Colombian and Spanish members of a drug trafficking gang have been arrested in Elche

23 members of a drug trafficking gang have been arrested in Elche. Those arrested are Colombian and Spanish and all residents of Elche and Santa Pola. The police found the drugs hidden in cartons of wine which had been brought to Spain from Colombia on regular drug runs.24 kilos of cocaine, 4.4 kilos of marihuana and a field planted with the drug, and 200 grams of heroin were found in the police operation which started observing the gang some six months ago.The drug runners were a family clan, based in the town, and who had connections to sell in Dolores, Villena and Torrvieja. The alleged head of the group, a woman with the initials M.A.D. remains at large according to some repor...

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Posted in: Dolores,Villena and Torrvieja.

Captain of a Spanish fishing trawler arrested off the Co Cork coast has lost a High Court bid to stop his trial on charges alleging obstruction

Captain of a Spanish fishing trawler arrested off the Co Cork coast has lost a High Court bid to stop his trial on charges alleging obstruction of fisheries protection officers by allegedly cutting nets to release the boat's catch into the sea after the vessel was boarded.The case centred on whether the State, in the context of the aims of the EU Common Fisheries Policy, is entitled to prosecute such charges on indictment and to choose a penalty of mandatory forfeiture of a boat's catch and gear.Mr Justice Iarfhlaith O'Neill yesterday ruled for trial on indictment and said the sanction chosen was appropriate.Deterrence of future offending was a requirement of the regulation, he noted. He was giving his judgment dismissing proceedings by Augustin Ferradas Martinez aimed at preventing his prosecution...

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Posted in: MV Playa de Lagos

Police operation was mounted to smash an international organised crime ring based on the Costa del Sol

police operation was mounted to smash an international organised crime ring based on the Costa del Sol.300 officers swooped on 21 addresses in Tile Hill, Canley, Stoke, Brandon Marsh and Balsall Common yesterday morning in what police said was an "unprecedented" operation.Twenty people aged between 19 and 64 were arrested and another two are being questioned on the Costa Del Sol in Spain.Tens of thousands of pounds was seized along with a large amount of drugs, believed to be destined for the streets of Coventry and Warwickshire.Police were continuing to search homes across the Coventry area as part of the largest ever crime crack-down the city has ever seen.It began in the early hours yesterday when 320 officers were briefed before embarking on the unprecedented operation.West Midlands Police...

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Posted in: villas on the Costa Del Sol

European Commission said Thursday that it is pursuing legal action against Spain over three breaches of European Union (EU) environmental law.

European Commission said Thursday that it is pursuing legal action against Spain over three breaches of European Union (EU) environmental law. Two of the breaches relate to obligations for the treatment of waste water, with more than 400 towns and cities listed as not having water treatment up to EU standard. The third case regards Spain's open-cast coal mining in a protected nature site. Spain will receive final warnings on the three breaches of EU legislation. In the first case, the commission considers that some 343 Spanish towns and cities are discharging urban waste water into already designated sensitive or potentially sensitive areas without appropriate treatment. This constitutes a breach of an EU directive that by the end of 1998 requires that cities of more than 10,000 inhabitants...

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Posted in: Spain has two months to respond satisfactorily to the issues

Thousands of Nissan workers took to the streets of Barcelona in protest at the company's plan to lay off 1,680 workers.

Thousands of Nissan workers took to the streets of Barcelona in protest at the company's plan to lay off 1,680 workers. The demonstration, which began at 7pm in the Plaza Urquinaona, passed off without incident as the protesters made their way to regional government headquarters building in the Plaza San Jaume, where they were met by a representative from the Catalan government.The trade unions are calling on regional and national government leaders to intervene directly with the management of the Nissan-Renault alliance to negotiate solutions for the companies' Spanish factories. They also warn that this week's demonstrations may only be "the start of a grave social conflict" if Nissan is allowed to follow through with its plan to cut 1,680 jobs - or 40% of the total workforce - at its Zona...

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Posted in: Nissan

Monzer Al Kassar Prince of Marbella international arms dealer.

June 5, 1990, Monzer Al Kassar and his wife opened an account, number 1964, at the Audi Bank in Switzerland. Al Kassar and his wife used their real names and both signed the documents, highly unusual for a bank account that would later be used in an illegal arms deal. The initial purpose of the account is unknown. The bank records from this account and others would later become evidence used by a Swiss prosecutor to freeze Al Kassar's proceeds from the illegal sale of Polish arms to Croatia and Bosnia. Subsequent events provided the necessary ingredients for an embargo-breaking arms deal: a war, an attempt by the international community to stop...

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Posted in: Marbella

Attempted robbery a supermarket near Antonio Machado Promenade in Malaga

Attempted robbery a supermarket near Antonio Machado Promenade in Malaga, went wrong. Wearing a motorbike helmet, he entered the supermarket, wielding a kitchen knife. He approached the cashier and demanded money but, when she refused, he grabbed the till and ran away with it.As he made his way to a 125cc motorbike, which he had parked at the entrance, the actions of a customer, who blocked his way with a shopping trolley and a supermarket employee who was chasing him, caused him to drop the till and the motorbike keys. Not prepared to leave his motorbike, he hid the number plate with a piece of cardboard and pushed the vehicle up the street.Police later found it parked nearby, together with a wallet containing his identity card. They arrested the owner and have also charged him with two...

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Posted in: Antonio Machado Promenade in Malaga

Eight years and six months for House Jacking Gang in Alicante

Two members of the violent gang this week began jail sentences of eight years and six months each after admitting armed robbery and kidnap in a plea bargain deal.A third was sentenced to a year and a half in prison by a court in Alicante after being convicted as an accomplice.Two men involved in the April 22 2004 kidnap are still on the run.Mr and Mrs Yarwood were playing cards as they relaxed after dinner at their home in Moraira on Spain's southeastern coast when the gang burst in.The couple were threatened with pistols and a knife and told they would be killed unless they paid 600,000 euros - the equivalent of £400,000 at the time of crime. The pair, from Frodsham, Cheshire, were terrorised overnight and the following morning, Mr Yarwood, 72, a retired electrician was driven to the local...

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Posted in: Alicante

"It was like a scene from a gangster movie."Darren Coupland, 41, has been arrested over claims that he killed German Oliver Johaht and shot the other

Civil engineer Darren Coupland, 41, has been arrested over claims that he killed German Oliver Johaht and shot the other man in a row over a drug debt.Johaht, 33, was found bleeding to death in the street outside the Briton's luxury home on the Costa Dorada. Italian Carmelo Mazara had been beaten with an iron bar and shot in the neck but managed to escape to a nearby health clinic, where he was found by police.Coupland was found bleeding heavily at the nearby property business he ran with his wife and sister-in-law in the seaside town near Barcelona.The married father-of-two from Southend-on-Sea, Essex, had been stabbed in the throat. A police source said: "It was like a scene from a gangster movie."Coupland was taken to hospital where the stab wound was treated and he was arrested. Police...

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Posted in: Costa Dorada

Spain, has been deemed unsafe by international watchdogs

Spain, has been deemed unsafe by international watchdogs. a car bomb, thought to be the work of terror group ETA, injured 17 people in a university car park in northern Pamplona, a town which attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors to its annual bull-run every year. According to the British Foreign Office, the threat to foreign travellers from terrorism in Spain is high. Since July, there have been at least 11 explosions in well-known tourist towns around the country including Torremolinos, Malaga and Benalmadena. Last week, the quiet medieval streets of Lucerne in Switzerland, one of the safest tourist destinations in the world, witnessed a savage assault on a British man who died of severe head injuries. Meanwhile, the once-peaceful island of Bali is back on high alert exactly six years...

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Posted in: threat to foreign travellers from terrorism in Spain is high

WANTED Adam Hart, 29, who is suspected of conspiracy to supply cocaine and who escaped arrest in August 2007 as police officers searched his workplace

Adam Hart, 29, who is suspected of conspiracy to supply cocaine and who escaped arrest in August 2007 as police officers searched his workpl...

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Posted in: 29,Adam Hart,who is suspected of conspiracy to supply cocaine and who escaped arrest in August 2007 as police officers searched his workplace

Costa Blanca hideaway for British criminals

Crimestoppers, the UK crimefighting charity, together with the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), issued a new list of ten most wanted British suspects, including their photographs, details of their crimes and their aliases.British and Spanish authorities are targeting the Costa Blanca in southeastern Spain in a bid to round up those notorious villains thought to have fled to the tourist haven which has become a favoured hideaway for British criminals.Law-abiding citizens who recognise those on the list are being urged to ring the dedicated hotline and provide anonymous tip-offs on their whereabouts. Any information deemed useful will be passed on to Spanish police, who will execute the arrest warrants and send the suspects back to Britain to face trail.Bill Hughes, Director General of...

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Posted in: Costa Blanca hideaway

National Police have arrested four people in connection with a local cocaine trafficking gang

The National Police have arrested four people in connection with a local cocaine trafficking gang. They also dismantled a laboratory and recovered half a kilo of the drug, some cash and two cars, one of which had allegedly been used to bring the drug to Elche from Madr...

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Posted in: Elche

Vall de Gallinera, Alicante growing 130 marihuana plants

27 year old man has been arrested for allegedly growing 130 marihuana plants in Vall de Gallinera, Alicante. He was discovered as he was pruning the plants. The Civil Guard said the weight of the uprooted plants was more than 25 kil...

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Posted in: Alicante

Paxi C captain was killed in a fight with one of the crew.

Crew of a Guardia Civil coastal patrol boat has boarded an Italian merchant vessel - the 'Paxi C', sailing from Alexandria (Egypt) to Gijón - anchored off Fisterra since its captain was killed in a fight with one of the crew. They were sent to take charge of the investigation after an SOS message sent at 6.20am by the ship's first officer, who was ordered to drop anchor and prepare to be boarded after explaining what had happen...

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Posted in: Guardia Civil coastal patrol boat

France's most wanted criminal was arrested in Salou

One of France's most wanted criminals was arrested in Salou last Saturday. Emile F (56) had been on the run since his conviction in 2004 for a kidnapping and murder committed in August 1995 in Jouy en Josas, near Paris, in a feud between rival drug trafficking gangs. In a joint operation involving French police, the man was arrested along with his son, who has since been released on provisional bail after questioning. Both were using false IDs, but were identified using forensic records supplied by the French investigation te...

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Posted in: Salou

Mark Lewis has been left in charge of the town hall in San Fulgencio after the mayor, deputy mayor and four senior councillors were arrested

A British expatriate who speaks only a smattering of Spanish has become the "accidental mayor" of a town on Spains Costa Blanca after a wave of corruption arrests. Mark Lewis, 58, has been left in charge of the town hall in San Fulgencio after the mayor, deputy mayor and four senior councillors were all taken into police custody following allegations of real estate corruption. Mr Lewis, who lives in Spain with his wife and daughter, was given the title by default on Wednesday on the grounds that he is one of only two councillors from the ruling coalition not to be arrested. "Mr Lewis has taken charge of the council on the grounds that he is the fourth deputy mayor. Everyone above him in the pecking order has been arrested," the source added. "Everything is in a state of chaos since these arrests...

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Posted in: San Fulgencio