Housejacking, Three masked men attacked the chalet belonging to Juan Mora, the owner of the Matola restaurant in Elche

Three masked men attacked the chalet belonging to Juan Mora, the owner of the Matola restaurant in Elche, in the early hours of yesterday. The victim was woken up at 4.15 in the morning by the thieves who complained that they could not find the money.
After ransacking the property they made off with an estimated 10,000 €. As they left they warned him ‘Call the police after 15 minutes. Don’t do so before as we know where your children live’.Información newspaper reports that family members of the victim say he was beaten up by the thieves, and were armed with a large screwdriver and used a large leather belt as a whip. For some reason the house alarm had not been activated and the three men managed to gain access without upsetting the dogs.
Reports say that one of the men was black and they had a foreign accent. Juan Mora is now back at home after a medical check up at Elche hospital.

Spaniard, Jesús G.R., who is alleged to have caused the coach crash in Benalmádena ordered to prison without bail

27 year old Spaniard, Jesús G.R., who is alleged to have caused the coach crash in Benalmádena on Saturday April 19th, in which nine Finnish tourists, including a seven year old girl, lost their lives, has been ordered to prison without bail by the judge in Instruction Court One in Torremolinos. He attended with his father, was wearing a neck brace, and showed difficulty in walking.He is thought to have lost control of his KIA four wheel drive vehicle while overtaking the bus at speed on a curve on the A7 motorway, crashing into the bus and causing it to overturn.
The judge called the youngster to the court this morning where he arrived at 1125am and left in a National Police car at 1310pm.
He now faces nine charges of serious negligence resulting in death, and 41 counts of serious negligence resulting in injury. There is also a charge of dangerous driving, and another of driving while under the influence of alcohol. He had breath tested at 0,50 milligrams of alcohol after the accident, double the legal limit in Spain.
Speaking to the Diario Sur newspaper last week Jesús’s father said that his son is deeply depressed and has said he wished he had been killed in the crash.

Marbella Town Hall has ordered a zero tolerance policy for those who sell their wares by foot in the town

Caracuel is reported to have referred to the immigrants as ‘a threat’ and as ‘invaders’ of the town, leader IU to comment ‘We cannot doubt that this type of sale is illegal, but the way of combating it is not adequate’.The Defensor del Pueblo, the Spanish Ombudsman, has asked for an explanation from Marbella Town Hall following a spate of immigrant arrests in the town. The PP local councillor for citizen safety, Francisca Caracuel, has ordered a zero tolerance policy for those who sell their wares by foot in the town, and this has resulted in 500 arrests in a few months. Most of the sales were of counterfeit goods, and 50,000 such items were recently crushed by a steam roller in Puerto Banús to underline the policy. However 17 Chinese beach masseurs have also been arrested, and criticism of the harshness of the police has come from the IU left wing.The Ombudsman, José Chamizo, met with the left wingers and a local Senegalese association last September and called on the Town Hall to ‘only apply the law’. Some claim that in fact things have improved considerably for the immigrants compared to the time of the GIL administration.
Two recent court cases in Spain have seen immigrants charged with such sales being released, given that profits made were minimal and the activity was necessary for their survival.

Border guards have started implementing a directive ordering them to open fire on smugglers who fail to stop

The entering into force of this directive came amid discovering the close relationship of smuggling networks with terror groups, as well as the use of arms by smugglers while securing tracks to their goods.Furthermore, some smugglers tend to extend their activities to arms and explosives trafficking, like for instance in Tlemcen province where gendarmerie and border guards managed foiling about five attempts of smuggling weapons and explosives.Besides, many armed clashes have taken place between border guards and security services against smugglers, later last year and early this year, in border provinces, eastern, western and southern the country.
The Majority of armed clashes have been underscored in Bechar and Tlemcen provinces, western Algeria, followed by Illizi and El-Oued provinces, southern the country, then Tebessa province, eastern Algeria.
It is worth mentioning that joint security forces in Bechar have led, a couple of weeks ago, helicopter raids against a group of 4X4 belonging to smugglers, while hardly fled from being arrested by border guards.

300 illegal homes in Cañada Hermosa

20 minutos reports that there are 300 illegal homes in Cañada Hermosa, and local resident, Pedro Cerón, noted some of them have been there for more than ten years. He said they would not be legalised because people simply don’t know what to do, and he called on the City Hall to visit the area to explain the procedure. There are a further 200 homes in Cañada de San Pedro in the same position.Murcia City Hall is threatening to demolish as many as 4,000 homes which have been built illegally in the region’s countryside. Property owners have been given the deadline of January 31 2009 to bring their properties into legality, and Town Planning Councillor, Fernando Berberena, has warned that after this date legal processes will be started which could end in demolition. Illegally built warehouses are also included in the new crackdown.Bringing as many as 4,000 properties into legality in such a short time is a tall order, given that all of last year saw only 80 homes regularised in the region.The 2001 PGOU General Ordinance Plan gave five years for making the homes and industries legal, but over the five years only 1,000 homes and 150 warehouses were regularised.Murcia City Hall says that leaflets will be handed out in the areas concerned. These show that to bring a property into legality the owner has to provide an application form with a report from Emuasa, technical documentation which includes the provision of services such as water and sewerage, several plans and a budget.

Amy Fitzpatrick renewing their efforts to find her with a new campaign to distribute between 100,000 pamphlets with her photos

No sign of missing Irish teenager Amy Fitzpatrick since her disappearance on January 1 from Mijas Costa. During that period the Guardia Civil have tried to trace two cars and have now found the second vehicle they were looking for.
According to an eyewitness, either Amy or a girl looking like her got into the vehicle, a Mazda, around the time she is thought to have disappeared. The car has apparently been sold within the last three months and although it is undergoing forensic tests the investigators are not hopeful that it will hold any important clues.However the Guardia Civil have stressed that their main focus has been on tracking down the first car they identified that belongs to a neighbour of Amy's. This is a white Ford Fiesta with a British number plate C955SLK. The government's sub-delegate in Málaga province, Hilario López Luna, confirmed last week that finding this car was still a top priority.At the same press conference Sr López Luna admitted that the longer Amy was missing the less likely it was that she had disappeared voluntarily. The same view is shared by the government's delegate in Andalucía, José Lopéz Garzón, who stated that from the start the investigation centred on either her voluntary or involuntary disappearance. He agreed that as time passed the first scenario was less likely but they had not given up hope.
Her family are not giving up hope either. They are renewing their efforts to find her with a new campaign to distribute between 50,000 and 100,000 pamphlets with her photos and telephone numbers on so that any information regarding her disappearance, possible sightings or whereabouts can be called in.

Malaga prostitution in the city centre

Residents in Málaga are threatening unprecedented protests against prostitution in the city centre. Referring to “the serious situation in which we find ourselves,” the collective ‘Centro Sur’ says it will create road blocks, stage demonstrations and patrol the streets to bring to an end the problems arising from prostitution in the area.
The group’s vice-president, Pedro Pérez, claimed the situation had become “truly unsustainable” around Alameda Principal, Alameda de Colón and Tomás Heredia, adding that, “the residents’ quality of life has notably declined.” Centro Sur is actively seeking the support of other similar collectives in city areas affected by the problem, with the intention of organising “a huge demonstration in the city streets.” But Sr Pérez says that, if necessary, his group will go it alone, “because we can put up with it no longer.”
Members of Centro Sur say they are tired of female residents being stopped in the street to be asked how much they charge, the high levels of noise plus the attacks on many of their private vehicles, which have been broken into and robbed.
The councillor responsible for the area, Rosa Agüera, said that there exists no legal means to prevent the practice of prostitution, although the Law of City Security allows for a series of penalties of as much as 300 euros. Local residents say that part of the problem is the number of derelict buildings in the area and the opening of several sex shops, saying that, little by little, the controls over prostitution have been lost by the authorities and the problem has continued to grow.

Organized crime on the Costa del Sol

The Spanish ministry is determined to tackle organized crime on the Costa del Sol. It is targeting the large international gangs that are using the latest technology and modern methods of moving money. Two new special police units are to be formed to work alongside the existing drugs, organized and violent crime groups. They will gather intelligence on gangs and liaise with international law enforcement agencies in the criminals’ countries of origin, especially eastern Europe.In a press statement the Ministry of the Interior explained that the trafficking of hashish from Morocco across the Straits of Gibraltar was largely responsible for the existence of organized criminal gangs on the Costa del Sol. These groups were largely made up of criminals from France, Britain, Italy and Germany.The ministry pointed to the occasional outbreaks of violence between these criminal groups that resulted in the so-called ‘settling of accounts’. These are provoked by the theft of shipments of drugs, arms and often result in murders of which a number have occurred in Marbella this year including the recent slaying of two innocent people.
During 2004 police on the Costa del Sol seized 5,200 kilos of heroin, 21,812 kilos of hashish, 190.3 kilos of cocaine, 51,541 ecstasy tablets in 63 actions against 35 organized gangs. In Andalucía the total number of people detained this year stands at 490 in 86 actions involving 49 criminal groups.

Puerto Banus shooting mystery..70 shots were fired in the assault and the two victims were hit by 16 bullets between them.

After the shooting an Algerian-born French businessmen went to the National Police to say he thought he was the intended target. He had been in the hairdressers at the time of the shooting and his friend – bodyguard, who was waiting in their car outside the hairdressers, was one of those injured. The companion was arrested in his hospital bed for the possession of a gun that was found beneath their car.
Police have stressed that neither the Frenchman nor his companion have any previous convictions in Spain. The businessmen is said to be involved in high fashion, owns several shops in Puerto Banús and commutes between his homes in Paris and Marbella. He was allowed to return to his home after being interviewed by police.
The police say they do not know the identity of the four attackers nor have they yet found the man who entered the hairdressers before the shooting and asked for an appointment in English. He is said to have acted in a very suspicious manner and left the shop seconds before the shooting started.Whilst police still believe the shooting bears all the hallmarks of a “settling of accounts” between criminals they have stated that the modus operandi suggests that they had no clear identity of their target. More than 70 shots were fired in the assault and the two victims were hit by 16 bullets between them.
Meanwhile in neighbouring Estepona the civilian security group has formed a special squad of local police officers to tackle organised crime. The town hall fears that this violence may spread from Marbella to Estepona. The new group of officers will pay special attention to the many urbanisations in the east of the municipality bordering on to Marbella where a Rumanian gang is said to have already carried out robberies.

Mohamed Taieb Ahmen Spanish police arrests "El Nene" fugitive Moroccan citizen

Spanish police arrests "El Nene" fugitive Moroccan citizen
Police say he had bribed his way out of jail and Moroccan authorities issued an international arrest warrant in December after discovering he was missing.A man known as ‘El Nene’, one of the most wanted hashish drug traffickers in the world, has been captured by the Spanish National Police in the Spanish North African enclave of Ceuta.The Moroccan, Mohamed Taieb Ahmen, has been on the run for five months after escaping from a Moroccan prison in Kenitra, 40kms north of Rabat, where he was serving eight years for international drug trafficking. It seems he simply bribed six prison officers to help with his escape and he was thought to have been lying low on the Costa del Sol.The man who was arrested again on an Interpol warrant is said to have more millions than years; he is 32 years old.

Plane loaded with drugs crashes at Spanish banker Botin's estate

The plane was carrying 200 kilograms (441 pounds) of hashish when it missed the airfield and crashed into a nearby gully, Dmaz-Cano said. Two people were killed at the crash and a third one was arrested.
Police are investigating a small plane loaded with drugs that crashed Friday at the estate of one of the country's most prominent bankers, killing two people on board, an Interior Ministry representative said.The plane crashed around midday Friday as it tried to land at a private airstrip on the country estate of banker Emilio Botin, Maximo Dmaz-Cano said.The plane was carrying 200 kilograms (441 pounds) of hashish when it missed the airfield and crashed into a nearby gully, Dmaz-Cano said.
A third person has been detained at the 11,000 hectare (27,180 acres) estate, located 230 kilometers (143 miles) southwest of Madrid. Police are combing the area in search of other people who might have been involved in the suspected smuggling.
Botin is president of Banco Santander Central Hispano, Spain's largest bank by market capitalization.

across-the-board personal income tax rebate of EUR 400, worth a total of around EUR 6 billion.

The Finance Department on Wednesday reported that the public surplus shrank to EUR 3.280 billion in the first quarter, or 0.29 percent of GDP. The surplus in the first quarter of last year was EUR 6.747 billion, equivalent to 0.64 percent of GDP.
The government's coffers are starting to feel the effects of a sharp slowdown in the economy as the housing market moves from boom to crisis.
Spain posted a surplus of 1.83 percent of GDP last year when the economy grew 3.8 percent. That was surpassed in size among countries in the euro zone only by Finland. The government was initially forecasting a surplus of 1 percent of GDP for this year when it estimated the economy would grow by 3.1 percent.However, the administration has finally bowed to the inevitable and will shortly announce revised growth figures. Economy Minister Pedro Solbes said Tuesday that the new GDP estimate is likely to be in line with that of the Bank of Spain, which recently cut its forecast to 2.4 percent from 3.1 percent. The International Monetary Fund sees activity increasing by only 1.8 percent this year.Commenting on the latest budget figures, the secretary of state for finance, Carlos Ocaña, said the government is now looking at a surplus for this year of 0.4 percent of GDP.
The administration recently approved an economic stimulus package worth some EUR 10 billion, which it expects will add between 0.2 and 0.3 percent to GDP growth this year. The package includes an across-the-board personal income tax rebate of EUR 400, worth a total of around EUR 6 billion.Ocaña insisted that the tax rebate would not result in the government posting a deficit in 2008.The Finance Department attributed the narrowing of the surplus in March to lower value added tax receipts due to the slowdown in the housing market and to higher oil prices. VAT revenues fell 5.7 percent to EUR 19.355 billion. New home sales carry a VAT rate of 7 percent. House sales fell 27 percent in January, the latest available official figure. Total revenues in March climbed 1.3 percent to EUR 38.298 billion.Outlays in the first quarter rose 12.8 percent to EUR 35.022 billion, with financial costs up 14.6 percent.

medical records of 11,000 patients on an internet file-sharing programne.

Spain's Data Protection Agency has fined a medical centre in Bilbao EUR 150,000 after an employee accidentally disclosed the medical records of 11,000 patients on an internet file-sharing programne.The records include details of 4,000 women who underwent abortions at the Lasaitasuna clinic and are therefore of an exceptionally sensitive nature."This is an inexcusable mistake on the part of the medical centre, which did not have adequate security measures in place to prevent a leak of this nature," Artemi Rallo, the director of the Data Protection Agency, said. The agency traced the source of the leak to an employee's laptop on which the file-sharing programme eMule had been installed, apparently with the intention of downloading music from the internet. However, the employee mistakenly made public files on the computer's hard drive containing the medical records, allowing anyone on the file-sharing network to obtain them. "We have to urge all companies, hospitals, banks and schools to take greater care and revise their security systems," Rallo said. "We need an active policy to train and increase the awareness of citizens" to data security, he added. The Data Protection Agency is currently investigating 16 more similar cases of unlawful information disclosure by companies and organisations.

Years of overbuilding means Spain has around half a million new homes on the market, a Spanish property developer association said on Wednesday.

Spaniards have borrowed heavily by guaranteeing consumer loans against the value of their homes, which have more than tripled in the last ten years.
Households are feeling poorer since Spanish house price growth fell below the rate of inflation for the first time in a decade during the first quarter.
Expectations Spanish house prices will fall this year have led to a sharp decline in housing demand, especially for second homes, real estate firm CB Richard Ellis said on Thursday.
Spanish consumer borrowing for cars and personal loans fell for the first time in over a decade during the first quarter amid rising unemployment and declining consumer confidence, a financial group said on Thursday.
Credit for car purchases declined up to 10 percent year on year, while personal loans fell around 30 percent during the first three months of the year, according to Spanish credit industry group ASNEF.
"In my 10 years here this is the first time I've seen it, I think it's the first time since the 1992-1995 crisis," ASNEF President Pedro Guijarro told a press conference.
Credit demand is falling as Spaniards are hit by the end of a decade-long property boom and tighter borrowing conditions during money market turmoil.
Spain's government plans to cut its 2008 and 2009 economic growth forecasts to around 2.4 percent and 2.1 percent, respectively, marking the weakest levels since the economy suffered a recession in the early 1990s.
ASNEF warned of a sharp increase in Spain's consumer credit default rate this year after it rose 22 percent to 3.14 percent in 2007.
Spain's overall debt default rate, combining mortgage and corporate credit, is among the lowest in Europe but could triple to around 3 percent over the next two years, banking groups forecast.The property consultancy expected the slowdown to last a further 18 months and for prices to fall.
"That's the amount of time it will take to absorb houses currently on sale," said Eduardo Fernandez-Cuesta, the firm's president in Spain. "The correction in prices has yet to happen."
Years of overbuilding means Spain has around half a million new homes on the market, a Spanish property developer association said on Wednesday.

Juan Antonio Roca return to prison brings a rapid end to his week of freedom on bail during which time he made many claims to the press, including one

The bail conditions against Juan Antonio Roca, the ex Marbella Municipal real estate assessor in the case known as ‘Saqueo 1’ have been increased today to three million €. The Roca family had already paid the lower level of bail, set at 450,000 € in the case, but today Roca finds himself sent to prison again, with bail now set at 3 million €.This is separate from the 1 million € which it took his family 17 days to raise in the Malaya case.The Saqueo 1 case is also known as the 'false facturas' case and is linked to the alleged diversion of public funds from Marbella Town Hall to private companies between 1991 and 1995 amounting to 27.6 million €. The late Mayor Jesús Gil and six others were charged in the case, where Roca is accused of money laundering, defrauding Hacienda, bribery, the alteration of prices in public auctions and tenders, the misuse of public funds and even a charge against damaging flora and fauna, amongst others.Today the National Court judge, Pablo Ruiz, accepted an appeal presented to him from the legal department of Marbella Town Hall which said they feared that Roca was a flight risk. The Town Hall say that it is ‘curious’ that the Roca family could find such amounts of money as had paid, 1, 450,000 € despite having all his assets supposedly frozen in the Malaya case.Roca’s defence team said they did not understand why their client was seeing his bail conditions revised, considering that Roca’s circumstances had not changed.
His return to prison brings a rapid end to his week of freedom on bail during which time he made many claims to the press, including one of innocence.