Voodoo curses human trafficking gang charged on Saturday at a court in the southwestern city of Huelva

Spanish police say they have arrested the ringleaders of a human trafficking ring that allegedly brought Nigerian women to Spain and forced them into prostitution by threatening them with voodoo curses.Many of the 23 suspects arrested in nationwide raids were being charged on Saturday at a court in the southwestern city of Huelva.Police say the arrests were triggered by a woman who in February told police of the gang's intimidation tactics.The victims, aged 25 to 35, were forced to pay large sums of money to the gang members, who told the women they would go mad or have their souls destroyed if they disobeyed orders given during voodoo rituals held in Nigeria involving pieces of their fingernails or ha...

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Posted in: voodoo

Vladimirs Mitrevics, alias Podsolnukh (sunflower), a resident of Latvia, and Russian citizen Maxim Tarnopolsky detained

A multiple offender from Latvia and a Russian gangster, formerly a resident of Latvia, were arrested in Ecuador last week along with another citizen of Russia and three Ecuador citizens on the charges of large-scale drug smuggling, informs LETA.The six were detained by Ecuador Police at Guayaquil Port after a ship sailing under the Spanish flag, that was taking 21 tons of molasses to Barcelona, was arrested. Experts later determined that molasses contained 17 tons of cocaine that had been mixed with the molasses.Guayaquil police inform that it is one of the largest drug consignment to be seized in Guayaquil. The Latvian police have not yet commented.One of the detainees is Vladimirs Mitrevics, alias Podsolnukh (sunflower), a resident of Latvia, and Russian citizen Maxim Tarnopolsky who was...

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Posted in: a resident of Latvia,alias Podsolnukh (sunflower),and Russian citizen Maxim Tarnopolsky,Vladimirs Mitrevics

La Costa Nostra, or Our Coast.

Neapolitan gangsters, including the alleged fugitive boss captured Saturday night in the city of Marbella, have a name for Spain: La Costa Nostra, or Our Coast.The term plays off Cosa Nostra, or Our Thing, as the mafia is called, and underscores what authorities say: that Spain has become a top foreign base for the Naples underworld, the Camorra, in the last decade. Spanish police have arrested half a dozen suspected Neapolitan crime figures this year alone."They use that name Costa Nostra because it's like a second homeland for them," said Alessandro Pennasilico, an Italian prosecutor in Naples, in an interview. "They like Spain -- the climate,...

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Posted in: La Costa Nostra,or Our Coast.

Joseph Jones,and Norman Jones fled to Spain after the killing and were arrested in Marbella on May 1, 2008.

Joseph Jones, 24, from Crescent Road, New Barnet, and Norman Jones, 50, from Dukes Head Yard, Highgate, abducted landscaper and scrap metal dealer John Finney last year because they believed he had stolen their drugs. They drove the 42-year-old father-of-four 30 miles to a business unit in Hertfordshire and tortured him before killing him and mutilating his body. Two weeks later a member of the public discovered Mr Finney's naked remains behind a garage block in Ickleford. His hands and head have never been found. The father and son were sentenced today at St Albans Crown Court, in Bricket Road, after a jury on Monday found them guilty of murder. Joseph Jones's friend Mark Curran, 28, of Dollis Valley Way, Barnet, and Gary Lattimore, 40, formerly of Littleheath Road, Bexleyheath, were both...

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Posted in: Grandson and former son-in-law of gangster Charlie Kray

Raffaele Amato, an alleged boss of the Camorra gang of Naples,nickname is "the Spaniard." He partied in Marbella

Raffaele Amato, involved in a murderous turf war within the Camorra crime syndicate, was picked up Saturday in Marbella in a joint Italy-Spain operation, Naples prosecutor Giovandomenico Lepore said in a statement.Amato is accused of several homicides in connection with a feud dating back to 1991 between two Camorra clans that left more than a dozen people dead, he said.He was a top killer for boss Paolo Di Lauro, who was trying to keep control of the clan from rival Antonio Ruocco, Lepore said.In 2006, Di Lauro was convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison on charges of Mafia association, extortion and drug trafficking. On Sunday, prosecutors...

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Posted in: Marbella

Estepona breakwater 50 year old British tourist who was assaulted by a group of youths on a beach

50 year old British tourist who was assaulted by a group of youths on a beach .He was hit over the head with a bottle and stabbed twice in the back in the area near the Estepona breakwater, where numerous young people go to drink alcohol at weekends.It appears that the victim was having a drink with a woman, also British, when, just before four o’clock in the morning, he was attacked by a group of five youths of North African origin who had been sitting on the sand just a few metres away from the couple.After the youths had fled the scene the victim’s companion helped him onto the Avenida de España where they were picked up by a Local Police patrol. The tourist was taken to the nearest health centre and then transferred to the Costa del Sol Hospital, where he was admitted for treatment for...

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Posted in: Estepona breakwater