Expats with a past

John `The Coach' Traynor (52)Traynor strenuously denies allegations that he set up crime reporter Veronica Guerin for her murder.Garda and criminal sources allege that Traynor travels regularly between southern Spain, Amsterdam and Brussels to organise large-scale cannabis deals. Traynor, a former fraudster and associate of `The General', Martin Cahill, is believed to have made and spent a fortune from his involvement in the hash trade between 1994 and October 1996. In a phone interview with this reporter he denied that he had any part in Guerin's death.Peter Mitchell (33)Mitchell, from Dublin's north inner city, was alleged during two trials to be a member of the biggest cannabis gang that operated in Ireland in the mid-1990s. Now based in Fuengirola, Spain, Mitchell is wanted by Gardai in...

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Posted in: Costas

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Expat Gangsters visiting or living on the Costas

John `The Coach' Traynor (52)Traynor strenuously denies allegations that he set up crime reporter Veronica Guerin for her murder.Garda and criminal sources allege that Traynor travels regularly between southern Spain, Amsterdam and Brussels to organise large-scale cannabis deals. Traynor, a former fraudster and associate of `The General', Martin Cahill, is believed to have made and spent a fortune from his involvement in the hash trade between 1994 and October 1996. In a phone interview with this reporter he denied that he had any part in Guerin's death.Peter Mitchell (33)Mitchell, from Dublin's north inner city, was alleged during two trials to be a member of the biggest cannabis gang that operated in Ireland in the mid-1990s. Now based in Fuengirola, Spain, Mitchell is wanted by Gardai in...

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Posted in: Expat Gangsters

Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) has vowed to end its reputation as a villains' bolt hole.

Turkish Cypriot detectives are accustomed to receiving tip-offs from their British counterparts about notorious criminal underworld figures who are heading for the island. Ever since Turkey invaded the north more than 30 years ago, the sun-baked coastline has been a haven for villains happy to exploit the impotence of extradition warrants in an occupied territory. But as leaders from both the Turkish north and Greek south prepare for next month's talks aimed at uniting the island, the self- proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) has vowed to end its reputation as a villains' bolt hole. Ferdi Soyer, the prime minister, told The Times that Britons seeking sanctuary from justice would be deported. The attempt to improve northern Cyprus's international reputation has been welcomed...

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Posted in: Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus

42-year-old man was arrested in Málaga yesterday three hours after phoning to warn that a bomb had been placed on a Swiss International Airbus 321

42-year-old man was arrested in Málaga yesterday three hours after phoning to warn that a bomb had been placed on a Swiss International Airbus 321 travelling from from Zurich to Málaga. None of the 141 passengers were injured as they were made to evacuate the plane at Geneva airport using the emergency escape chutes. As a result of the incident, the runway was closed for around ninety minutes, forcing eight other flights to be either cancelled or diverted to Lyon. The man, who was seized at his home on the Avenida Salvador Allende, has been charged with public disor...

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Posted in: Málaga

Murder inquiry after a man was shot dead in Finglas last night.The shooting follows a gun attack in Marbella

Murder inquiry after a man was shot dead in Finglas last night.The shooting follows a gun attack in Marbella in Spain last Thursday night in which Peter Mitchell, a former associate of convicted drug dealer John Gilligan, was shot and injured. Two bystanders were also hurt in the attack.Two masked raiders armed with handguns burst into a busy pub and opened fire as mourners attended a function following a funeral.Gardai said they singled out their victims in the upstairs of the Jolly Toper bar before shooting them a number of times.The dead man was named locally as Paul Martin.Detectives believe the attackers fled the scene in a dark coloured car driven by a third man who had been waiting on Church Street before making off towards the Finglas Road.Superintendent John Harnett, Finglas Garda...

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Posted in: Finglas

Gangland Warfare hits the Costas Russian mafia and British gangsters, have fought for control of the lucrative drugs trade in southern Spain

Gangland war against Dublin criminal John Gilligan has shifted to Spain’s Costa del Sol. Gardai believe that the attempted murder of a former member of Gilligan’s drugs gang in Andalusia was linked to threats against the crime boss. Peter Mitchell was shot outside a bar on a complex in Puerto Banus, near Marbella.Two other people wounded in the shooting were innocent bystanders from Ireland, says the Republic’s Department of Foreign Affairs. One of the two other victims was a 73-year-old Irishman.Spanish police were waiting yesterday to interview 39-year-old Mitchell, who is expected to make a full recovery from his injuries. Mitchell, who fled to Spain in 1996, had been one of a number of gangsters targeted in a major state operation against the Gilligan gang.Security sources in the Republic...

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Posted in: Marbella

Nikki Beach shooting possible links to Peter Mitchell hit.

Police in Spain are investigating if an overnight shooting in Marbella is linked to a gun attack on an Irishman in the Costa del Sol this week.A 42-year-old man and one other person were shot in the early hours of this morning, outside a disco bar.On Thursday night 39-year-old Peter Mitchell, a former associate of convicted drugs dealer John Gilligan, was shot in a bar in Puerto Banus by a masked gunman.He remains under guard in hospital in Spain after narrowly surviving the assassination attempt, while two other men caught up in the shooting received minor injuri...

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Posted in: Marbella

Shots were fired as fighting broke out at the Nikki Beach disco

Shots were fired as fighting broke out at the Nikki Beach disco, near Marbella, where guests included the British actress Jennifer Metcalfe from the soap opera HollyoaksA 42-year-old man received hospital treatment after being shot in both legs, while the extent of the injuries to the second victim remained unclear. A third was believed to have needed treatment for a cut hand.One witness said: 'It was absolute pandemonium. People ran for their lives. Chairs and bottles were flying all over the place. Some people ran for cover as it all kicked off, and others just dropped to the ground and covered their heads as best they could to protect themselves....

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Posted in: Puerto Banus

'Fat' Freddie Thompson, who has been lying low in Spain for the last number of weeks, has returned to his inner city stronghold

'Fat' Freddie Thompson, who has been lying low in Spain for the last number of weeks, has returned to his inner city stronghold, no doubt to organise the next phase of a bloody feud that has already claimed 13 lives.It seems unbelieveable that this drug mastermind, who has so much blood on his hands, has now the temerity to attempt to sue gardai for an alleged security breach. With almost breathtaking affrontery, this criminal would use the law he so despises to protect his life and blame it when it's under threat. What is not being denied is that a security dossier with the names and addresses, car registrations and other details has been stolen by an opportunistic thief from a garda car. Thompson has been made aware that the file could be in the hands of his deadly enemies in the long-running...

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Posted in: Dublin

Peter "Fatso" Mitchell and two other men received bullet wounds as they sat drinking beer on the pub terrace near the Costa del Sol

Peter "Fatso" Mitchell and two other men received bullet wounds as they sat drinking beer on the pub terrace near the Costa del Sol resort of Puerto Banus. Four shots were fired by a masked gunman, two of which hit 39-year-old Mitchell in the shoulder and arm. He was last night recovering in hospital. Spanish authorities said his injuries were not life threatening. The shooting happened around 11.40pm on Thursday night outside the El Jardin bar in the Aloha Gardens complex, a popular tourist area in the upmarket residential suburb of Nueva Andalucia. The two other men shot -- aged 45 and 73 -- received flesh wounds to the arm and leg respectively....

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Posted in: Puerto Banus

Convicted drugs smuggler Anthony Cyril Spencer, from Nuneaton, Warwickshire has helped his son Jason Wilson to write Him & Hers Smuggling Vacation.

COMIC book with top tips on drug smuggling from a Midland supercriminal is being circulated at HMP Birmingham.Convicted drugs smuggler Anthony Cyril Spencer, from Nuneaton, Warwickshire has helped his son Jason Wilson to write Him & Hers Smuggling Vacation.Spencer was sentenced to six years in jail for importing cannabis in 2003 and has spent more than 20 years in prison.The book is based on a married Coventry couple who try to smuggle a large cannabis stash from Spain into the UK.It features crime tips, including the best way to transport cannabis from the sea to dry land and safest way to communicate plans.It also describes in detail how police undertake surveillance operations.Jason said the book has proven a big hit at Winson Green where it is being widely read by inmates.And said...

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Posted in: West Midlands Police and the Prison Service

crackdown on Costa Blanca crime, the police have arrested 28 alleged members of criminal groups from former Soviet countries

crackdown on Costa Blanca crime, the police have arrested 28 alleged members of criminal groups from former Soviet countries on suspicion of money laundering in what Spanish authorities have called the largest-ever crackdown on international organized crime in Europe.The arrests took place in Benissa, Alicante, Aigues, Orihuela, Altea and Benidorm as well as Malaga and Barcelona. More than 400 Spanish police agents took part in operation Avispa, or "Wasp," a weekend-long sting that culminated in the detention of 28 people whom they allege are members of the "Russian mafia," Police conducted raids in 11 cities along Spain's Mediterranean coast,...

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Posted in: Aigues,Alicante,Altea and Benidorm as well as Malaga and Barcelona.,Benissa,Orihuela

Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has picked a good time to push through laws that grant him freedom from prosecution

LONDON - Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has picked a good time to push through laws that grant him freedom from prosecution. With Italy hurtling toward a recession, consumers might find it hard to get worked up about corruption scandals that already seem like ancient history. "As long as Italy is struggling economically, people are more bothered about someone who seems to have the answers than the rule of law," said Jonathan Hopkin, of the London School of Economics. Although Italy has not exactly prospered under Berlusconi's premiership in the past, the suspiciously taut-skinned politician is adept at knowing what Italians want to hear. So far, that seems to involve declaring that the waste crisis in Naples is over--something his predecessor Romano Prodi was unable to do--and that...

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Posted in: Italy

Sunday saw the celebration of the Día Sin Bañador, day without the bathing costume, organised by the Spanish Nudist Federation.

Sunday saw the celebration of the Día Sin Bañador, day without the bathing costume, organised by the Spanish Nudist Federation.The federation is made up of 14 nudist associations from across the country but the day was particularly successful in Asturias and Cataluña where many took off their clothes in demand that nudist and non-nudist beaches no longer be separa...

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Posted in: the Día Sin Bañador

Costa del Sol has turned into the Costa del Gloom.

Adding to Spain’s economic problems, the Costa del Sol has turned into the Costa del Gloom. The sun still shines, but the economic storm clouds have been gathering for some time and are now raining on the property developers’ parade. Holiday and retirement homes that once looked like sure shot investments are now dropping in value. Apartments, often bought by speculators, have fallen in value by a third in the last year. Their owners – many from elsewhere in Europe – want to sell, but with mortgages difficult to get, there are few buyers.More and more building projects are being put on hold, although the infrastructure is in place the homes will have to wait for better times. After years of strong demand, fuelled by low interest rates, the Spanish property bubble finally burst. One of the...

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Posted in: Costa del Sol

prices are falling, buyers are disappearing and developers, starved of loans by Spanish banks nervous about international financial instability

prices are falling, buyers are disappearing and developers, starved of loans by Spanish banks nervous about international financial instability, are going bust. the Costas, developments lie half-finished, without water and electricity, and without any prospect of being sold.For Spain's notoriously corrupt and capricious planning regime, which gave birth to the developments now disfiguring virtually all the country's Mediterranean coastline, the chickens are coming home to roost. Houses built on the nod of corrupt mayors are being refused retrospective planning permission by regional administrations under pressure from the green lobby. Many properties, new and not-so-new, are blighted by illegality and are the effectively worthless; others have simply been demolished.Scan the websites used...

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Posted in: British expatriates

former wife of BBVA executive, Andrés Toro Barea, who was murdered in Bollullos de la Mitación (Sevilla) last June, may have used a relative's gun

former wife of BBVA executive, Andrés Toro Barea, who was murdered in Bollullos de la Mitación (Sevilla) last June, may have used a relative's gun to commit the crime. NRCS, who had separated from her former husband several months before his murder, was arrested last Tuesday and remanded into preventive custody following a preliminary court hearing two days later. Mr Toro's body was found on June 16th by colleagues concerned that he had not turned up for work. Since the break-up of his marriage, the 55-year-old banker - who was the director of the BBVA's debt-recovery department for western Andalucía - had been living on a part-time basis in...

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Posted in: Bollullos de la Mitación (Sevilla)

Figures from the Spanish tourist board show the number of Brits holidaying in Spain in the second quarter to June fell by 5 per cent

Figures from the Spanish tourist board show the number of Brits holidaying in Spain in the second quarter to June fell by 5 per cent compared to last year. Overall, the number of visitors to Spain was down 0.7 per cent. Of course, the British love affair with Iberia has not ended yet - Spain is still our favourite holiday destination, attracting about 12 million visitors each year. But the effect of the credit crunch, combined with the strength of the euro and the choice of cheaper destinations, has led many British tourists to say 'adiós España'. Others believe the British may also be tiring of the Spanish formula of sun, sand, sea and sangría. Frances Tuke, of the Association of British Travel Agents, says the bubble may have burst for Spain, which has seen a steep rise in visitors since...

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Posted in: Marbella

Spain police have made their biggest heroin seizure when drugs with a street value of more than 54 million euros ($89.6 million) were found at Sitges

Spain police have made their biggest heroin seizure when drugs with a street value of more than 54 million euros ($89.6 million) were found in the Mediterranean port of Sitges.The 316.5kg of heroin were taken from a US-flagged ship and loaded on a van with a Dutch licence plate, police said in a statement. Five men, four of Turkish origin and a Romanian were detained.The drugs were in 633 packages.It is one of the biggest heroin busts in Europe and it is the first time that smugglers have been caught by Spanish police trying to bring the drug into the country by ship, the police statement said."We have managed to discover and dismantle a method of introducing heroin, by sea, which was unknown to date, even at the European level, which is especially dangerous," the statement said.Police said...

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Posted in: Sitges

Marbella Police in action

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Posted in: Marbella

Police have arrested nine people from the Costa Blanca on suspicion of peddling liquid ecstasy via the internet

Police have arrested nine people from the Costa Blanca on suspicion of peddling liquid ecstasy via the internet. They say the substance is highly dangerous and the bottle carries a warning that it is ‘unsuitable for human consumption’. A total of 12 people from the provinces of Alicante, Malaga and Madrid were detained last week and found to be in possession of 14 litres of Gamma Butirolactona (GBL).This is primarily an industrial solvent used for metal cleaning and removing paint, and also used in farming and the pharmaceutical industry, police explain. GBL is also a main ingredient in the perilous designer drug known as liquid ecstasy.A high volume of sales by individuals not involved in industries where it is used aroused officers’ suspicions a year ago.Since that time, some 15 people have...

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Posted in: Costa Blanca

Come visit Spain, the European point of entry for cocaine

A study of randomly selected Spanish euro notes carried out by chemists at the University of Valencia (UV) has shown that they contained traces of cocaine at an average concentration of 155 micrograms, which is the highest rate in Europe, according to an article published in the latest issue of Trends in Analytical Chemistry. The researchers also carried out a comparative study of the methods currently used in detecting the presence of cocaine on bank notes worldwide.It may seem like an odd marketing campaign but "Come visit Spain, the European point of entry for cocaine" remains apt.Spanish Money Contains Higher Traces Of Cocaine Than Any Other European CurrencyThe most recent report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime warns that Spain is still the major point of entry of cocaine...

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Posted in: Article: S. Armenta,M. de la Guardia. “Analytical methods to determine cocaine contamination of banknotes