DOLORES VASQUEZ, who was wrongly imprisoned for 17 months in the much-publicised ‘Wanninkhof’ case

DOLORES VASQUEZ, who was wrongly imprisoned for 17 months in the much-publicised ‘Wanninkhof’ case for the murder of her lesbian lover’s daughter, Rocio, has finally managed to clear her criminal record, although she is yet to receive any compensation.Now that her name has been deleted from police records, her lawyers are demanding the sum of four million euros in compensation for false imprisonment and emotional damage although, so far, the government has only agreed to 120,000 euros .On October 9, 1999 the 19-year-old daughter of Alicia Hornos, Rocio Wanninkhof, left her home to visit her boyfriend in Mijas. At about 9:30pm, she left his house to go home and get ready to meet him later at the Fuengirola fair. She was never seen alive again.When she failed to return home, Alicia asked her other daughter, Rosa, to contact Rocio’s boyfriend, Antonio, to find out where she was. He said he had not made it to the fair but that Rocio had been seen there by other friends, so she had probably spent the night at one of their houses.The restless mother went for a walk and found Rocio’s blood-stained clothes. Rocio’s badly-burnt body was found three weeks later, on November 2, at La Cala de Mijas, although forensic evidence indicated that this was not where she had been murdered. An autopsy revealed that she had been stabbed once in the chest and eight times in the back, although, on account of the poor condition of the corpse, it could not be determined if she had been sexually assaulted.Police initially suspected Antonio of involvement but, after he was cleared, their attention switched to Alicia’s former lover, Dolores Vasquez. The media frenzy that followed the brutal murder secured a guilty verdict against Dolores, who has always maintained her innocence.In August 2003, whilst Dolores was waiting for an appeal hearing date, 17-year-old Sonia Carabantes from Coin disappeared and was found murdered in very similar circumstances, five days later, in Monda. Forensic specialists found human flesh under Sonia’s finger-nails from which they were able to recover DNA that matched DNA recovered from a cigarette butt found at the scene of the Wanninkhof murder. Celia Pantoja, the ex-wife of English expatriate, 41-year-old Tony Alexander King, told police she thought her ex-husband may have been the culprit in the Carabantes murder after he returned home on the morning of Carabantes’ disappearance with blood on his clothes and scratch marks on his face. Londoner, King, was arrested in Alhaurin el Grande in September 2003 and convicted of the Carabantes murder in October 2006, when he was sentenced to 36 years in prison.

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Posted in: ‘Wanninkhof’ case

Arrested four members of a gang found to be in possession of a substantial quantity of explosives

Police officers investigating a recent spate of robberies have arrested four members of a gang found to be in possession of a substantial quantity of explosives.
Searches carried out in properties in Torrevieja as part of a police operation, code-named, ‘Palmera’, have uncovered between 15 and 20 kilograms of Goma-2, a dynamite-type industrial high explosive manufactured in Spain for use chiefly in mining.Police are confident that the explosives were not destined to be used by terrorists. Although this kind of explosive has been previously used by ETA in terrorist attacks, police are satisfied that the four suspects have no links with terrorism, but are common criminals who planned to use the explosives to open bank safes and jewellers’ shops or in attacks on armoured security trucks.
Early evidence suggests that the gang, most of whom had previous police records, planned to sell some of the Goma-2 to other gangs and police investigators are now faced with the difficult task of identifying the source of the explosives, which may have been stolen from a local quarry. Alicante National Police said that they were able to positively identify members of the gang after coming across the explosives by chance, during the course of their investigations. Tomas Arenas, Security councillor for Torrevieja Town Council, stressed that such finds are rare and came as a surprise. Praising the National Police on the success of the operation, he appealed to residents to keep calm and assured them that the gang had not had the opportunity to use the explosives in the area.The four defendants, all Spanish (two men, aged 28 and 27 and two women, aged 24 and 23) have been remanded in custody.

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Posted in: Alicante National Police

Christine Baker did not realise that a casual visit to a neighbour’s house could result in the loss of a limb.

Christine Baker did not realise that a casual visit to a neighbour’s house could result in the loss of a limb. Tom and Christine Baker have lived in Javea, on the Costa Blanca, for 25 years but, in May 2004, Christine was the victim of a savage attack by their neighbour’s Spanish Mastiff dog. Christine, who had gone to her neighbour’s home to reclaim some frozen food from his freezer, had telephoned him in advance, asking him to lock away his dangerous dog, ‘Cuqui’. Her neighbour met her at the gates to his home and told her it was safe for her to enter. After a brief chat, she was about to leave when the dog appeared from nowhere and latched on to her right arm with such ferocity that she could do nothing to help herself. The neighbour, a Caribbean man aged 80, who had failed to secure the dog properly, could do little to help. After being mauled for approximately eight minutes, Christine managed to escape the animal’s clutches by poking the fingers of her left hand into its eyes. The neighbour, rather than help her, fled the scene and was later found in hiding by Guardia Civil officers investigating the incident.
According to Tom, the laws in Spain are very strict regarding the keeping of dogs, especially breeds like the mastiff which are listed as ‘dangerous’. All dogs must be micro-chipped and should have adequate insurance cover for any such incident. “Stupidly, this man (very wealthy in his own right) had no insurance on the dog, or even third-party liability on his own home,” says Tom. “He didn’t believe in ‘wasting’ money!” Dogs listed on the dangerous breed list must also be registered and licenced by the council. The process is a fairly elaborate and lengthy one (including psychological and physical tests on the owner - to ensure they are suitable - and criminal record checks).

The laws of Spain also state that the onus is on the witness to call for help. This he also failed to do and it was left for Christine to struggle her way home and dial the emergency services. “I must say they provided an excellent, rapid, service.” Tom says.

In the absence of insurance cover, the Bakers had no option but to sue their neighbour, who had been a friend of theirs for four years. Three years later, in February 2007, the case was finally heard at a Denia court. In the meantime, Tom says, “My wife had no choice, after two different opinions from hospitals in Denia and Valencia, but to have her arm completely amputated at the shoulder.”
At the age of 60, it has been very difficult for Christine to adjust from being a healthy, active and lively woman to depending totally on her husband, for whom she had previously cared after he suffered a stroke in 1999. The court awarded Christine 338,000 euros, plus costs (estimated at 120,000 euros) and interest. She had previously turned down a derisory offer of 155,000 euros as it would not cover the cost of her care for the years ahead. Their neighbour lost a subsequent appeal at the Alicante High Court.To date, Christine has not received a single euro in compensation. According to Tom, the neighbour disposed of all his assets in Spain (including his house), moved any money he had off-shore and declared himself insolvent.“So the next step is a criminal fraud case,” says Tom, “possibly to be heard in Alicante within the next five months, or failing that, in Benidorm in possibly another two years time!” “Can you imagine our financial status after all this time? It beggars belief, as we have been obliged to pay for everything – carers, drivers, solicitors’ costs etc.” He says, “Stress and anxiety have certainly taken their toll on us both.”The Bakers are yet to see the light at the end of the tunnel and, despite the horrific nature of the attack on Christine, have had to contend with long-winded legal procedures that do little to ease their suffering and much to protect the guilty. Tom ended his plea with, “This is not justice, even by Spanish standards.”

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Posted in: Alicante High Court

Kevin John Palmer Costa timeshare salesman disappeared

Kevin John Palmer is thought to have been murdered after he disappeared after a night out in a pub and country club in Hampshire – but nobody has ever been charged or convicted over his death. A murder inquiry was launched four years later when fresh evidence came to light that led detectives to believe Mr Palmer had met his death that night. Now ten years since he vanished, an inquest will be held to determine how he was killed – even though his body has never been recovered. The hearing, which will take place on Wednesday, will bring some closure to Mr Palmer’s family who have not been granted a death certificate, though they are sure he is dead. It was in the early hours of March 13, 1999, that Mr Palmer – nicknamed Jon Bon Jovi because he had similar hair to the rock star – was last seen alive, having returned to England that day from his Malaga home where he lived with his wife and child.He had spent a night at the Sir Joseph Paxton pub in Hunts Pond Road, Locks Heath, and the Abshot Country Club in Titchfield Common. Detectives know he caught a taxi from there with two other men and a woman, travelling to Bishop’s Waltham during the early hours. But a row broke out and the men are said to have got out of the vehicle, had a fight in Botley Road, near Burridge Social Club and the Horse and Jockey pub – and only two men got back in to continue the journey. They made their way to Hoe Road, to the home of convicted drug smuggler John Howett who also owned a second property in the Costa del Sol. In 2002 – three years after Mr Palmer vanished – Howett was jailed for his involvement in a drugs ring that saw £16m of cannabis smuggled into the country.
A year later, in October 2003, while Howett was serving his 12-year sentence in Parkhurst Prison on the Isle of Wight, detectives from the major crime department got a breakthrough. They spent the best part of a week digging up the garden of Howett’s former home in Hoe Road as they searched for clues to Mr Palmer’s disappearance. In particular they were looking for a suitcase, a driving licence and a chunky gold necklace. Neighbours watched as police moved into the small cul-de-sac and forensic teams began digging up the garden and removing items from the house, including carpets and interior doors. As they officially launched a murder inquiry days later, senior detectives said that they believed Mr Palmer had been taken to the house in Hoe Road, dead or alive. The inquiry also saw a team of officers fly to the Costa del Sol for six days as part of the investigation. Back home, all taxi drivers working in Fareham, Eastleigh and Winchester districts at that time were approached by officers who have to this day never been able to trace the man who collected Mr Palmer and his associates that night. A 51-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of murder and released on bail while files on the investigation, called Operation Arkholme, were passed to the Crown Prosecution Service. They later decided not to proceed with charges because of insufficient evidence. In deciding how Mr Palmer died, the coroner has the option of recording a verdict of unlawful killing or an open verdict. He is not allowed to apportion blame.

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Posted in: Malaga

Flight from Spain 53-year-old man has been arrested at Prestwick Airport

53-year-old man has been arrested at Prestwick Airport on suspicion of trying to smuggle a quantity of cocaine into the country. The man was stopped by officers from the UK Border Agency on Tuesday night after he got off a flight from Spain. Police were called after he was found to be in possession of drugs, believed to be cocaine, with an estimated street value of £60,000. The man was expected to appear at Ayr Sheriff Court on Wednesday.

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Posted in: Prestwick Airport

24 people, all Spaniards, have been arrested so far in a civil guard operation, codenamed Mansion, against organised crime in Madrid

24 people, all Spaniards, have been arrested so far in a civil guard operation, codenamed Mansion, against organised crime in Madrid. The burglary of a house in Griñon led to the Guardia Civil identifying the group which operated in three different groups, assaulting private homes in the Madrid region and even stealing from lorries when in roadside rest areas.Investigations also link the group to theft from industrial estates, and new charges against them have not been ruled out.

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Posted in: Madrid

Mármoles Ballester Man, from the Almanzora district of Almería has been arrested for allegedly shooting dead two members of a gypsy clan, Los Pertolos

Businessman from the marble company, Mármoles Ballester, from the Almanzora district of Almería has been arrested for allegedly shooting dead two members of a gypsy clan, Los Pertolos, who were allegedly extorting local businesses including his own.
The shooting happened in Olula del Río at just after 9am on Wednesday morning inside the marble factory close to the municipal boundary with Purchena.There is some confusion as to the identity of the shooter as the company is apparently being run currently by a manager.A man and a woman from the same Los Pertolos clan were sent to prison for four years in July last year for demanding money in 2004 from a British businessman who lives in nearby Arboleas. They also had obliged the Briton to employ three workers.

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Posted in: Mármoles Ballester

Jose Luis Romeu Galvan arrested by the Guardia Civil for misappropriation of public funds

Jose Luis Romeu Galvan, was sacked on March 4 by his employers, the Spanish airport authority, Aeropuertos Españoles y Navegación Aérea (AENA). Earlier that day, he had been arrested by the Guardia Civil for misappropriation of public funds, faking documents, embezzlement and obtaining money under false pretences.An employee in charge of keeping the accounts for Seguridad Integral Canaria, the private company which provides security guards for Reina Sofia Airport, was taken into custody at the same time. Romeu was held for several hours for questioning before being charged and released on bail.Romeu’s arrest was the culmination of an under- cover investigation codenamed Operation Fly which began in June 2008. The enquiry was launched after the Guardia Civil learnt that the security firm’s accountant at the airport was allegedly altering records to show more employees than actually existed and, in turn, Jose Luis Romeu was said to be signing off the monthly invoices presented to AENA. In order to conceal the scam, the fictitious security guards were assigned to areas in the airport where there was generally little in the way of control or surveillance.

On the day of Romeu’s arrest, officers from the Guardia Civil’s organised crime unit searched the offices of AENA’s security department at the airport as well as those of Seguridad Integral Canaria. The same company’s offices in Candelaria and Santa Cruz de Tenerife were examined at the same time as well as the homes of both the men involved. Guardia Civil investigators removed computer records and what onlookers described as copious amounts of paperwork. Some sources also claimed that during an earlier investigation last October, computers and paperwork were taken from Seguridad Integral Canaria’s offices in Las Palmas.

Seguridad Integral Canaria said the following day that none of their employees at the airport had been arrested with Jose Luis Romeu but confirmed that one of their office workers was implicated in the case. In a statement to the press, the company announced that an employee had explained to the Guardia Civil the accounting system that the firm used at Reina Sofia Airport and was able to demonstrate that the amounts claimed on invoices presented to AENA matched the number of hours worked by employees.The Alternativa Sindical union in Tenerife maintains that security guards at the airport had noticed irregularities which they reported to the Ministry of Public Works in November 2007, although their warnings prompted no response from the ministry. It was evident, they said, that neither the number of security guards on duty nor the number of hours supposedly put in by personnel tallied with the amounts that AENA was being charged for. The union also claimed that this shortfall in staff led to situations where private aircraft sometimes entered and left the airport without their documentation being checked.
The case against Jose Luis Romeu Galvan will be heard at the court in Granadilla de Abona. There is a ban on reporting while the case is at the instruction stage where the examining judge questions all parties before deciding whether there is a case against the accused. Meanwhile, AENA announced that it was working closely with the court and the police to shed light on the background to the case, and said it would be taking disciplinary action against its former employee. An AENA spokesman also emphasised that despite the incident, security at the airport had not been compromised at any time.

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Posted in: Granadilla de Abona.

Paul Logan Donnelly fled after abandoning a six-inch knife

Two Britons have been arrested after apparently trying to fire a gun at police who confronted them for urinating in a Spanish street.
The officers were not injured because the 9mm pistol reportedly used by one of the men jammed twice. The arrests following a stand-off in Alhaurin el Grande, a hillside village 30 miles from Marbella on the Costa del Sol, a Guardia Civil spokesman said. One of the arrested men has been named as Paul Logan Donnelly from Newcastle. Officers allege he fled the scene after abandoning a six-inch knife, but was later arrested. The name of the second man in custody has not been released.
Two civil guards, armed with pistols, had stopped the pair after spotting one of them urinating outside a video shop on Monday evening, Spanish police claim.
A spokesman for the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office said the unnamed man pulled the trigger twice during the incident but that it jammed. He said: "The men were arrested for urinating in the street and possession of a gun. "A consular team is now working with the relevant authorities in Spain. The investigation is at a very early stage."

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Posted in: Alhaurin el Grande

23 people have been arrested across nine provinces (including Malaga and Almeria) accused of several offences ranging from tax fraud

23 people have been arrested across nine provinces (including Malaga and Almeria) accused of several offences ranging from tax fraud, falsifying documents and illegal association. Those arrested were part of an organisation that converted industrial-use diesel (‘gasoleo bonificado’, types B and C, used for farm machinery and heating) into regular diesel (‘gasoleo ordinario’, type A) used in vehicles. During the operation called ‘Toelum II’ police seized: 25 properties, four investment funds, 18 lorries, 21 vehicles, three motorbikes and three trailers. The total value of the items seized is estimated at four million euros. During the early part of the investigation, police found installations in Toledo and Madrid used to ‘clean’ and adulterate the cheaper industrial- use diesel. The gang then sold it on as the more expensive type ‘A’ diesel to petrol stations and other organisations (some of which knew about the scam). Following further enquiries, tax evasion fraud was uncovered, valued at 6.7 million euros, calculated between 2004 and 2008. It was also found that around 4.5 million litres of diesel type ‘B’ was mixed with 13 million litres of oil and other unknown substances with the aim of increasing the total volume of product that could be sold.

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Posted in: organisation that converted industrial-use diesel

Police have arrested a 40-year-old Cuban doctor accused of stealing 126 morphine phials from the A&E department at Marbella’s Costa del Sol Hospital

Police have arrested a 40-year-old Cuban doctor accused of stealing 126 morphine phials from the A&E department at Marbella’s Costa del Sol Hospital, where he had worked as an intern since December 2008. An investigation was launched after police received information from hospital chiefs on March 2 that morphine phials had started going missing from hospital crash trolleys over a period of several shifts. During the enquiry officers established that the trolleys were equipped with all the basic equipment necessary for dealing with cardiac arrests and other emergencies. A crash trolley typically holds a defibrillator and intravenous medications, plus a variety of medical supplies. Access to crash trolleys is limited and their contents highly controlled. This should have allowed police to compile a short-list of suspects, narrowed down to medical staff who worked the shifts when the phials went missing. However, the hospital’s police report also indicated that the morphine phials had been taken by someone breaking the seals on the trolley and on the last few occasions forcing the lid of the trolley open. By cross-referencing the shift patterns of medical staff with the dates when the phials went missing, they managed to identify the culprit as a doctor who had worked there on a temporary basis and whose contract at the hospital had finished at the end of February. The suspect is not thought to have a criminal record.

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Posted in: Marbella’s Costa del Sol Hospital

Francis O'Brien, of C-Granada No. 3, Argon, 18132, Granada, Spain, pleaded guilty to the importation of drugs

Francis O'Brien, of C-Granada No. 3, Argon, 18132, Granada, Spain, pleaded guilty to the importation of drugs through Rosslare Port on June 27, 2008, for the purpose of selling or otherwise supplying.Garda Brian Cummins told the court that the defendant driving a Ford Box Van arrived on the Oscar Wilde Ferry from France. On the occasion he was accompanied in the vehicle by his son. When an inspection of the van was carried out cannabis resin to the amount of 79.861kgs was found which had a value of ¤559,027.The defendant, said Garda Cummins had put out a flyer in Spain for deliveries back to Ireland. He was contacted by a man, this person existed, but was in no way involved with drugs. This person agreed a figure of ¤400 to bring furniture back to Ireland.When arrested in Rosslare Port he was conveyed to Wexford Garda Station. He gave the name of a person in Dungarvan for the delivery but on investigation this person did not exist.Garda Cummins said the defendant is a married man with four children, now living in Spain. He was a native of Drogheda.
Mr. Michael Durack, S.C., told the court that the defendant had received a serious hand injury while working in the family Dry Cleaning business in Drogheda. He received some money, went to Spain to live with his family. His children are going to school in Spain. The van he was driving on the occasion was a battered old van he had received in lieu of payment for some job he carried out. He deeply regretted his involvement in this.Judge Doyle said drugs were the scurge of young people in Ireland. This is a very serious crime and she had no choice but to impose a custodial sentence.Judge Doyle sentenced the defendant to six years in prison, suspending the final three years for a period of three years. She ordered that the sentence be backdate to June 27, 2008.

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Posted in: Rosslare Port

Two Brits,are facing charges of attempted murder after shooting at police in Spain

Two Brits,are facing charges of attempted murder after shooting at police in Spain.Police say the men started shooting after officers asked them to stop urinating outside a shop in a Costa del Sol village.The officers survived only because the 9mm pistol used by one of the men jammed twice.The gunman, named by police only as Paul B, surrendered following a stand-off in Alhaurin el Grande, a hillside village 30 miles from Marbella on the Costa del Sol, a Guardia Civil spokesman confirmed last night.The second man, Paul Logan Donnelly, from Newcastle, fled after abandoning a six-inch knife. He was later arrested.Two civil guards, armed with pistols, had stopped the pair after spotting one of them urinating outside a video shop at 9pm on Monday. Paul B threw a passport belonging to another ex-pat to the ground then took out the gun.He aimed it at both officers, pulling the trigger twice, but each time it jammed, the spokesman confirmed.The officers then took out their guns and talked him round.A Guardia Civil officer described the incident yesterday. He said: “It was around the leisure zone and there were three individuals who were walking through the street and one of them was urinating in the middle of the street.“They (the police) went to identify him and the first of those arrested threw his passport.“When the police approached him then he took out a gun which he had hidden in his trousers, he loaded and shot at one of the policemen.“They (the police) identified him and arrested him without firing any shots. They are now in custody awaiting trial.”Meanwhile, a British Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesman said: “The men were arrested for urinating in the street and possession of a gun.“A consular team is now working with the relevant authorities in Spain.“The investigation is at a very early stage.”

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Posted in: Marbella

Junta de Andalucía will shortly be able order the demolition of any property it considers to be ‘manifestly illegal’ within a month

Junta de Andalucía will shortly be able order the demolition of any property it considers to be ‘manifestly illegal’ within a month, in other words any property which is never going to be accepted into an Urban Plan because it has been built on protected land, or on land of high ecological worth.
El País reports that the Regional Councillor for Housing and Territorial Planning, Juan Espadas, on Wednesday took advantage of an appearance in parliament to announce that his department is putting the finishing touches to a new town planning regulation which includes a procedure for summary demolition, without the matter having to go through any further courts. He said the legislation accepted many suggestions from both the Prosecutors and Ombudsman’s offices.
The measure, part of the LOUA, the Andalucian Building Ordination Law, is designed to stop building in nature parks or river beds from taking place in the first place, and end the current scenario that while such a case goes through the courts, other buildings are built nearby.During the debate in Sevilla, the P.P. Spokesperson, Esperanza Oña, hit out at the Socialists for ‘encouraging corruption’, while Espadas called for responsibility to avoid ‘social alarm’. He said that the Andalucian administration had done all it can to protect legal construction, and proof of that was that since 2005 it had ordered 17,649 actions in some 535 cases in the region, some 70% of the total, and mostly for building on rustic land.

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Posted in: Andalucian Building Ordination Law

14 year old girlfriend of Miguel Carcaño,now says that he confessed his crime to her on the night he carried it out, January 24.

14 year old girlfriend of Miguel Carcaño, the man who has confessed to killing the 17 year old girl from Sevilla, Marta del Castillo, now says that he confessed his crime to her on the night he carried it out, January 24.Sources close to the investigation also say that he told her that he had thrown Marta’s body into the Guadalquivir River with the help of his friends 15 year old El Cuco, and Samuel B.P.
The 14 year old changed her story to the police last Monday, when her family was called in to reconstruct what had happened on the night that Marta vanished.The National Police have now confirmed that fibres from the blanket used to carry the body, and DNA from Marta was found in the back seat of the car belonging to Cuco’s mother.El Cuco however changed his story to the judge on Tuesday, saying that he was not involved in the crime, and he had not been in the flat where the crime occurred that night.

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Posted in: Guadalquivir River

Pensioner opened fire with a 32 caliber revolver at an ambulance driver and the doctor with whom he had had an appointment at 7pm that afternoon.

34 year old doctor was shot just after midnight in the early hours of Wednesday, but did not die until 1530 in the afternoonThe judge in Instruction Court One in Caravaca de la Cruz, has ordered preventative prison for the 74 year old retired taxi driver, Pedro N.S. who opened fire at 25 minutes past midnight on Tuesday night after he had gone to the health centre in Moratalla, Murcia.The pensioner opened fire with a 32 caliber revolver at an ambulance driver and the doctor with whom he had had an appointment at 7pm that afternoon. One report says he had gone for oxygen at 4pm but was told to return at 7, but did not do so until just after midnight.
Maria Eugenia Moreno Martínez, the 34 year old doctor who received several shots died from her injuries to the head and chest in the Virgen de la Arrixaca Hospital at 3,30pm on Wednesday afternoon. The 40 year old Ambulance driver, Juan Miguel Moya, is in a stable condition in the Caravaca de la Cruz District Hospital. He was shot when he tried to take the gun off the pensioner.
Local doctors stopped work in demand for better security measures in health centres.
On leaving the court the pensioner told the press that he was very sorry for what he had done.He has also said that the treatment he received in the ambulatorio was not good.‘The attended to me very badly, very badly’ he said.
Reports indicate that the pensioner had found the gun he used in the back of his taxi in Barcelona twenty years ago.

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Posted in: Doctor was shot just after midnight Moratalla,Murcia

Philip Doo and David Mufford, and Christopher Wiggins, from Spain's Costa del Sol, are charged with attempting to import 1.7 ton of cocaine

Philip Doo and David Mufford, from Devon, and Christopher Wiggins, from Spain's Costa del Sol, are charged with attempting to import 1.7 tonnes of cocaine - believed to be valued at more than 650 million euro.Three Britons accused of being involved in an international drugs smuggling ring intercepted off the coast of Ireland have appeared briefly at Cork Circuit Criminal Court as the start of their trial was adjourned.Barristers asked for the case to be put back to the next session so defence teams could continue discussions with State prosecutors. The three men were detained last November after the Irish Navy, gardai and Customs swooped on the 60ft ocean-going boat Dances With Waves, 170 miles off the west Cork coast. Seventy-five bales of cocaine were discovered on the vessel which had set sail from the Caribbean a month earlier.

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Posted in: Cork Circuit Criminal Court

Barcelona airport,Cocaine disguised as 52 bars of chocolate

National Police have arrested an Ecuadorian man at El Prat airport in Barcelona after he was found to be carrying four kilos of cocaine in his luggage on arrival on a flight from Colombia.The drug was disguised as 52 bars of chocolate, perfectly individually wrapped as the Jumbo brand, one of the best known in Colombia. The drug was hidden below a thin layer of chocolate in each bar.51 year old Edgar N.N. was questioned by police and customs after they considered him to be acting nervously.

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Posted in: El Prat airport

Nine houses in Garrucha and Mojacar have been burgled, with the intruders amassing a haul worth thousands of euros in cash and home entertainment unit

Nine houses in Garrucha and Mojacar have been burgled, with the intruders amassing a haul worth thousands of euros in cash and home entertainment units.Five youths, aged between 14 and 16, who have been taken in for questioning, are thought to have stolen around 6,000 euros’ worth of audiovisual equipment, including home cinema equipment, LCD-screen televisions, Playstation 3 consoles and other multimedia items, which they sold on to a 53-year-old man, known as ‘Jeronimo’, who has also been arrested.Initial enquiries have suggested that he made the teenagers steal to order, so that he could sell the goods on to third parties. The teen gang took advantage of holiday homes being empty over the winter months in order to break in undisturbed. Police were able to round up the ‘Fagin-style’ gang after two of the minors were identified as the culprits in a burglary at a home in Mojacar.Investigating officers say that their modus operandi was very similar to that of other burglaries in the area.The teenagers are currently being held in a youth detention centre but, as they are under 18, if the case comes to court, any sentence they receive will be far more lenient than that which would normally be imposed on adults.

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Posted in: ‘Fagin-style’ gang Garrucha and Mojacar

Stolen car gang thought to be behind the theft and alteration of top-of-the-range vehicles for re-sale has been broken up in Estepona.

Stolen car gang thought to be behind the theft and alteration of top-of-the-range vehicles for re-sale has been broken up in Estepona.They are said to have stolen the cars from dealers and garages and modified their chassis numbers, registration plates and other elements that could lead to their identification.These were then sold on in North African countries, having been shipped out from the port of Algeciras.The suspects, of Moroccan and Bulgarian nationality, often stole cars to order.One of their favoured methods was to go to a motor dealer and pretend they wanted to buy a car, so that they could see where the sales staff fetched the keys from. Other members of the group would then distract the salesperson whilst the car was stolen. The stolen cars were then taken to a villa in Estepona, where they were doctored for resale. The most recent arrests follow the detention of 12 other suspects in November 2008, thought to have been part of the same gang.Six people were taken into custody in Ciudad Rodrigo (Salamanca province) and another six in La Vila Joiosa and Teulada-Moraira (Alicante province).Also this week, 15 Spanish nationals were arrested in connection with a car-stealing operation on the Costa del Sol where luxury vehicles were stolen to order. Among those detained is a nightclub bouncer, who is said to have found customers for the gang. Documents and registration plates were forged and vehicles sold on around Spain and abroad. Vehicles valued at around one million euros, together with fake car ownership documents and the assets of eight companies, valued at 15 million euros, have been seized by police.The companies were found to have a further 500 cars, valued at around 10 million euros. Police enquiries are on-going and it is believed that, to date, more than 70 individual cases of theft have been traced back to the arrested parties.

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Posted in: Estepona.