Allan James Foster, 31

POLICE are appealing to expats and holidaymakers in Spain to help trace a man wanted for murder. Originally from South Shields, Allan James Foster, 31, is known to have spent time in Majorca and the Canary Islands. It is believed he may now be living somewhere on the Costas. Foster, who sometimes uses the name Sean Wilkinson, is 5’8” tall and has a mole on the left side of his face.

Read more »

26-year-old British dealer was recently arrested near Marbella with false passports

39 British-organised crime syndicates on the Costa del Sol have been identified as being involved in major drugs supply. A 26-year-old British dealer was recently arrested near Marbella with false passports, eight mobile phones and a British-registered Mitsubishi 4x4.

Read more »

links between Ibiza and the Costa del Sol

Soca officers confirmed that they have intensified their scrutiny of the links between Ibiza and the Costa del Sol, from where some of Britain's most wanted drug barons run their empires. Co-operation with Spain's Special Central Unit for Locating Fugitives (UCLF) has recently been stepped up. At least six suspected major British criminals have been arrested in the province of Malaga, including Brian Wright, who is alleged to have smuggled £300m of cocaine into Britain.
Among those understood to be wanted in connection with San Antonio's drug supply is Mickey Green, 62,

Read more »

Answer Phone in English

This service is not available in all areas and cannot be used on all telephones to check if you can use this service in your area and with your phone you must first activate the service. Pick up your receiver and press * 10 # replace your receiver. Your answering

machine (if available) should now be activated. To check this pick up your receiver and wait about 5-10 seconds. If the service has been activated you should hear a lady speaking (in Spanish of course) this means that the service is available to you if not ring telefonica on 1004.

TO CHANGE THE LANGUAGE

Pick up the receiver and wait 5-10seconds until the lady stops speaking………………………………………….press the number 1 on your phone

When she stops speaking again ………………….press 4

When she stops speaking again…………………..press 0000

(See * below)
When she stops speaking again ………………….press 1

When she stops speaking again ………………….press

1 for English 2 for French 3 for German

To confirm the chosen language press. ……………Press 1 when she stops speaking

Replace receiver when she finishes talking. To test that you have done all correct just pick up your receiver and wait 5-10 seconds for her to start talking hopefully in chosen language

To de-activate the service pick up the receiver and press #10# to reactivate *10# you can do this as often as you wish.

* Your personal code - this has been installed as 0000 but you can if you wish change this

To pick up messages just lift the receiver and wait for 5-10secs if there are no messages you will be told there are no messages. To hear a message again press 1 press 2 to save the message or 3 to erase the massage. Any problems call telafonica on 1004(free phone) for help and advice.

Telefonica´s free phone number 1004 (English speakers are available)

Read more »

mobile phones while driving

16 policemen in Marbella and San Pedro Alcantara will be on the look out for people who use their mobile phones while driving. This forms part of a national campaign which aims at reducing the number of accidents caused by distracted drivers. Talking while driving carries a fine of 150 euros and the loss of three points.

Read more »

combat violence in the classroom

the National Police and the Guardia Civil will be making their presence felt in schools around Malaga province in an effort to combat violence in the classroom. They plan to give a series of talks to get the message across that bullying fellow students and attacking teachers will be punished, even though perpetrators are under age. In a recent case, a judge split up a group of three bullies, sending them to different schools in Malaga city. The security forces will also warn students of the dangers posed by the Internet, and be on the look out for drug dealers inside and outside the schools.

Read more »

garbage bags full of what she liked most: money

the former wife of ex-mayor Julian Muñoz, has now been jailed. Insiders have stated that ever since Jesus Gil y Gil became mayor of the town, Miss Zaldivar regularly used to receive garbage bags full of what she liked most: money – to the tune of somewhere in the region of seven hundred million Pesetas, or about £3.5 million. As she used to brag about how much these garbage bags were giving her, she has now been placed in jail by Judge Miguel Angel Torres, who is now planning to hear her testimony before taking any further action. All in all, since last March when the investigation first started, some seventy people have been placed in jail as a result of Judge Torres’ investigations. Also arrested under orders from Judge Torres yesterday was Jose Maria Gonzalez de Caldas, the director of the Xativa bullring.

Read more »

future of houses already built on land too near the beaches

future of houses already built on land too near the beaches, as has happened, for example, in El Palo, Pedregalejo and La Araña. What is going to happen to these houses?

The document proposes that these areas be planned all over again, and this will be the opportunity to do it in a rational way, taking the environment into account much more than before.

Can the local inhabitants of these areas be sure their houses will not be knocked down?

Owners of houses built on public land need not worry; we are working to find a reasonable solution for all concerned.

We have much the same situation in areas like Banana Beach in Marbella, the El Castillo area in Manilva, a building belonging to the Unicaja banking group in Arroyo de la Miel and the La Rada Hotel in Estepona. What’s going to happen in these cases?

First let me say that all cases have to be looked into one by one, and in many cases we are already working on a solution. There are also cases in which we are considering moving the buildings in question, because they have been badly located in the first place. They do nothing for the surrounding areas they are in, and given the possible effects of climate change in the future, they will become a risk. We should not close our eyes, therefore, to any possibility. We must search for urban planning solutions in areas we have no direct control over, and these solutions must respect the rights of property owners, ensuring that they will not lose their properties and have them in less vulnerable areas.

Read more »

Paul Durant had initially told an English tabloid newspaper that he had eaten his victim after hacking up her corpse.

A British citizen accused of killing and quartering his girlfriend three years ago in Calpe, Alicante, admitted yesterday in court that he had murdered her but said he did not get rid of the body.

Paul Durant had initially told an English tabloid newspaper that he had eaten his victim after hacking up her corpse.

This is the first time since 1983 that a person has been put on trial for murder without a corpse being found.

Paul D. told the judge in Alicante that in February 2004 he killed Karen Durell, a 41-year-old British mother of two who had moved to the resort of Calpe a few months earlier. But he said that after the murder, he left the body "in its place."


The accused, who had fled Britain after being sentenced to a 20-year prison term for theft, admitted that he tried to withdraw money with the victim's credit card, and that he entered a home belonging to one of her friends.

Read more »

Janette May Grocutt, was stabbed to death last Friday by a gang of burglars

A 74 year old British woman, identified by the Foreign Office as Janette May Grocutt, was stabbed to death last Friday by a gang of burglars during a break-in at the home she shared with her bed-ridden husband, Douglas, who was not attacked, but who is now being treated in hospital for stress.

The results of the autopsy will confirm suspicions that Mrs Grocutt was killed when she bravely tried to fight off the gang.

It seems that the couple moved to Spain from Cornwall around six years ago, and ran a campsite.

Mrs Grucott's body was found by a close friend of the family last Friday evening at the couple's home, which is located on a small independent plot surrounded by a metal fence in the village of Paredón, close to the town of Pinoso (pop. approx. 7,350), which, in turn, is located in the Medio Vinalopó borough of Alicante province.

No arrests have yet been made, but police believe that the attack may have been perpetrated by a gang blamed for a number of similar recent attacks in the area, who appear to be targeting expat residents.

Read more »

Puente Romano and the Marbella Club

The Marbella judge responsible for the Hidalgo money laundering case, Manuel Martín Hernández-Carrillo, has interviewed another five suspects, among them two directors of Marbella’s main hotel group. They are all accused of money laundering and tax fraud, pointed out court sources at the end of last week.
Among the five who appeared before the judge last week were the finance director of the group that owns both the Puente Romano and the Marbella Club, the manager of one of these two hotels, a tax consultant connected with the group and a former public notary, explained the same sources. The fifth new Hidalgo suspect is the lawyer Juan Germán Hoffmann, who also faces charges in the Malaya corruption case. Hoffmann, the son of the founder of the Marbella German school of the same name, apparently has links with some of the foreign connections that allegedly laundered money through the Cruz Conde law firm, at the centre of the Hidalgo investigation.

Read more »

several concrete blocks chained to his feet.

The body of a 34 year old man, who was reported missing ten days ago, was found last Sunday lunchtime by a fisherman at the bottom of the River Júcar with several concrete blocks chained to his feet.

The victim, who was from Cullera, but worked in a meat processing factory in Torrent, was found in an inaccessible spot located roughly halfway between Cullera and Sueca, known locally as 'L'Astut'.

Attempts to contact the victim by mobile phone immediately following his disappearance were unsuccessful, and his car was subsequently found parked in the nearby town of Sollana.

Read more »

30,000 illegally constructed homes in Marbella

The ex Prime Minister, José María Aznar, is now known to have purchased an attic in an illegally built urbanisation in Marbella in 2005. The building, Hoyo 15 in Guadalmina Baja, goes against the 1986 Urban Plan, and is part of an estimated 30,000 illegally constructed homes in Marbella.

Read more »

Julián Muñoz deposited a €50,000 euros bail payment

Julián Muñoz deposited a €50,000 euros bail payment pertaining to charges arising from a money-laundering investigation unrelated to the 'Malaya' investigation into property development-related corruption, at Marbella court this morning.

On the 21st September, Muñoz's lawyers posted a first bail payment of €50,000 euros pertaining to the 'Malaya' case itself, but their client will remain behind bars for the forseeable future as Muñoz is currently serving two consecutive 12 month sentences having already been convicted as part of the 'Proinsa' and 'Moansa' urban fraud and corruption investigations.

Read more »

Europe's wunderkind

In the late 1980s, Spain had become Europe's wunderkind: its foreign investment ballooned, its 4% cumulative annual growth was the Continent's highest and, with the help of European Community subsidies, it built $30 billion worth of highways and other public works. No longer did Spaniards have to emigrate north for jobs: their income rose to 79% of the E.C. median. Culturally, Spain became fashionable: the campy fantasies of filmmaker Pedro Almodovar; the sunswept abstractions of painter Miguel Barcelo; the postmodern extravaganzas of architect Ricardo Bofill; the prankish sexiness of fashion designer Sybilla. Madrid promoted itself as the eye of a creative tornado known as la movida, whirling all night long. Novelist Camilo Jose Cela won the 1989 Nobel Prize for Literature. "In the 1960s, we felt like second-class Europeans," says Juan Sanchez-Cuenca, director of the U.S.-affiliated advertising firm Bozell Espana. "In the 1980s we felt proud to be Spanish."

Read more »