Jack McGill on the run from Spanish police after skipping bail following his arrest with Harrison in October 2006.

Ex-drug dealer Jack McGill’s body was discovered hanged in woodland, it emerged yesterday. McGill, 52, had been on the run from Spanish police after skipping bail following his arrest with Harrison in October 2006. They were accused of attacking two men in Malaga. The uncle spent five months on remand in jail before bail was posted – while his ex-WBO featherweight champ nephew was freed within weeks. McGill’s body was found in Glasgow. Last night a source said: “He felt abandoned by the Harrison camp.” The fighter, 30, who hails from the city, denies assault and will stand trial in Spain in Septemb...

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Posted in: Glasgow

Banesto corruption allegations

Former International Monetary Fund head Rodrigo Rato appeared before a judge Tuesday probing corruption allegations at Spanish bank Banesto whilst he was economy minister, Spanish media said. Rato, his brother Ramon, the head of Santander bank Emilio Botin and 12 others are being investigated in connection with the 1999 purchase by Banesto of 45.3 percent of the Aguas de Fuensanta water utility company from the Rato family.In his one-hour appearance, Rato, who was economy minister in the conservative government at the time, denied wrongdoing and said he was not aware of the details of sale, Spanish media said, quoting lawyers at the hearing.The judge opened his probe following a complaint filed by a Santander and Banesto shareholder.The complaint said Banesto, a subsidiary of the Santander...

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Posted in: Banesto

Cargoes of cannabis over the Strait from Ceuta to the Costa del Sol

Details have been released of a National Police operation against a drug smuggling gang which operated between Ceuta and the Costa del Sol, and which brought large amounts of cannabis into Spain illegally. Central government offices in Ceuta said eleven arrests have taken place in Marbella, Estepona and Ceuta, and that six of them were from the Autonomous City, two from Málaga province, and the remaining three were Moroccan.It has been a joint investigation on both sides of the Strait, which brought information that the gang planned to make a drugs run to Estepona on the 5th of this month. The haul amounted to more one and a half tons of cannabis, and would, according to information from EFE, have brought the smugglers almost 2.5 million €.Also confiscated in the operation were the Zodiac...

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Posted in: Estepona

Three Spanish nationals and ten Moroccans between the ages of 18 and 51, were arrested on Thursday

Police in Spain said Sunday they had smashed a drug trafficking ring with the arrest of 13 mostly Moroccan men in Barcelona and the seizure of narcotics worth 41,000 euros (64,000 dollars), AFP informed. The 13, three Spanish nationals and ten Moroccans between the ages of 18 and 51, were arrested on Thursday following an investigation that lasted several months, police said in a statement. "The operation remains open and more detentions have not been ruled out," it said. Police seized cocaine worth 5,000 euros and hashish worth 36,000 euros, as well as scales and tools to prepare the drugs, and machetes and fake guns during searches of five homes. Spain, with its extensive southern coastline, is Europe's main entry point for Moroccan hashish and cocaine from South America, mostly from its...

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Posted in: Barcelona

Isabel García, the wife of Santiago del Valle, the man accused of the killing of the five year old girl from Huelva

Isabel García, the wife of Santiago del Valle, the man accused of the killing of the five year old girl from Huelva, Mari Luz Cortés, suffered a nervous attack while declaring before Instruction Court 1 in Huelva about the case. The extent of her indisposition was such that the hearing had to be suspended.She arrived at Huelva Provincial Court at 4,45pm yesterday evening and was first subjected to a forensic investigation to determine her mental health. When she was then taken before the judge she suffered the attack and an ambulance had to be called, which finally took her shouting and crying to the hospital at the Sevilla – II jail. She has been held in the psychiatric wing of the prison since the start of April, where she is serving an outstanding 15 month prison sentence for failing to...

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Posted in: Huelva

British man has been arrested in Spain in connection with rape offences

A British man has been arrested in Spain in connection with rape offences committed in south-east London, police have said.The 49-year-old is accused of raping the same victim repeatedly over a number of years. Sources named the man as Ricky Devine. He was held in Alicante on the Costa del Sol earlier this month.He is being held under a European Arrest warrant and faces extradition to the UK. The offences are alleged to have taken place in Bexley from 2000. A spokesman for Scotland Yard said: "Spanish police arrested a 49-year-old British man on suspicion of rape on May ...

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Posted in: Alicante

stag party-goers Bus driver arrested during the early hours after a positive breath test

The 45 year old driver of a bus carrying a party of nineteen stag party-goers was arrested during the early hours of yesterday morning after a positive breath test at a routine police control, leaving his passengers to make their own way back to Sevilla city-centre on foot. The man was stopped at around 4.30am on the SE-30 near the Tablada/ exhibition centre exit. He was taken into custody after officers also discovered that his licence had already been confiscated, and jailed following a preliminary court hearing yesterd...

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Posted in: Sevilla

Spain has announced the arrest of five hackers

Spain has announced the arrest of five hackers said to be responsible for attacks on over 21,000 web pages and more over two years.Back in March, hackers shut down the site of one of Spain’s political parties following an election. The Spanish police began to investigate, and last week announced they’d arrested the culprits, the BBC has reported.They’ve been accused not only of the Spanish crime, but also with attacking government sites in Asia, Latin America and the US.Among the fives, who were arrested in Barcelona, Burgos, Malaga and Valencia, were two 16-year-ol...

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Posted in: Barcelona,Burgos,Malaga and Valencia

"Helldorado" - paradise that has mutated into a nightmare.

"for sale" signs are the most stark warning yet that the Spanish property bubble has finally burst. Here in Southern Spain, bitter expats talk about "Helldorado" - paradise that has mutated into a nightmare. Tumbling property prices, a glut of new properties still flooding onto the market and rising Spanish interest rates are taking their toll. Added to this, illegal building practices mean that 100,000 coastal homes are now under threat of demolition. And to make matters even worse, the pound has fallen almost 12 per cent against the euro over the last year, leaving many British residents even further out of pock...

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Posted in: Southern Spain

Nerja teacher has been arrested on charges of sexually abusing an 11 year old

32 year old Nerja teacher, named with the initials A.P. and who works at the Nueva Nerja Primary School, has been arrested at his home in Torrox, on charges of sexually abusing an 11 year old member of his family.The married father of two was arrested in Saturday evening charged with continued abuse of the 11 year old girl. He is well known in Nerja and also works as a Civil Protection volunte...

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Posted in: Torrox

Police are investigating the death of a 35-year-old woman who was found in a swimming pool

Police are investigating the death of a 35-year-old woman who was found in the swimming pool at the house where she lived in the Arroyo Gragea area of Alhaurin de la Torre. Police initially suspected her husband, from whom she was separated and whom she had reported on several occasions for threatening to kill her, abusing her and telling her to get out of the house, but he was later released. She had also presented complaints against him for such actions as slashing her tyres, taking away her keys and cutting off the water, but he was still allowed access to the plot but forbidden from entering the house.Her body was found when a teacher at...

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Posted in: Alhaurin de la Torre

men on two motorbikes stole 5,000 euros from a man who had just withdrawn the money from a bank in Los Boliches

Four men on two motorbikes stole 5,000 euros from a man who had just withdrawn the money from a bank in Los Boliches, Fuengirola, firing blanks to intimidate him and managing to take the envelope full of money, which they seem to have known he was carrying, from him. They then escaped on the motorbikes, one a white Yamaha scooter which had been stolen from Mijas some days earlier.National Police circulated a bulletin in an attempt to trace the robbers, but with no success. This type of crime is becoming more frequent in the province. One month ago, 20,000 euros were stolen from a woman in Velez Malaga after she was assaulted by robbers who where waiting for h...

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Posted in: Los Boliches

Eight suspects detained and a considerable amount of drugs seized was the outcome of a large-scale police operation carried out recently in Olhao

Eight suspects detained and a considerable amount of drugs seized was the outcome of a large-scale police operation carried out recently in Olhao and Faro. Thirty police investigators assisted by a team of the PSP Police Special Forces performed nine house searches and confiscated 6,000 individual doses of cocaine, one firearm, 40 mobile phones and 13,500 euros in cash. According to a police source, the suspects were part of an organised crime gang involved in drug trafficking. The same source said the police investigation, which started in February 2007, was able to fully dismantle the operation. A spokesman said: “This police operation’s objective was not only to dismantle this drug trafficking gang but also to target other criminal activities related to drugs consumption like petty thefts...

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Posted in: Bairro do Palacio

Sentenced a 46-year-old Portuguese woman, who was found to have almost 500g of cocaine

Sentenced a 46-year-old Portuguese woman, who was found to have almost 500g of cocaine in the home she shared with another woman in La Joya area, to three years in prison for a crime against public health and set a 1,000-euro fine for selling substances that endanger public health. The sentence was reduced due to the woman’s addiction to the substance which she sold out of a broken window to pay for her own habit and which had diminished her mental capacity. In June 2006, National Police found 422.32 grams of the drug in 150 packs of different size and weight, with a pureness of between 27 and 73 per cent, which would have had a value of 490 euros. Police also confiscated methadone tablets, three blades on which traces of the drugs were found, bicarbonate, hiposodic saline solution, a spoon,...

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Posted in: La Joya

Aloa sailing ship, which sails under a German flag, had been moored in the Almerimar Port in El Ejido and was being prepared to distribute hashish,

code-named ‘Operacion Testa’, and carried out by members of the Customs Vigilance Service (DAVA) and the Guardia Civil, led to the arrest of two people found to be carrying some 2,100 kilos of hashish on a boat 10 miles south of Almeria Port.The operation began last November, targeting pleasure boats in the area which were believed to be transporting drugs. The Aloa sailing ship, which sails under a German flag, had been moored in the Almerimar Port in El Ejido and was being prepared to distribute hashish, which had been picked up in Morocco, through local ports Officers who boarded the ship found 70 packs of hashish and arrested a 65-year-old Spanish man and his 27-year-old son who have been taken into custody and charged with crimes against Public Health.The father has a criminal record...

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Posted in: Almeria

Santiago del Valle disposed of the infant girl's body in a sewer around 300 metres from his apartment in Huelva

Santiago del Valle, a convicted paedophile arrested in March for the murder of five-year-old Mari Luz Cortés, has told a judge that he disposed of the infant girl's body in a sewer around 300 metres from his apartment in Huelva.Mari Luz's body was found in an estuary outside the city 54 days after her disappearance on 13 January.In his court testimony from 27 March, which was made public this week, Del Valle admitted to enticing Mari Luz into the entrance hall to his apartment block with a toy after seeing her alone on the street. He claims she fell as she climbed the stairs and hit her head."I didn't touch her," Del Valle, who was previously convicted for abusing his own daughter and another young girl, told the judge. He said he "became scared," stuffed Mari Luz into a shopping handcart...

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Posted in: Huelva

Drug arrests came after two boats ran out of fuel and had to wait in the estuary for a third to bring fresh supplies of gasoline

Eleven people have been arrested in connection with the smuggling of 5,100 kilos of hashish.‘Operación Carabela’ began last December and was an investigation into an international network of drugs smugglers bringing hashish into Spain via the Guadalquivir river and then distributing it throughout Europe.Sometimes the organisation used fishing boats, other time they used speed boats. The arrests came after two boats ran out of fuel and had to wait in the estuary for a third to bring fresh supplies of gasoline. The Guardia Civil began a chase which led to the arrest of seven of the gang members. Three others, including the head of the organisation...

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Posted in: Huelva,Punta Umbria

Spanish police have seized more than 700 priceless artifacts

Spanish police have seized more than 700 priceless artifacts plundered from archaeological sites in South America and smuggled to Europe, they said on Tuesday.The pieces, predating the Spanish conquest, included dozens of valuable golden objects, masks, vessels, pendants and maces, stolen from Peru, Ecuador and Colombia.An Interior Ministry statement said police had arrested a Spanish man and his Colombian wife who had been trafficking in stolen artifacts for years, selling them in auction houses in Europe, mainly in France.The couple had planned to stage an exhibition and auction this month in France, but were arrested after returning from Colombia.The...

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Posted in: Madrid Archaeological Museum

Julián Muñoz, are refusing to accept the prosecutor’s demand that all those charged with perversion of the course of justice

The idea of a forming a plea bargain pact with the prosecutor has, according to El País, split the ex-GIL party councillors in Marbella who face corruption and other real-estate related charges.Defence lawyers are trying to get the prosecutor’s offer of short jail terms replaced by mere financial penalities.The prosecutor wants a deal to speed up the some 70 cases which are linked to the town, most for the granting of building licences for illegal constructions. However some of the ex Councillor defendants, including Tomás Reñones and Alberto García Muñoz, the nephew of the ex Mayor, Julián Muñoz, are refusing to accept the prosecutor’s demand...

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Posted in: Marbella

Santiago del Valle lured Mari Luz Cortés with a teddy bear

El País newspaper today prints what it says is the statement made by Santiago del Valle in court in Huelva. He’s the man who is accused of killing the Huelva five year old Mari Luz Cortés on January 13th. The newspaper says that his version of events is denied by the police and other statements, but he claims that he threw down a small teddy bear through a window at the door to his home, and called her. The five year old picked it up and entered into the hall of his building. ‘This is what happens to me with small girls’, he said. ‘I can’t help it’. He then called her upstairs and says she was scared and fell down the stairs knocking her head...

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Posted in: Huelva

Convicted paedophile Santiago del Valle has committed other crimes.

Mari Luz Cortes grandfather Juan Cortes said: "The authorities should investigate him fully because that way they may be able to discover what happened to Madeleine. We are sure he is hiding other secrets from the police." Relatives of five-year-old Mari Luz Cortes claim convicted paedophile Santiago del Valle has committed other crimes. Mari Luz was found dead near her home in Huelva 54 days after she went missing last January. The city is 90 minutes from Praia da Luz, Portugal, where Maddie vanished a year ago. Her parents Kate, 40, and Gerry, 39, of Rothley, Leics, have already called on Portuguese police to find out where del Valle was last May. He admits dumping Mari Luz’s body and is in jail awaiting trial — but insists she died by accident. Mr Cortes added: "At least we have found our...

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Posted in: Santiago del Valle

Spanish police to gain rights of arrest in the U.K.

Detectives from Europe will be able to carry out investigations and even make arrests on British soil as part of specialist squads designed to combat international crime.Members of the European police force Europol – which includes Britain and France – can now form Joint Investigation Teams using officers from each national force.They will include officers from the Metropolitan Police and the Serious Organised Crime Agency and will target criminal gangs. Previously, European police could travel to this country to share intelligence – but could not make arrests. A spokesman for SOCA said: “This is a new step for Britain. It will help us to combat cross-border crime.”But critics are angry that the decision removes Britain’s veto over any future changes to Europol’s powers. Shadow Home Secretary...

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Posted in: Europol

Coín’s crime wave

Coín’s Local Police made 70 arrests during the month of April, double the monthly average of 30 to 30 and the largest number in the force’s history. Just under two thirds of the arrests were made in the town itself. The rest were made in Alhaurin el Grance, Guaro, Monda and Tolox, which come under Coín’s jurisdiction. Most of the arrests involved robbery, followed by drug trafficking. Meanwhile, a spokesman for the National Police in Malaga city said firearms were taking over from knives as the weapon most used to commit crimes. He said there had been nine shootouts and more than 20 robberies at gun point since the beginning of the ye...

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Posted in: Coín

Julian Muñoz and Marisol Yagüe would serve between six months and a year in prison for each crime they are found guilty of, without having to appear

Former GIL party councillors in Marbella who have been charged with corruption or some irregularity regarding town planning permissions in the town have been offered a deal by the Prosecutor’s Office. Under the deal, former mayors Julian Muñoz and Marisol Yagüe would serve between six months and a year in prison for each crime they are found guilty of, without having to appear in court, as well as a ten year ban on holding public office. This deal only applies to those who are charged with granting building licences in Marbella which were outside the Urban Plan, and other associated irregularities such as bribery, misuse of public funds and the illegal collection of monies, among others. If the former GIL councillors do not accept the deal they will face sentences of between six months to...

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Posted in: Marbella

Mari Luz Cortés family set out on a pilgrimage around Spain

family of Mari Luz Cortés set out on a pilgrimage around Spain last week to collect signatures in a campaign to tighten the laws against pederasts. Mari Luz disappeared from her home in Huelva on January 13th when she popped out to buy sweets from a nearby kiosk. Her body appeared 55 days later in a stream and one of the family’s neighbours, Santiago del Valle, a convicted child molester, was arrested. Del Valle had been sentenced to jail two years earlier but for reasons which are currently under investigation, he was never actually put in jail. At the time of the girl’s murder he was reporting once every two weeks to a court in Sevilla. He and his wife disappeared from their home in Huelva shortly after Mari Luz disappeared. Her family had always suspected Del Valle, who is now in jail,...

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Posted in: Mari Luz Cortés

Two of Spain's respected savings banks, 'La Caixa' in Barcelona and 'Caja Madrid,' were found liable,

A six month trial has led to the conviction of eight people, on charges of fraud and embezzlement in the 'Gescartera' brokerage house, during June 2001. Gescartera was rumbled and lost its licence, when it was discovered that over 100 million euros of some 2,000 clients' money was missing. The collapse caused massive political unrest and the resignations of the Junior Finance Minister and President of Stock market regulator 'CNMV.' Judges passed prison terms of between 3 and 11 years to those concerned, while penalties totalling 88 million euros were ordered to be paid out to investors who lost money, including various churches and charities. Two of Spain's respected savings banks, 'La Caixa' in Barcelona and 'Caja Madrid,' were also found liable, having handled the majority of the fraudulent...

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Posted in: Madrid

Two men have been arrested in Cadiz in connection with the rape of ten women

Two men have been arrested in Cadiz in connection with the rape of ten women, a crime which an innocent man has already served a ten year sentence for committing. The enquiry was re-opened as new evidence relating to the rapes, which took place between 1995 and 2000, came to light. The man who was originally tried and convicted for the crime was sentenced when one victim claimed to recognise his voice, despite the fact that his DNA did not match evidence gathered at the crime scenes, and the rapes still continued following his arrest! The new suspects are both 53-year old Spaniards from Cadiz, who carried out the attacks on random victims, whilst dressed in full military unifo...

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Posted in: Cadiz

Right now, Catral is infamous for its illegal houses

Over the past decade, developers built about 100,000 illegal homes in Spain, and consumer advocates say thousands of those are now threatened with demolition as regional governments try to deter clandestine construction. The crusade may discourage the foreign buyers who fueled Spain's housing boom, deepening a slump that began last year. Leo Levett-Smith and his wife, Jean, thought they did everything right when they bought their retirement home in Spain. They used a registered real estate agent, a Spanish notary and obtained their mortgage through one of then country's largest savings banks. Then in January they received a demolition order saying the house had been built without a permit. ``We really believed we had taken all the necessary precautions,'' says Levett-Smith, a 65-year-old retired...

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Posted in: Catral