Saturday, 31 January 2009

Drug smuggling gang which trafficked in hashish have been arrested by National Police and Guardia Civil in Valencia and Murcia.



Drug smuggling gang which trafficked in hashish have been arrested by National Police and Guardia Civil in Valencia and Murcia. The gang brought the drug over from Morocco using yachts and recreational boats. 25 people have been arrested Police say they started their operation in March last year and over its four phases have arrested 25 people and recovered nearly 7,000 kilos of the drug, as well as two firearms, three boats and six vehicles. The drug was usually brought into sports marinas in Spain although sometimes it was transferred at sea onto fishing boats.

Italian Mafia in Spain




Italian Mafia in Spain. Twelve capos have been arrested in the past three months, forcing police to admit that the Camorra and N’drangheta from Calabria and the Sicilian Mafia are now a very real presence on the Iberian peninsula.Many come to Spain attracted by the opportunity to deal cocaine or to launder millions of euros through property. Others hope to escape the unwelcome attention of Italian investigators and Carabinieri by blending into the established Italian communities in Spain.A growing awareness among Spanish judicial authorities about the organised criminals has forced police to cooperate with their Italian counterparts.Among those arrested in Spain are Francesco Simeoli, Patrizio Bosti, Raffaele Laurenti, Mario Santafede, Marco Assegnati, and one of the Camorra “soldiers”, Paolo Pesce.General Gaetano Maruccia, the head of the Neapolitan Carabinieri, said: “There are many camorristas in Spain. Some deal in drugs, others are fugitives. They know the terrain, they invest in construction and have highly efficient companies which allow them to launder money from extortion and drugs.” Barcelona, with its large Italian population, has proved popular with Mafia bosses who want to disappear. Salvatore Zazo, 52, was arrested near La Sagrada Familia, Antoni GaudÍ’s unfinished Modernist church, earlier this month.Zazo was the boss of the Mazzarella clan within the Camorra and was wanted for trafficking cocaine between Colombia and Naples. Within the Camorra there are up to 80 clans; Zazo negotiated drug deals between three of them, authorities said.A source at the Catalan regional police told The Times: “These capos are coming to Barcelona because there is a large Italian population and they can disappear easily or they can operate more easily. It is also quite close to Italy – and the weather is quite nice, which is important.” Roberto Saviano, the Italian journalist behind the bestselling book and film Gomorrah, about the Neapolitan Mafia, said that Spain has long been regarded by the Camorra as a crucial part of its criminal empire.

Thursday, 29 January 2009

Marbella businessman Fernando Moreno died during the bungled kidnapping and ransom attempt.


Marbella businessman Fernando Moreno died during the bungled kidnapping and ransom attempt. It’s taken just six days for the National Police to establish what happened, with the arrest of one of the accused on Monday and a second on Tuesday, resulting in the case being solved yesterday, according to Diario Sur newspaper. The Interior Minister, Alfredo Pérez Rubalbaba, has congratulated the force on their rapid solution of the case.One of the accused is an ex employee of Fernando Moreno, and was aware of his worth and daily routine. He made an agreement with a Colombian friend to carry out an express kidnapping to obtain money, and they joined forces with two more Colombians to carry out their plan, initially asking for two million €, an amount which fell to 600,000 €. The precise circumstances of the victim’s death remain unclear, although the autopsy revealed the 76 year old died from suffocation, it’s still unclear whether his death was intentional or accidental.

more than a million flats for sale currently in Spain, forecast is they will take three years to sell at a 30% discount

Price of housing in Spain has to fall a further 30% for the market to adjust as needed, according to a study by the Confederation of Spanish Savings Banks, FUNCAS. The report defends the lack of credit coming from the banks, describing the closing of the tap as ‘absolutely rational’.The study showed that there are more than a million flats for sale currently across the country, and forecast they will take three years to sell.The study was presented by José García Montalvo, an economics professor at the Pompeu Fabra university in Barcelona, who said that prices had to fall a total of between 40% and 50% since the real estate bubble burst at the end of 2007 and start of 2008. Property prices so far had only fallen between 8% and 10% he said.He also claimed that there were many ‘sub-prime’ clients in Spain, and said he had seen credits awarded to people who had no credit record obtaining 100% mortgages with monthly payments of more than 40% of their income.

Wednesday, 28 January 2009

Spanish police investigated more property corruption scandals in 2008 than in previous years

Spanish police investigated more property corruption scandals in 2008 than in previous years, it has emerged.They examined 164 cases, up 40% from 117 cases, figures from the Ministry of the Interior show. The number of arrests also increased from 134 in 2007 to 207 last year

Search and arrest operations were undertaken by the Spanish national police together with the economic crime and money laundering group,

SFO spokesman said: "Search and arrest operations were undertaken by the Spanish national police together with the economic crime and money laundering group, the superior chief police of Catalunia with the support of the fraud unit Udes Madrid and the local police of Elche (Alicante) alongside SFO investigators of the SFO and City of London Police last week at four residences and two business premises in Madrid, Barcelona and Alicante.
"Six people were arrested and interviewed in relation to the SFO investigation into Langbar International.
"As part of the ongoing investigation into certain individuals previously associated with Crown Corporation Ltd, now Langbar International under new management, the SFO obtained collaboration from the Cuerpo Nacional de Policia and a mutual legal assistance procedure to undertake searches, arrests and interviews. The operations were co-ordinated by Crime Court 24 of Barcelona."
When the SFO began its investigation in 2005, Langbar had already requested the suspension of its shares. Later that year, the company announced a new board.
No-one from Langbar was available to comment but a statement on the company's website reads: "The present board of Langbar International Limited is determined to discover exactly what has transpired concerning company funds and to pursue their recovery. Our aim is to restore value for shareholders to the maximum that can be achieved."

Forged Euros tracked down to Italy

Italian police have dismantled a vast network of euro counterfeiters, arresting 94 people across the country, an officer told AFP on Wednesday. We arrested 94 people in Italy, in 16 of the country's 20 regions,said police spokesman Colonel Carlo Pieroni, adding that most were inthe impoverished southern regions of Campania and Calabria.Police seized 1.23 million euros (1.6 million dollars) ofcounterfeit notes as well as forged documents and revenue stamps used for paying administrative fees, Pieroni said.The counterfeiters produced good quality euro notes indenominations of 20, 50 and 100 as well as one and two euro coins, he added.Pieroni said they had also been operating in other European countries including Germany, Spain, Lithuania and France, and that somefake euros had turned up in Latin America.Two people were arrested in Spain last year as part of the same investigation, he added.What began as a probe into drug trafficking led police to the counterfeit network, which Pieroni described as a veritable holding company made up of 11 criminal units.
Some 700 police officers took part in the operation, which involved
150 searches. They uncovered four laboratories where the fake bills and coins were made.Some of counterfeit money made its way into the illegal drug trade,
Pieroni said.The crackdown came the day after Italian police announced the
dismantling of a network operating near Naples that made fake Algerian dinars worth about 3.5 million euros.

Spanish national police have arrested six men in connection with a massive $600million shares fraud

Spanish national police have arrested six men in connection with a massive $600million shares fraud on the London Stock Exchange. Officers from the National Police Economic Crimes and Money Laundering Unit pounced in raids across the country as part of an investigation started by Britain’s Serious Fraud Office four years ago.
Four men were arrested in Barcelona and one each in Madrid and Elche, just inland from the Costa Blanca near Alicante, in south-east Spain. Five of those held are Spanish and the other comes from Argentina. Spanish National Radio reported that one of those arrested was an agent for MOSSAD – the Israeli intelligence service. Spanish police said the Serious Crime Office alleged the massive swindle began in 2003 and was rumbled two years later in 2005. It involved the fraudulent sale of shares in a fictitious company. When it started trading on the stock exchange, the company was said to have assets totalling £370million. Later various financial operations were announced in the firm’s name which led to the value of the shares in the false company going up. Adverts were also placed in specialised publications aimed at creating interest in the shares, said a police statement issued in Madrid.
As well as the arrests Spanish detectives also seized a large quantity of documents and several computers. The six were today being held at a top security prison near Madrid where the case is being handled by the National Criminal Court which deals with all extraditions. If those held agree to be sent to Britain they will be escorted to the UK within a week or two. But if they fight extradition they could spend many months behind bars before a full hearing in front of a panel of three judges at the National Court.

Antonio Caiazzo, 50, and Francesco Simeoli, 40, arrested in Spain


Antonio Caiazzo, 50, and Francesco Simeoli, 40, are believed to be heads of a clan in the Naples-area mafia, the Camorra, Naples police said in a statement.Caiazzo has been on the run since March 2007 after being sentenced to 12 years in prison by a Naples court.Simeoli, believed to be his deputy, has been a fugitive since June 2007, when an arrest warrant was issued for him for alleged links to the Camorra.
The arrest warrant also targeted Caiazzo and about 30 others believed to be affiliated with the Vomero clan.Spanish police said in a statement that the clan is known for “a brutal internal Camorra war that culminated in 1997 with the Aranella massacre, in which a woman died in the crossfire between two clans.”
Caiazzo’s clan escaped unscathed, becoming the “uncontested leader,” the statement said.Their capture comes after a series of arrests of suspected Camorra members in recent months in Spain, where the mafia has been accused of working with Colombian drug traffickers.“The Camorra and Colombian cartels work together in Spain” where the Naples mafia manages part of the cocaine trafficking, an Italian police official told the El Pais daily earlier this month — three days after the arrest in Barcelona of another Camorra leader, Salvatore Zazo.

Tuesday, 27 January 2009

Spanish National Police from the organised crime group have seized eight luxury houses, a Lamborghini sports car and a yacht from Ian Donaldson.

Spanish National Police from the organised crime group have seized eight luxury houses, a Lamborghini sports car and a yacht from Ian Donaldson.
Amateur racing driver Ian Donaldson's property portfolio on Tenerife includes a £1million clifftop villa. The 30-year-old - once accused of abducting an underworld rival at gunpoint - is being probed along with Ronald O'Dea, 42, and James McDonald, 39. O'Dea and McDonald, of Glasgow, have been arrested as part of Operation Sendero by the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency and Spain's police. The pair are accused of running a huge drug-smuggling operation and last week had £12million of money and assets seized in Tenerife and on the Spanish mainland. Donaldson, who has a fortified home in Renton, Dunbartonshire, was targeted in the same probe but is not in custody. As well as having his Tenerife properties frozen, he has been hit in Scotland under similar proceeds of crime laws. SCDEA officers confiscated £47,052 of cash from Donaldson and three other men at Glasgow Airport last September. They also took 9320 Moroccan dirhams (£793) and 660 euros (£622). The Crown Office have raised a civil action at Paisley Sheriff Court to keep the cash. Spanish court documents reveal Madrid judge Eloy Velasco Nunez suspects O'Dea has a secret share in some of the homes seized from Donaldson. Assets seized in Spain and Tenerife include bank accounts, a Lamborghini Gallardo and a yacht. Donaldson's four-bedroom clifftop villa is in the exclusive Lajas de Chapin area. All his Tenerife properties were bought in the last two years.

organised crime unit of the Spanish police is investigating the murder of Richard KeoghIt

It has emerged that the murder may have been ordered by a Northside criminal gang.
Organised crime unit of the Spanish police is investigating the murder of Richard Keogh (30), . Security sources in Spain say the killing is believed to be drugs related.Keogh, a father of four children aged between two and nine years, was wounded several times after at least 10 shots were fired in a drive-by shooting in Benalmadena Costa near Marbella.He was walking along a pavement with this wife at about 11.35pm on Saturday when a car pulled up and at least one occupant opened fire. Keogh collapsed on the pavement outside the Torrequebrada Hotel.The dead man is originally from Carnlough Road, Cabra, but in recent years had settled with his family in the Belfry estate, Duleek, Co Meath.On November 2nd, 2007, Keogh was putting his bin out for collection when a gunman fired at least five shots at him as his wife and two-year-old son looked on. He was wounded in the shoulder and arm but managed to run back into the safety of his home.His attacker tried to run into the house but Keogh’s partner slammed the door shut as a number of bullets hit the house.
Shortly after the murder attempt, Keogh put his five bedroom detached property up for sale and moved with his partner and children to southern Spain. Keogh has been a target of the Garda National Drug Unit for a number of years as part of Operation Rugby and Operation Banish. He was associated with a man from Cabra who was a member of an international gang caught with cocaine valued at €400 million off the coast of Spain a number of years ago.Keogh’s assets are currently being investigated by the Criminal Assets Bureau. Garda sources said they regarded Keogh a “significant player” in the drugs trade here.The deceased was one of a growing number of gangland figures involved in the motor trade in Dublin. He was a partner in a garage in the north inner city. Garda sources said that while he had addresses in Balbriggan and Duleek before moving to Spain, he remained closely associated with drug dealers from Cabra and from Dublin’s north inner city. He and was also associated with the Finglas-based gang once led by Martin “Marlo” Hyland.Gardaí suspect that when Keogh moved to Spain he began sourcing cocaine and other drugs from international gangs there for export to his contacts in Ireland. They believe his murder is most likely linked to a drugs dispute with an international cartel rather than with any Irish criminals based in Benalmadena Costa. Southern Spain is popular with Irish gangs because it is the European distribution hub for cocaine smuggled from Colombia via west Africa.Keogh’s murder is the latest in a series of killings in which Irish drug dealers have been shot after relocating to continental Europe.Peter Mitchell (39), of Summerhill in Dublin, was wounded in a shooting in Marbella last August. He was a one-time associate of John Gilligan. Drug dealer Paddy Doyle, of Portland Place, in Dublin, was shot dead near Marbella last February.The former leaders of the notorious Dublin Westies gang, Shane Coates and Stephen Sugg, were shot dead in Alicante, southern Spain, in early 2004.John McKeon, from Finglas in Dublin, has been missing presumed dead in Spain for over three years. Cork drug dealer Michael “Danser” Ahern was found dead in the freezer of an apartment in Portugal in 2005.

Richard Keogh was gunned down by a hitman who lured him on to the street with a phone call.


Richard Keogh was gunned down by a hitman who lured him on to the street with a phone call.As the 30-year-old man left his bar rendezvous with a South American pal, a car stopped and a hitman emerged. He fired at Keogh, hitting him once in front of his girlfriend, before chasing after his target. He shot the Dubliner a further six times -- including twice in the head. The gunman was driven off in the stolen getaway car, which was recovered nearby with its keys in the ignition. A pair of gloves and a spent handgun magazine were also discovered in the car. All the materials are being examined. The car was found a kilometre away from the scene of the murder, at the Torrequebrada hotel and casino at Benalmadena, southern Spain. The Venezuelan man who had been drinking with Keogh in the minutes before his death was interviewed by police yesterday, but is not a suspect. He was held in custody after police discovered an arrest warrant existed for him in Venezuela. The garda liaison officer, based in Madrid, is now working with Spanish National Police to uncover any links between the murder and a previous attempt on Keogh's life in Ireland 14 months ago. Keogh survived after being struck in the arm, as he carried one of his children out the front door of his home on the Belfry estate in Duleek, Co Louth, in November 2007. He relocated to Spain with his partner and four children shortly afterwards. "Keogh knew he was under threat and that the gang who targeted him in Duleek were still out to get him. He had no major falling out with any Costa gangs we known about, so the Dublin connection is a strong line of investigation," said a source. Keogh came to garda attention as a major criminal around five years ago, when then gang boss Marlo Hyland used him as a bagman during drug dealing activities in north Dublin.

Sunday, 25 January 2009

Arrests in the Body in the suitcase

25 year old man and a 40 year old woman have been arrested in connection with the death of a man whose body was found last Tuesday inside a suitcase which had been abandoned on waste ground in Benimaclet in Valencia.It seems the two arrested on Friday were romantically involved, and were arrested after the daughter of the woman alerted police to the fact that her boyfriend was missing. His description matched that of the man found in the suitcase. Police think that the arrested man could earlier have also have had a romantic involvement with the daughter. The mother had told her daughter, who is pregnant by the victim, that he had left the area on a business trip.The body in the half-open suitcase, which was found by chance, had six stab wounds and showed signs of torture. The victim and the two arrested are all from Honduras.

Juan Antonio Roca, the ex Municipal Real Estate assessor, has been sentenced

Juan Antonio Roca, the ex Municipal Real Estate assessor, has been sentenced in the fourth section of the Penal Hall of the National Court in Spain to six years ten months in prison. Roca was sentenced to five years in prison for the misuse of public funds, and an additional 22 months for document falsification.
He and two others charged in the Saqueo case also have to pay back 23 million to Marbella Town Hall.José Luis Sierra, the ex judicial advisor to the late Mayor, Jesús Gil, has to serve nine years in prison, seven for the misuse of public funds and two for document falsification.The accountant, Manuel Jorge Castel, has been given six years for the misuse of public funds and two for document falsification.
Another three accused were found not guilty. These are Eduardo Gonzálvez and Francisco Javier Herrera, who were employed by the two municipal companies, Planeamientos 2000, and Contratas 2000, and Purificación Notario, wife of the late manager of Contratas 2000.The case relates to the diversion of public funds into private companies from the Marbella Town Hall between 1991 and 1995. The sentencing has been announced by the magistrate, Juan Francisco Martel, who heard the case between October 10 and November 27 last year. He concluded that the three found guilty created a preconceived plan to divert the public money.

Thursday, 22 January 2009

Female Striptease performance at Spanish jail angers guards

A prison guards' union says a female stripper performed at a Spanish jail and authorities did nothing to stop it.The union says the woman took her clothes off before male inmates Jan. 2 and committed several lewd acts at the prison in Picassent in the eastern Valencia region.An official with the Spanish Penitentiary System called it an inappropriate "musical performance" and said an investigation was trying to find out who authorized it.The union called ACAIP reported the event in a complaint filed Jan. 8 with the prison system and reported Thursday in Spanish media.The complaint says a female deputy warden witnessed the striptease in a recreation area and did not stop it. It says several female guards left the room in disgust.

Spain faced a "very high risk" of suffering another Islamist attack

Six people of Pakistani origin were arrested on suspicion of " fraud" Tuesday in Barcelona, northeastern Spain, Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said.Earlier in the day, a source close to the inquiry had said police detained 10 suspected Islamic extremists in raids in Barcelona, Madrid and the Canary Islands in an operation ordered by top antiterrorist judge Baltazar Garzon.Rubalcaba gave no further details as to possible charges, but a judicial source told AFP the six arrested in Barcelona are suspected of financing terrorist activities by carrying out thefts and sending money raised from criminal activities to Pakistan.The six had traveled to Barcelona from different parts of Spain, the source added.Spanish police have carried out several operations against suspected Islamic extremists since the bomb attacks on three packed commuter trains in Madrid on March 11, 2004 which killed 191 people in Europe's worst Islamic-linked terror attack.Islamic extremists claimed responsibility for the attack, which they said they had carried out in the name of al-Qaida in response to the presence of Spanish troops in Iraq at the time.
Police detained 15 suspected Islamic militants, mostly from Pakistan, in January 2008 in Barcelona who the authorities feared were plotting an attack in the city, which has a large population of Pakistani immigrants.Garzon has warned that Spain faced a "very high risk" of suffering another Islamist attack

Wednesday, 21 January 2009

Banco Santander SA sold Bernard Madoff investments Branch managers channeled customers with money from property sales or inheritances

Banco Santander SA sold Bernard Madoff investments Branch managers channeled customers with money from property sales or inheritances to private banking salespeople, lawyers for the investors said. A retired school teacher put 300,000 euros ($388,000), half her savings, in a structured product linked to Madoff, said Jordi Ruiz de Villa, an attorney at the Barcelona law firm Jausas. The vendor invested 325,000 euros of lottery winnings in a similar product and may have to return to street sales, according to lawyers at Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo in Madrid.
“The fact that someone has a sum of money in the bank doesn’t make him a suitable customer for this type of product,” said Ruiz de Villa, who’s representing about 30 account-holders with potential claims of 10 million euros, including the teacher. “Some retail clients have suffered true
personal catastrophes because of this.” He wouldn’t provide the teacher’s name. Santander, Spain’s biggest lender, may lose customers at the domestic branch network that accounts for a third of profit if it is found to have misled people who trusted their neighborhood bankers, said Peter Hahn, a fellow at Cass Business School in London. The bank, led by Chairman Emilio
Botin, has said clients have 2.33 billion euros invested with Madoff, including 320 million euros from private banking customers in Spain. “The model in Spain where customers just left it to Big
Daddy Botin to take care of things has been broken,” said Fernando Zunzunegui, a Madrid-based lawyer. He said he is taking on Madoff-related claims valued at 8.2 million euros from 20 clients who are “clearly retail.” He declined to provide detailed information about his firm’s clients.
Ruiz de Villa and Zunzunegui said they are signing up clients and reviewing the cases in preparation for filing possible lawsuits against Santander. Javier Cremades, chairman of Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo, said he’ll push for a settlement first. New York-based Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC collapsed last month after Madoff told his sons it was a $50
billion Ponzi scheme, according to a complaint filed by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Worldwide, the victims include banks, charities and investors such as Madrid-based billionaire Alicia Koplowitz and film director Steven Spielberg. Santander, based in the Spanish city of the same name, on Dec. 14 said international private banking clients and institutional investors had 2.01 billion euros of potential losses in Madoff-related funds. The rest of the money is in
investments sold to “qualifying investors” in SpainBranch customers were sold products linked to Madoff through Santander’s Geneva-based Optimal Investment Services hedge-fund arm, said the three lawyers representing the bank’s customers. Investors were asked to sign statements that they understood what they were purchasing and met the criteria for
investing. The bank has said it won’t compensate clients who invested with Madoff because the losses involve fraud. A spokeswoman for Santander said the bank had no further comment on the matter. Selling structured products to wealthy clients has been a popular strategy in Spain and wasn’t in itself wrong, because Santander believed it would yield safe and stable returns, said Fernando Luque, an analyst at Morningstar Inc. in Madrid. “Many of these institutions like Santander are going to be protected by the documentation, but the question is how great is the business damage from all this,” Hahn of Cass Business School said.

alleged Moroccan drug trafficker, who has been arrested in Melilla, has confessed to having carried out several assassinations,

alleged Moroccan drug trafficker, who has been arrested in Melilla, has confessed to having carried out several assassinations, and of hiding the bodies in a well in Murcia. He claimed that another Moroccan and a Spaniard of gypsy origin took part in the killings.
Firemen, the Guardia Civil and some soldiers spent Wednesday searching for the bodies and reports now indicate that at least two have now been found. One of the bodies is thought to have been killed ten years ago, the other five.Work continues at the site of a 30m deep well in an area of Cartagena known as Pozo Estrecho.
The Government delegate for Murcia, Rafael González Tovar, has said that the police and judicial action in the case is now under reporting restrictions.

Judges in Madrid have voted by a wide majority in support of strike action

Judges in Madrid have voted by a wide majority in support of strike action, voting 103 votes to 19 to take the strike action which is to start on February 18. The decision in Madrid follows similar decisions to take action in Murcia, Extremadura, Zamora, Málaga and Sevilla on the same day.The judges say they are short-staffed and need more resources so as to carry out their jobs. Despite some concessions from the Ministry, the protests for now remain in place with judges in Barcelona and Asturias also reported to be considering action.
The main judges associations are to meet with the Minister for Justice, Mariano Fernández Bermejo, on Monday.If the protest goes ahead on February 18, it will be the first time that judges have taken strike action in Spain.

Spanish Civil Guards arrested six Pakistani nationals Tuesday

Spanish Civil Guards arrested six Pakistani nationals Tuesday, accused of sales tax fraud, a Civil Guard spokesman in Madrid told CNN.The spokesman declined to confirm Spanish media reports that the suspects may have been involved in financing Islamic extremist activities.But the arrests occurred across Spain in an operation directed by Spain's anti-terrorism National Court.The suspects were detained in Barcelona, the southeast region of Valencia, the northern city of Logrono and in Las Palmas on Spain's Gran Canaria Island in the Atlantic, off the coast of Morocco, said the Civil Guard spokesman, who by custom is not identified.Since the Madrid train bombings in 2004 that killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,800 --- which a court found was due to Islamic terrorists --- Spanish police have arrested numerous suspects for financing Islamic terrorism

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