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 man, known as ‘Jeronimo’, who has also been arrested.Initial enquiries have suggested that he made the teenagers steal to order, so that he could sell the goods on to third parties. The teen gang took advantage of holiday homes being empty over the winter months in order to break in undisturbed. Police were able to round up the ‘Fagin-style’ gang after two of the minors were identified as the culprits in a burglary at a home in Mojacar.Investigating officers say that their modus operandi was very similar to that of other burglaries in the area.The teenagers are currently being held in a youth detention centre but, as they are under 18, if the case comes to court, any sentence they receive will be far more lenient than that which would normally be imposed on adults.

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 lead to their identification.These were then sold on in North African countries, having been shipped out from the port of Algeciras.The suspects, of Moroccan and Bulgarian nationality, often stole cars to order.One of their favoured methods was to go to a motor dealer and pretend they wanted to buy a car, so that they could see where the sales staff fetched the keys from. Other members of the group would then distract the salesperson whilst the car was stolen. The stolen cars were then taken to a villa in Estepona, where they were doctored for resale. The most recent arrests follow the detention of 12 other suspects in November 2008, thought to have been part of the same gang.Six people were taken into custody in Ciudad Rodrigo (Salamanca province) and another six in La Vila Joiosa and Teulada-Moraira (Alicante province).Also this week, 15 Spanish nationals were arrested in connection with a car-stealing operation on the Costa del Sol where luxury vehicles were stolen to order. Among those detained is a nightclub bouncer, who is said to have found customers for the gang. Documents and registration plates were forged and vehicles sold on around Spain and abroad. Vehicles valued at around one million euros, together with fake car ownership documents and the assets of eight companies, valued at 15 million euros, have been seized by police.The companies were found to have a further 500 cars, valued at around 10 million euros. Police enquiries are on-going and it is believed that, to date, more than 70 individual cases of theft have been traced back to the arrested parties.

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 party says they will expel all those indicted from the party.The 13 arrests occurred in Málaga and Huelva and also include the Mayor’s two daughters, and José Mora, chief of municipal architecture in the Dipitación de Málaga, the provincial government.Also detained are two architects and other constructors and alleged intermediaries.El Mundo says that the investigation could move to neighbouring La Viñuela, where the Socialist Mayor already faces different investigations on town planning irregularities.Many of the properties sold in the area, have been purchased by foreigners.

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 occurred in Málaga and Huelva and also include the Mayor’s two daughters, and José Mora, chief of municipal architecture in the Dipitación de Málaga, the provincial government.Also detained are two architects and other constructors and alleged intermediaries.El Mundo says that the investigation could move to neighbouring La Viñuela, where the Socialist Mayor already faces different investigations on town planning irregularities.Many of the properties sold in the area, have been purchased by foreigners.

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 kilometres off the Canary Islands on Thursday. The cocaine, which was believed to come from Colombia, would have been worth about 250 million euros (300 million dollars) on the black market. The traffickers were believed to have intended to take the drug to Spain's north-western region of Galicia, which would have acted as its gateway into the European market.
The operation followed the seizure of four tons of cocaine off Galicia six weeks ago.

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 amounts of cocaine in our country," from the Caribbean country, home to its ringleader, linked to Colombian narcotics traffickers. The detainees received the drugs from the Dominican Republic using packets hidden in their body and bought narcotics other criminal groups, to treat it and distribute afterwards from a house in Madrid’s Tetuan sector. The operation included six raids in which the Police seized cell phones, material to “cut” and treat the drug, vehicles, computers and electronic equipment, as well as a bit more than three kilos of cocaine.

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 of the evidence on January 4 2005, was postponed until Friday in Elche yesterday.The victim has been named as Roy John T.29 year old Dezzie S. faces a total of 36 years in prison for the crimes and attended the court yesterday but only to hear the magistrate suspend the proceedings because of the lack of witnesses.Prosecutors’ Office is demanding a 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 death. Then, in an attempt to destroy evidence a fire was started of both the body and the house, with D.S. accused of leaving the scene in the victim’s car. Three days later he rented another car and drove back to Britain, failing to return the vehicle as agreed.The Prosecutor wants a total of 36 years for the charges and has requested the payment of 150,000 € to the wife of the victim and 200,000 € to each of his daughters.

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 for Industry, Tourism and Commerce said: "British visitors are traditionally by far our largest market. "The fall is due to the worsening economic situation in the UK and the fall in the value of the pound. Britons are looking for cheaper holidays outside the Euro-zone." The southern region which includes the Costa del Sol, registered a massive 26.8 per cent drop in the number of January visitors from the UK. The Canary Islands, popular with Brits seeking winter sun, saw 47,000 fewer tourists from the UK, a fall of 17.5 per cent. The fall-off in British visitors is potentially devastating for Spain as 11 per cent of the economy depends on tourism. About 13.8 million Britons visited Spain in 2007.

The pound's poor rate of exchange against the euro means that British holidaymakers are staying in the UK or are heading for newer destinations.

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 her
son was sleeping.The van was stopped at Dover Docks in April last year and customs officers found the drugs by drilling through to them.As a result, Cheyrl stood trial at Canterbury Crown Court in December but was acquitted because she did not know anything about the drugs haul.Today (Monday, Feb 23) at the same court Orchard admitted his guilt. Chris Geeson, his counsel, said Orchard 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.He said: “He was losing weight alarmingly and decided to come back to England for treatment.”Previously he had been an entertainments manager and had run holiday estates.Mr Geeson said: “He was told payment for the camper-van would be waived if he took a ‘package’ to England.“After he was caught he realised he’d been involved in significant drug-smuggling.”Passing sentence, Judge Michael O’Sullivan said: “An aggravating feature is that you placed your daughter in danger of arrest. "She was accused of being involved, which placed your grandson with the real prospect he wouldn’t have the care of his mother for some considerable time.
“But for you she wouldn’t have been put through the ordeal of being on trial. "There is no doubt you played a significant part in this importation – but for your previous good character you would be facing a longer sentence.”

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. prosecutors asked a judge on Monday to sentence a Syrian arms dealer convicted of conspiring to sell weapons worth $1 million to Colombian rebels to decades in prison.Kassar, a longtime resident of Spain known as the "Prince of Marbella" for his lifestyle in the glitzy seaside town, will be sentenced in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday, along with Felipe Moreno Godoy, a Chilean, 59.Kassar was extradited after Spain received assurances from U.S. authorities he would face neither the death penalty nor a life sentence without chance of parole.In a sentencing memo on Monday, prosecutors asked for Kassar to serve a prison sentence "substantially in excess" of the 25-year minimum he faces, but "less than life.""From his palatial estate along Spain's Costa del Sol, Al Kassar commanded an arms trafficking network of criminal associates and front bank accounts that spanned the globe," the memo said.In this case, the memo said, he agreed to supply 12,000 weapons to the FARC, which "he believed intended to use the arms to kill Americans."Kassar's defense lawyers, who argued during the trial he was a legitimate arms dealer, asked in separate court papers for a sentence of 25 years, the minimum he can receive."There were crimes of greed, not crimes of terrorism," said the lawyers. "All this for a crime -- really, a DEA sting operation -- in which nobody was harmed," they said, referring to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.Kassar "will likely die in prison in a foreign country ... thousands of miles from his wife and children," the lawyers said.The prosecution case was based largely on evidence gathered by two undercover operatives who posed as FARC arms buyers and videotaped negotiations in Spain with Kassar and Moreno.Both were convicted on a host of charges including arms sales, conspiracy to kill U.S. officials, conspiracy to aid a terrorist organization and money-laundering.
The U.S. embassy in Madrid said Kassar had been selling weapons since the 1970s to the Palestinian Liberation Front and clients in Nicaragua, Bosnia, Croatia, Iran, Iraq and Somalia.

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 do not have mortgages and their needs are less so they are prepared to weather the storm .Most have experienced some form of hardship in their lives before , this is nothing new

.
Many who are returning are doing so with heavy hearts as they have loved the life here but when the money isn’t coming in then other avenues have to be explored and at the end of the day there is no place like home .Most of those spoken to about their returns to the UK have had to think about jobs , children , benefits that they would never have in Spain that they will be able to access in the UK, education , health care , the reasons go on and on .

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 time he analyzed what are known in the region as "maras," violent groups made up of young men and women ranging in age from 10 to 30 who only know how to survive via crime.The result of that study is contained in "La Mara al Desnudo" (The Mara Revealed), his new book He devoted part of the work to discussing two old Latino gangs that are well-known in Spain: the Latin Kings and the Ñetas, which exist above all in the regions of Catalonia, Valencia, Madrid and Murcia.Gallego said that both groups "are only in a dormant state" after the police substantially weakened them."They are resurging spurred by the loss of jobs and the crisis," he said, and the situation could become more complicated when the Central American gangs get into Spain, since they have tight relations with international organized crime."They (the maras) are much more dangerous than the Sicilian Mafia or the Camorra of Naples," he warned.He said that whether the gangs take root will depend on the entry of specific immigration flows from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, the bastions of gangs such as Mara Salvatrucha and Mara 18.
Family reunification also plays a part: "There are parents who want to bring their children to Spain and some of them could be members of one of these gangs."In addition, immigrants who are already in Spain could join the gangs. "It's possible that they'll feel attracted to these gangs after suffering xenophobia and losing their jobs," Gallego said.The author warns that the gangs have a very rapid rate of expansion and therefore it is necessary to fight them as early as possible, with both social measures and support for families."When it's detected that a boy has joined (a gang) you have to guarantee him protection and help him get out because abandoning the group means death, in contrast to what happens in other gangs," Gallego said."They say that there are only three places where you can be a gangmember: jail, the hospital and the cemetery," the expert added.The bait for attracting a young person to a gang of this kind is an attraction to the lifestyle and its typical elements, the power status and the easy access to sex and drugs.
The members of the gang do not all come from broken families and many of them are even educated and have a good economic situation.Gallego in his book analyzes the possibility that the gangs may transform themselves into cultural associations, as happened in Catalonia in 2006."It was a very useful tool to halt the commission of criminal acts, but then it has not been studied how it evolved and it's certain that many gangs use the excuse of being associated (with it) to clean up their image without really having done so," he said.

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 company to its creditor banks, including Santander, swapping a 55% stake in exchange for cancelling €2.1bn (£1.9bn) of debt claims.The purchase of the 42-storey tower in London's Docklands is seen as the peak of the real estate boom for Spanish businesses, which saw a succession of firms launch themselves into an unprecedented debt-fuelled expansion spree. At the peak of the market, 800,000 homes a year were being built in Spain - more than France, Germany and Britain put together.The Madrid-based Metrovacesa bought the 100,000 sq metre tower in Canary Wharf for £1.09bn in May 2007, financed with a £810m loan that it could not pay off or refinance as credit markets tightened.

Like buyout firms such as Baugur, which have also found themselves in trouble, Metrovacesa counted on rising values and cheap debt. The recession, however, has seen valuations go into reverse, while the credit crunch has dried up funds.

The Spanish company sold the tower - 8 Canada Square - back to HSBC last December for £838m, leading to a £250m gain for HSBC and a loss for Metrovacesa.
The real estate collapse has exacerbated Spain's plunge into recession because the sector accounts, directly and indirectly, for about a quarter of the economy. Thousands of firms are going bust and even top football clubs such as Valencia can no longer afford to pay their star players.The former Valencia chairman and real estate entrepreneur Juan Soler raised the club's debt to more than €400m and started building a new stadium before it had sold the land occupied by its current Mestalla stadium, which it has still not managed to do because of plunging property prices and the credit crunch. Work on the new stadium has stalled while the club rushes to get a new financing deal with new lenders. A local savings bank, Bancaja, has already cut off credit.London's commercial property prices have fallen 27% since the credit crunch hit. The latest blow to Canary Wharf came late last month when Morgan Stanley quit its lease of six floors of office space 10 years earlier than planned.

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 in the legal action are three financial advisors , mainly to the British community .The people involved are mainly pensioners and those with high value properties .Financial advisors of the Icelandic bank began to sell a product which would guarantee the mortgage of the owner . It consisted of a mortgage on the property of around half a million euros and this was invested in financial products not only to pay off the mortgage but to give income as well .The clients were lured by the fact that it was self financing and had zero risk .It turned out that none of these things was true .They were also told that should the person die then it would reduce inheritance tax .The Spanish argument is that in Spanish law this is not possible and so therefore it is fraud .In fact such schemes had also been illegal in the Uk since 1990 .Under the terms of the Landsbank..Because of the fall of this Icelandic bank these people have no cover and are in danger of losing their homes .equity release scheme the policy holder could take 25% in cash and had to invest the rest in an investment company run by Landsbanki

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 death. Then, in an attempt to destroy evidence a fire was started of both the body and the house, with D.S. accused of leaving the scene in the victim’s car. Three days later he rented another car and drove back to Britain, failing to return the vehicle as agreed.The Prosecutor wants a total of 36 years for the charges and has requested the payment of 150,000 € to the wife of the victim and 200,000 € to each of his daughters. The case gets underway at 10am on Monday in the Seventh section of the Alicante Provincial Court in Elche.