of seaside residences in an attempt to protect the coastline from pollution

Environment Ministry is backtracking on plans to nationalize tens of thousands of seaside residences in an attempt to protect the coastline from pollution, the daily El Pais reported Monday. The Environment Ministry had intended to step up the application of a 1988 law prohibiting the construction of housing near the water line. The owners of such houses, many of whom are British and German nationals, would have been granted the right to use them...

Iberia merger between the airline and British Airways was close.

chairman of Spain's Caja Madrid, the biggest shareholder in Iberia with 23%, said an agreement on a merger between the airline and British Airways was close."I believe the operation is close, that's my impression," Miguel Blesa told journalists as he presented the un- listed bank's 2008 results yesterday.Blesa is also deputy chairman of Iberia.When asked what was blocking a merger agreement, Blesa said the share split, corporate governance questions...

Spanish police arrested 13 people Tuesday on suspicion of links to organized crime and terrorism groups.

Spanish police arrested 13 people Tuesday on suspicion of links to organized crime and terrorism groups.A police statement said the detainees -- 11 Pakistanis, a Nigerian and an Indian -- are suspected of belonging to an international crime gang involved in passport forgery, drug trafficking and people-smuggling.Police said they were investigating whether the group may also have supplied forged documents to international terror groups. Spanish police...

Recent report from Economic Analysts in Andalucía paints a pretty bleak picture for Andalucía

Recent report from Economic Analysts in Andalucía paints a bleak picture for Andalucía but the province of Malaga the home of Costa del Sol has a much more rosy future than the rest of Andalucía. Malaga with a growth rate of 1.5% last year is the leading province for economic growth whose average growth rate is 1.1%. The gross regional product of Andalucía is expected to fall by 1.1% in 2009 however the least effect of the decline will be felt in...