Since 2004, more than 1,100 fugitives have been caught, most of them foreigners from Germany, the UK, South America and Eastern Europe

Since 2004, more than 1,100 fugitives have been caught, most of them foreigners from Germany, the UK, South America and Eastern Europe, and there are hundreds more cases waiting to be solved. Many of them choose Spain due to the quality of life and the climate. Between 15 and 20 per cent have been solved thanks to the help of the public, leading to the arrests of paedophiles, hired killers, fraudsters, thieves, drugs barons, pimps, Mafiosi, forgers,...

body of a 31-year-old Moroccan man was found in the Straits of Gibraltar

body of a 31-year-old Moroccan man was found in the Straits of Gibraltar, some 8.9 miles southeast of Tarifa, Cadiz. Sea Rescue in the town received a call from a ship heading for the Atlantic which had sighted a body floating in the water, and Algeciras Guardia Civil Sea Rescue team and the Salvamar Alkaid Sea Rescue vessel found and retrieved the body some 30 minutes later. The body, which was decomposing, was taken to Tarifa port where the death...

Maria Jose Carrascosa, a Valencia lawyer who was sentenced to 14 years in prison in the USA for taking her daughter out of the country

Maria Jose Carrascosa, a Valencia lawyer who was sentenced to 14 years in prison in the USA for taking her daughter out of the country, be set free. Maria Jose married Peter Innes in 1999, and their daughter Victoria was born the following year, however, in 2001, Maria Jose was classed as an abused woman, and in 2004, the couple separated and she returned to Spain with her daught...

murderer of Sandra Palo, who was released in 2007,

murderer of Sandra Palo, who was released in 2007, continues his trajectory of crime ON the evening of May 17, 2003, 22-year-old Sandra Palo, who was mentally handicapped, was walking home with a friend, also handicapped, after they had missed the last bus home in Madrid. Fate led them to cross paths with four youths in a stolen car, one of them, Rafael Garcia Fernandez, known as Rafita, was just 14, he was in the back of the car, his cousin ‘Malaguita’...

PASSENGER tried to force his way into the cockpit on a Thomson Airways flight

PASSENGER tried to force his way into the cockpit on a Thomson Airways flight from Cardiff to the Canary Islands. Staff and other passengers had to restrain the man, who was arrested at Las Palmas airport, Gran Canaria. A spokeswoman for the airport said the man, a Spaniard from the Canary Islands, was "nervous" and "panicked" during the flight. He was later freed by poli...

PAOLO DI MAURO, the 58-year-old head of the Camorra’s Contini clan who was arrested in Casteldelfells (Barcelona)

PAOLO DI MAURO, the 58-year-old head of the Camorra’s Contini clan who was arrested in Casteldelfells (Barcelona) on January 26 after seven years on the run, was the country’s third most wanted man said the Italy’s Interior ministry. Arrested at the same time was 50-year-old Luigi...

house market crash has seen the value of homes on the Costa del Sol crash to below 65 per cent their original asking price

one million Britons living in Spain some 74 per cent revealed that repatriation is now a distinct possibility, according to a study undertaken by Moneycorp.Some 37 per cent of those surveyed admitted that they were already looking into returning to the British Isles.The house market crash has seen the value of homes on the Costa del Sol crash to below 65 per cent their original asking price.“Brits living in Spain are particularly affected by the...

Public Prosecutor is asking for 16 and a half in prison for a man accused of killing a couple and injuring two motorcyclists in Alicante

Public Prosecutor is asking for 16 and a half in prison for a man accused of killing a couple and injuring two motorcyclists in Alicante in February 2008. The private accusation is asking for 30 years in prison, considering that the accused was completely aware of what he was doing. The accused drove 16 kilometres in the wrong direction on the A-70, but told the court that he didn’t intend to kill himself, and had suffered a psychotic episode which...

Denia Judge has sent a young man who allegedly belonged to a gang who perpetrated four attacks against teenagers, stealing their mobile phones

Denia Judge has sent a young man who allegedly belonged to a gang who perpetrated four attacks against teenagers, stealing their mobile phones and money, to prison on remand without bail. The gang covered their faces with balaclavas and threatened the victims with kniv...

DAVID BROOKES, 59, a former Royal Artillery warrant officer and an ex-policeman, was killed by smoke in a fire in the town of Jimena de la Frontera

DAVID BROOKES, 59, a former Royal Artillery warrant officer and an ex-policeman, was killed by smoke in a fire in the town of Jimena de la Frontera His wife Florence, 58, was found by a passerby in hysterics in the street outside. The fire had already been extinguished when the man entered the house and found the lifeless body of Mr Brookes in a bedroom. Mrs Brookes, originally from Edinburgh, is recovering from severe shock in hospital.But her family...

one million Britons living in Spain some 74 per cent revealed that repatriation is now a distinct possibility

one million Britons living in Spain some 74 per cent revealed that repatriation is now a distinct possibility, according to a study undertaken by Moneycorp.Some 37 per cent of those surveyed admitted that they were already looking into returning to the British Isles.The house market crash has seen the value of homes on the Costa del Sol crash to below 65 per cent their original asking price.“Brits living in Spain are particularly affected by the...

one million Britons living in Spain some 74 per cent revealed that repatriation is now a distinct possibility

one million Britons living in Spain some 74 per cent revealed that repatriation is now a distinct possibility, according to a study undertaken by Moneycorp.Some 37 per cent of those surveyed admitted that they were already looking into returning to the British Isles.The house market crash has seen the value of homes on the Costa del Sol crash to below 65 per cent their original asking price.“Brits living in Spain are particularly affected by the...

demolition of nine British owned properties in Albox, Almería.

President of the Junta de Andalucía, José Antonio Griñán, told Europa Press on Thursday that he had not received ‘any notification or letter’ from the British Ambassador to Spain, Giles Paxman, regarding the demolition of nine British owned properties in Albox, Almería.British diplomats are insisting that Ambassador Paxman has written and sent a fax asking for a meeting to try and find a solution to the problem, but speaking to journalists in Córdoba,...

fraud paid for a luxury lifestyle in the UK and Spain which included the purchase of a villa in Marbella

Alan James Wilson was the director of a company which designed and rented portable refrigerated units from its base at Staffordshire Technology Park in Beaconside.Wilson took part in a fraud, as sole director of the business, which centred on falsifying rental agreement documents, misappropriation of company funds and disposal of equipment.The fraud paid for a luxury lifestyle in the UK and Spain which included the purchase of a villa in Marbella,...

Three men were seriously injured yesterday

Three men were seriously injured yesterday when scaffolding collapsed at a football pitch in the town of Santa María del Águila in El Ejido.The three men, aged between 40 and 51, were taken to the Poniente hospital where two of the men are reported to be seriously ill.All three men suffered bruising while one of the men has a broken leg.One of the men was released from hospital the day of the accide...

Third person has been arrested in connection with last Saturday’s shooting in Almeria city

Police arrested 27-year-old Spaniard, F.J.R.G., yesterday. A search of the address also revealed an Astra 9mm pistol which police believe to be the weapon used in Saturday’s killing, in which a 29-year-old Moroccan man was shot at point blank range in the city centre.Police believe F.J.R.G. to be the person actually responsible for the shooti...

Spanish association supporting the opening of civil war graves, the Asociación para la Recuperación de la Memoria Histórica (AMRH)

Spanish association supporting the opening of civil war graves, the Asociación para la Recuperación de la Memoria Histórica (AMRH), yesterday said they intended to push for further attempts to locate the grave of poet and playwright, Federico Garcia Lorca.In a statement published yesterday, the AMRH said they did not consider December’s failed attempt to find the mass grave a “failure” as it allowed certain erroneous oral testimony to be discounted.Lorca...

Police yesterday arrested two Spanish men in connection with Saturday’s shooting in Almeria city in which a 29-year-old Moroccan man was shot

Police yesterday arrested two Spanish men in connection with Saturday’s shooting in Almeria city in which a 29-year-old Moroccan man was shot at point blank range and killed.The two arrested men, 22-year-old, J.M.S.S., and 23-year-old, D.R.M., both have criminal records for a variety of crimes. Police have said they expect more arrests to follow in the course of the next few days.The Moroccan man is the third person to be murdered in the province...

"Auken Report", which recommended EU sanctions against Spain if it did not act on illegal building and urban abuse

Margarite Auken, Danish MEP for the Green party and author of the controversial "Auken Report", which recommended EU sanctions against Spain if it did not act on illegal building and urban abuse, demanded yesterday in open parliamentary session that the EU ask for an official report from Madrid on how it will protected property rights for people who have purchased illegal homes.The question, directed to the President of the European Parliament Jerzy...

Councils on the Costa del Sol are urging foreign residents to register on the municipal electoral roll.

Many councils in Malaga fear tens of thousands of unregistered residents live in certain municipalities: in the case of Marbella, with an electoral roll of 140,000 people from 137 different nationalities, it is thought a further 100,000 people live without registering.The failure to register means councils are losing money, as the Spanish state gives subsidies to each municipality based on the size of its electoral roll.Marbella tourism councillor,...

snowy peaks of the Sierra Nevada 3 metres of snow cover over the ski terrain

2 hours from Spain’s Costa del Sol are the snowy peaks of the Sierra Nevada , Europe’s Southern-most ski resort.December saw the heaviest rain for 50 years fall on the Costa del Sol, officially ending five years of drought in the region and filling the reservoirs to capacity. Although it meant a wet Christmas for Costa del Sol residents, it has led to wonderful conditions in the nearby mountains with the resort management, Cetursa SA, announcing...

Treasure of incalculable value has lain just off La Manga.

Buried beneath shells, rocks and sand, for 2,600 years, while the construction boom has been completely changing the surrounding landscape, a treasure of incalculable value has lain just off La Manga. 26 centuries later, archaeologists from eleven countries are bringing these antique objects to the light of day once again. The find appears to be the cargo of a commercial ship carrying ivory from African elephants, amber and lots of ceramic objects....

Spain is complaining" about the rule, "as more and more northern Europeans choose to retire along its Mediterranean coast."

"Most countries in the European Union offer universal health coverage for their citizens. And when a citizen from one EU country travels to, or lives in another one, they also are covered. But now Spain is complaining" about the rule, "as more and more northern Europeans choose to retire along its Mediterranean coast." NPR likens the situation along Spain's Costa del Sol to that of Florida, where many U.S. seniors with costly health problems retire...