Spanish-based Seven guilty of 'boiler-room' fraud

 

Seven men were convicted today of an £8 million boiler-room fraud, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said. The Spanish-based operation targeted thousands of investors in the UK applying high pressure telesales techniques to push shares in a bio-diesel company, Worldwide Bio Refineries (WBR). In fact, the company was practically worthless. One defendant, company director Redmond Johnson, 66, pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud investors. Fellow director Dennis Potter, 72, who lived in Singapore, was convicted of the conspiracy along with John Murphy, 35, and Greg Pearson, 38, both of Marbella, Daniel Murphy, 37, and Lee Homan, 37, both of Hertfordshire, and Peter Bibby, 44, of south London, who all managed share sales. Bibby absconded before the Ipswich Crown Court trial and was convicted in his absence. There is a warrant for his arrest. Commenting on the convictions, SFO director Richard Alderman said: "This is an excellent result. Not only do boiler-room fraudsters prey on vulnerable people, they also deprive genuine businesses of the capital they need to grow. "Quite bluntly, they ruin lives. I am delighted that the SFO is playing its part in tracking down operations like these and bringing fraudsters to book." WBR was set up in 2003 and had a processing plant in County Durham that was purported to produce diesel fuel from vegetable matter. It also had a plant in Singapore producing diesel intended to be marketed in the UK. The share selling was undertaken by salesmen working from a number of boiler-rooms in Marbella and Barcelona although many of them used false names and claimed to be calling from offices Frankfurt, Stockholm or Amsterdam. The business prospects of the company and the bio-diesel market were inflated by WBR's directors and the salesmen, who claimed that substantial international business was being done and that the business's shares were valued at £110 million. Investors believed that their investment in a successful bio-diesel enterprise would net them significant short-term returns, bolstered by claims that WBR was to be floated on the stock market. These claims were bogus. The SFO found that the bio-diesel plant had no output and, with only limited imports coming from the Singapore plant, WBR was not being managed with any intention of it becoming a growing commercial success. Virtually all of WBR's revenue between 2005 and 2007 was generated by share sales. Of the £8.2 million attracted from investors, around £4 million was transferred to accounts in Cyprus, Jersey and Spain for the benefit of the boiler-room salesmen. The group will be sentenced at Ipswich Crown Court on September 23.

Christy Kinahan offered €60,000 to have him whacked

 

GANGLAND hardman Martin Foley has taken to his bike in a bid to dodge another assassination attempt. ''The Viper' is paranoid about car bombs and hitmen outside his Dublin home after 'Dapper Don' Christy Kinahan offered €60,000 to have him whacked. Each morning Foley, who has survived four murder bids already, checks for hidden devices under his car and is now cycling instead of driving himself. And the Viper is not the only gangland tough guy under siege this weekend. Violent mob boss 'Fat' Freddie Thompson is holed up at his mother's house after it was firebombed by rivals who want him dead. Thompson has even gone to the gardai looking for protection as the feud threatens to explode. Viper's Vicious Cycle MARTIN 'The Viper' Foley has been warned that his life is in serious danger after 'The Dapper Don' Christy Kinahan put a €60,000 bounty on his head.

Mouse ('Raton') has already killed two people this year at Spanish bull-dodging events

. Photograph: Alberto Saiz/AP

A half-tonne Spanish bull drew crowds of fans to the eastern town of Sueca on Sunday after building up a reputation as the biggest killer in the popular summer game of bull-dodging.

The bull, called Ratón, meaning mouse, was appearing for the first time since goring a man to death in the nearby town of Xátiva on 15 August.

Debate has raged in newspapers over the exact number of people killed by Ratón, who is let loose in bullrings where people are encouraged to jump in and taunt him.

He is known to have gored a 30-year-old man to death in Xátiva, and to have killed a man in Puerto de Sagunto in 2006. Reports that he had killed a third man in 2004, in the village of Benifairó de les Valls, were denied by the mayor.

Bull-dodging is popular in many summer village and town fiestas. In parts of eastern Valencia and Catalonia, bulls sometimes have flaming torches attached to their horns to enrage them further. Unlike in traditional bullfights, however, there is no matador and the animal lives on, getting wiser and more dangerous as he becomes more experienced.

Eleven-year-old Ratón's fame as the deadliest of fiesta bulls has made him one of the most expensive to hire, with prices reaching €15,000 for a single appearance.

The bull was greeted in Sueca by cheering crowds and music from the soundtrack of Sergio Leone's For a Few Dollars More.

Professional bull-dodgers and local amateurs baited the animal and ran in front of him for half an hour. The town hall delegated a group of experienced runners to stop drunks joining in, and police had to bundle off two people, according to the local Levante newspaper.

Bull games at local fiestas claim up to half a dozen lives across Spainevery summer.

"Ratón showed, once more, both exceptional agility and intelligence," Levante reported after noting that the sellout crowd of 2,700 people had witnessed no bloodshed.

But some politicians have called for Ratón to be banned and for stricter control of those who try bull-dodging under the influence of drink or drugs. "Someone must be held responsible if this happens again," said Marina Albiol, an MP for the United Left party in the regional parliament of Valencia. "The only reason the town hall at Sueca has hired this bull is to encourage cruelty and ghoulishness."

The town hall replied that it had hired Ratón because he belonged to a local farmer. "That way the bull can say a final goodbye to its hometown, as he is due to retire soon," a statement said.

The bull's owner, Gregorio de Jesús, wants Ratón to follow the example of Got, a fighting bull who was cloned recently.

The bull is due to appear at two more fiestas this summer.

Bullfights with matadors are to be banned in eastern Catalonia at the end of this year, but bull-dodging will remain legal.

Ratón's re-appearance in Sueca proved a draw for local media, with half a dozen television stations and some 40 radio and newspaper reporters in attendance.

The bull also has his own travelling fans. One of them, Manuel Martin, has Ratón's head tattooed on his right arm. "Now I'm going to have the whole animal tattooed on my leg," he told El País

Three Britons face a total of 27 years in prison for drug trafficking

 

Málaga Prosecutors’ Office has asked for a total of 27 years in prison for three British men who are accused of trafficking in cocaine. The three, who also face a 3.6 million € fine each, were found with some 15 kilos of the drugs, and one of them is also accused of document falsification for being found with fake passports. The value of the drugs intervened has been estimated at 900,000 €. Europa Press reports that the provisional conclusions of the prosecutor reveal that one of the men was caught by the National Police in Alsasua, Navarra ‘when he was transporting 15 packets of the drug in a rucksack, while driving an articulated lorry. The prosecution alleges that the transport had been agreed with the other two Britons, and the three had intended to sell the drugs to a third party. The oral hearing for the case is expected to get underway in Section Nine of the Provincial Court in Málaga on the 14th of this month.

Spanish police said their criminal assets agency was investigating properties worth millions including a holiday resort in Brazil.

 

Dissident republican crime gangs in Dublin have split and are feuding in ways similar to the bloody factionalising of the remnants of the terror group the Irish National Liberation Amy (INLA) in the late Eighties and Nineties. Since former Real IRA man Liam Kenny, 53, was shot dead at his home in Chapelizod, Dublin, in June a series of serious incidents including several attempted murders have taken place. Kenny, a former Provisional IRA member had been a member of the Real IRA in Dublin but fell out with other members after it split acrimoniously into two factions in the city. Last Wednesday, an associate of Kenny's, Frank Nolan, 49, was shot and seriously injured when a teenager on a bicycle pulled up beside him at Oranmore Road in Ballyfermot and shot him at close range. There had been a pipe bomb attack on Nolan's home in July. Nolan, who served a term of imprisonment for reckless endangerment in an incident in which a man was shot in the thigh in a Ballyfermot pub in 2000, is recovering in hospital. The incident has created more tension and gardai expect there were will be more attacks. The reasons for the attack were not clear but gardai say there had been a public meeting of republicans last weekend and threats had apparently been exchanged afterwards. It is believed that after his row with his former dissident republican associates, Liam Kenny left the Real IRA faction and moved to the group styling itself as the Continuity IRA. This group has now split in two as well, with one group led by a Limerick man in his late fifties but with support in Dublin and which is opposed to another faction also still styling itself with the same name based in Dublin. In traditional republican style, the various groups send coded claims to newspapers making allegations and threats against each other, followed by counter-claims that the initial statements were from "gangsters" or "drug dealers" and not republicans. This is exactly what went on when the INLA went into its finally destructive round of feuding in the late Eighties. All the Dublin dissident groups are aligned in one way or another with the city's drug gangs and gardai are concerned that they are adding an extra dimension to the already violent state of organised crime in the city. The investigation into Kenny's murder has become highly complicated with detectives trying to work out the reasons behind the killing as Kenny was at odds with not only his former dissident associates but also with drug dealers in the west of the city. There was initially suspicion last week that there might be a dissident link to the murder of Thomas McDonagh, 49, a traveller shot dead at his caravan in Ballymun last Saturday night. Gardai have known for some time of tensions between Traveller and settled gangs in north Dublin and believe that Travellers have been selling pipe bombs to both ordinary criminal and dissident republican gangs. However, Mr McDonagh was not involved in these activities and is believed to have been murdered by a Finglas-based gang of settled criminals involved in the drugs trade and in armed robberies including tiger kidnappings. It is believed he had been involved in drug dealing and had a heroin problem and was shot because of an unpaid debt of €15,000. One of the main current concerns among gardai in Dublin is the re-emergence of the gangland figure Freddie Thompson following a fire-bomb attack on his mother's house in the Coombe area. Gardai in the Dublin South Central Division have been on high alert since the attack on the home of Lisa Thompson, who has no involvement in criminal activity, but is believed to have been targeted by her son's rivals. Freddie Thompson had spent most of the previous 15 months in England, returning only for brief visits to Dublin and the gang violence in the south city had reduced. It is believed he was concerned that he would be arrested and extradited to Spain after Spanish police said they had issued a warrant for his arrest and extradition at the time of a series of high- profile raids in May last year on the mainly Irish gang led by Dubliner Christy Kinahan, who has been living in Estepona, Spain. However, the warrant has not been sent to gardai even though they have informed the Spanish authorities of his presence here. Thompson had been staying in Estepona up until shortly before the launching of Europe-wide raids aimed at the organisation, which Spanish, British and Europol police said was headed by Kinahan. There were 78 raids including 45 here, 21 in Spain and 12 in Britain. Some 34 people were arrested and €1m in cash seized. Spanish police said their criminal assets agency was investigating properties worth millions including a holiday resort in Brazil. Thompson was questioned in February 2007 when his associate, Paddy Doyle, 27, from Dublin was shot dead in Estepona but Thompson was not at the scene and it is thought the murder was carried out by Turkish mafia

Spanish warship rescues French hostage from pirates

 

Troops from a Spanish warship stormed a pirate skiff in the Gulf of Aden Saturday and rescued a French hostage missing from her yacht but found no trace of her husband, the EU anti-piracy mission said. As a helicopter kept watch overhead, naval commandos in a fast launch fired on the skiff to disable its engine. The boat sank, but the hostage was rescued and seven pirates were arrested unharmed, the Spanish defence ministry said. "She was the only hostage on board the skiff. Her husband was not on board," EU naval spokesman Captain Paul Gelly told AFP, confirming the rescued hostage was Evelyne Colombo, wife and crewmate of missing sailor Christian Colombo. "She is safe and sound," he said, explaining that Colombo and the detained pirates are now on board the Spanish ship. A German warship, the FGS Bayern, found the couple's catamaran the Tribal Kat, adrift in waters off Yemen on Thursday. There was no-one on board and the EU Atalanta naval command launched an air and sea search for the attackers. French officials said there were signs of a struggle on board the yacht, which was towed to Djibouti to be studied by agents from the DGSE spy agency. "It was like searching for a needle in a haystack," Gelly said. "Our priority was to search for any vessel that might have been leaving the area and heading for the coast of Somalia." The French frigate Surcouf detected a suspect vessel and on Saturday the Spanish warship SPS Galicia chased it down. The Spanish defence ministry said when the skiff ignored an order to stop, the commander of the Galicia ordered his men to open fire. "At that time, it was discovered that they had a hostage on board, who was a woman," it said. "The amphibious ship proceeded to intercept the pirate vessel. The operation involved a helicopter and naval warfare team, who fired on the engine of the boat, to disable it." Christian Colombo is a former French navy crewman and the couple were experienced sailors who wanted to see the world and were passing through the Gulf of Aden en route for the Indian Ocean and eventually Thailand. "They knew they were taking a risk and everyone advised them not to go," a relative told AFP. One of the couple's daughters, Emilie, posted a message of concern on the blog they were keeping of their high seas adventure. "The last I heard from Christian was around a month ago. He was south of Egypt and heading for Malaysia," said the skipper's friend Gerard Navarin, who once helped him set a catamaran speed record off Toulon. The waters between Yemen and Somalia are notorious for attacks by pirate gangs, and French yachts have been among the vessels seized in the past. A second yacht went missing at around the same time as the Tribal Kat. Somali pirates frequently seize crew from merchant ships and pleasure craft in the dangerous waters off the conflict-ravaged Horn of Africa and have taken millions of dollars in ransom for their release. According to the watchdog Ecoterra, at least 50 vessels and at least 528 hostages are being held by Somali pirates, despite constant patrols by warships from several world powers. A French couple was kidnapped from a yacht in September 2008 as it headed through the Gulf of Aden. A ransom was paid, but French commandos later ambushed the pirates, killed one, captured six more and recovered the cash. In April 2009, another French yacht was seized. This time special forces troops intervened when the boat was still at sea. In the ensuing gunbattle a French bullet accidentally killed the hostage skipper. In addition, a French DGSE agent is thought to have been held hostage by Islamist militants in the Somali capital since July 2009

Rapist of British girl gets two year prison sentence

 

22 year old Bolivian man, Hernán Jesús V.A. has been given a two year prison sentence for the rape of a British woman on January 27 2007. The Murcia provincial court also ruled that he must compensate the victim with 12,000 €. Hernán Jesús admitted his guilt to the court which must now decide whether to replace the two year prison sentence with extradition from Spain. The rape took place in the doorway of the woman’s home, and the victim was hit hard twice in the face as the rape was carried out. Finally the British victim tricked her attacker by inviting him to her room to continue the relations, managing to get inside and lock the door to escape. Hermán Jesús told the court on Thursday that all he wants to do is forget the episode. He said that he has made the most of the time he has been held on remand by doing courses on cooking, computing and other subjects. He accepted the sentence telling the court – ‘I am no delinquent, and all I want to do is forget this and spend every minute with my family’.

Body found in car boot in Vilalba, Lugo

 

The Guardia Civil found a body in the boot of a parked Seat Toledo car in Vilalba at 10pm on Friday. They had been alerted to the body by a local resident who noticed the strong smell, and the body was found to be in an advanced state of decomposition. The car was parked close to the bus station in Vilalba, Lugo, and locals have said it had been there for some time. First indications are that the body is male. A full investigation has been opened by the Lugo Judicial Police to first establish the identity of the victim, and then the circumstances of his death.

Spanish police have smashed the drug ring that is believed to have supplied Kenley teenager Jodie Nieman with the ecstasy

 

Spanish police have smashed the drug ring that is believed to have supplied Kenley teenager Jodie Nieman with the ecstasy tablet that probably killed her. Mark Adrian Whitley, 39 from Croydon, was among 13 suspected drug dealers arrested by police last Thursday in Ibiza where the 19-year-old died in July. Spanish police confirmed the majority of the pills seized in the raids were Pink Rock Star, the same type believed to have killed Miss Nieman. It is thought the dodgy pills were also responsible for poisoning eight other individuals in Ibiza over the summer. Police said the drug ring was the biggest British group operating on the island and had now been "completely dismantled". Officers from Spain’s Civil Guard, supported by British officers from the Serious Organised Crime Agency, raided eight properties across the party island. As part of Operation Rula, police confiscated £60,500 in various currencies, 4kg of cocaine, 3,600 MDMA pills, 53g of hashish and 300 doses of anabolic steroids. There were also precision scales, mobile phones and other drug-related paraphernalia in the addresses. A Civil Guard spokesman said: "This one of the most active gangs on the island which is the main supplier of cocaine and other designer drugs around the clubs and bars. "Enquiries were carried out on the basis of intelligence obtained by the Guardia Civil after other gangs involved in drugs trafficking on the island were dismantled. "The majority of these gangs were British and took advantage of the influx of young people during the summer. "The gang, which is now dismantled, only travelled to Ibiza in summer to meet the large demand for drugs on the island during this period. "When some of the drugs were running short, other gangs based in the UK would send new batches via different methods." Miss Nieman, a nail technician at Nails To Be Seen in Warlingham, was holidaying with friends when she fell unconscious at the Space nightclub in the Playa d'en Bossa resort on July 13. She died of a suspected heart attack, with friends admitting to Spanish police they had taken ecstasy. But Croydon Coroner’s Court has ordered a second investigation into the cause of Miss Nieman’s sudden death. Miss Nieman’s mother Debbie and her partner Simon Atkar, along with her brother Mark, recently visited the island to see where the teenager had died and to bring her body home. Her funeral was held on August 16 at Croydon Crematorium but her mother discovered Spanish police had removed the girl’s heart for tests. The family have been told it could be six months until results of the tests, which might give a conclusive cause of death, come back.

The alleged killers of a British teenager stabbed to death at a holiday resort in the Costa Brava have been extradited to face justice in Spain.

Andrew Milroy, 15, died of a single knife wound to the chest in the seaside town of Lloret de Mar on July 17.

Police named the suspects only as Remi Romai A. and Jeremy P. - a plumber and a mechanic both aged 21.

Andrew Milroy and two friends had tried to break up a 3.30am brawl between a gang of young French tourists. 

But instead, the youths turned on them in a shopping centre in the resort popular with thousands of British holidaymakers every year, it is alleged.

A nearby hotel security guard called police after being alerted by the boys' friends. 

When ambulance workers arrived, they found Mr Milroy lying in a pool of blood in an alleyway by a clothes shop.

He died after being rushed to Sant Jaume Hospital in the nearby town of Blanes, 25 miles north of Barcelona.

His attackers had fled before emergency services reached the scene.
Spanish police later identified two of the youths from CCTV footage, and then managed to find their names from local hotel bookings.

 

They passed the information on to French police, who swooped on the pair in their home town of L'Isle-d'Abeau, near Lyon, ten days ago.

Tourist spot: Andrew was a resident of Lloret de Mar in Costa Brava, which is popular with holidaymakers

A French judicial source said: ‘The Spanish police were able to identify the three youths through witness statements and video surveillance cameras.

‘Their names were then established from the bookings they had made for accommodation in resort.

‘This information was passed to us and arrests were made.’ 

Lyon prosecutor Jacqueline Dufournet confirmed today: ‘The two young men have been transferred by plane to Spain.

'They are now in the hands of the authorities there and the Spanish legal process will now run its course.' 

Michel Tallent, the lawyer for the mechanic, added: ‘It seems there was a fight on the night in question, but it is not clear who started it.' 

Andrew was born in Spain after his parents Jackie and Andy Milroy emigrated there 26 years ago.

The family run a popular US-style diner called Route 66 in the resort.
Mrs Milroy, originally from Richmond, Surrey, told French daily Le Parisien after learning of the arrests: ‘We are devastated at the loss of our son, but now very relieved at the arrests.  

'Of course my son will not be coming back but at least those responsible have been caught.

'The police have done very well considering how few leads they had to go on.

'I now await their trial and believe they should each go to prison for at least 30 years.'

Mr Milroy's death sparked outrage among locals, who said that children should have been protected from increasingly violent holidaymakers on cheap package tours.

Brit was arrested in Sant Antoni, Ibiza

The recovered fake cash - Sant Antoni Police

Local police in Sant Antoni, Ibiza, say that a British man has been arrested in connection with counterfeit money.

Named with the initials J.G. he is charged with the crime of falsification of money and was arrested after he tried to use counterfeit notes to pay at a venue in the West End part of the town.

Local traders supplied the police with a description of the man who they finally tracked down. They recovered fake notes worth 1,100 pounds sterling and 1,310 €.

The Briton has been taken to the local police station in Sant Atoni and is expected to appear in court shortly.

Two Britons arrested on Ibiza on charges of attempted murder

 

The two are accused of stabbing a fellow Briton five times in a drug related argument.Photo EFE Two British men, 30 year old S.D., and 22 year old D.R.S., were arrested by the Guardia Civil in Sant Antoni, Ibiza, on Tuesday afternoon on charges of attempted murder. They are accused of stabbing a 19 year old Briton on Monday afternoon when arguing about a drug-related matter. Initial reports said that the victim was Irish, but he has now been named as Jack McCarthy from Liverpool. One of the five stab wounds punctured the victim’s lung, and a third saw a cut to his cheek. The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office confirmed that it was aware of a British citizen in hospital in Ibiza, and said that they were providing consular assistance. On Tuesday morning the youngster wanted to discharge himself, but the doctors advised the duty Guardia and they have kept him under treatment. A search of the homes of the two arrested men found 30 grams of cocaine and other substances, and an amount of money in cash, allegedly from the sale of drugs.

£40m cocaine smuggling gang convicted

 

drugs gang responsible for smuggling cocaine with a street value of up to £40m into the UK has been convicted at the High Court in Glasgow. They were involved in importing the drugs from Spain between 2007 and 2009. The ringleaders were Keith Blenkinsop, of Annan, and Lindsay Harkins from Helensburgh. Three men who acted as mules - Andrew Burns, of Helensburgh; Robert Dalrymple, of Gretna; and James Elvin, from Clydebank - were also convicted. The cocaine was concealed inside suitcases and holdalls flown by couriers into Prestwick, Glasgow and Newcastle airports. The court heard how the drugs were concealed beneath a false bottom sewn into suitcases The court heard how the operation came to an end when one of the gang's couriers, David Harbinson, 41, of Annan, was caught with some counterfeit £20 notes and blurted out details of the drugs scheme to police. A teller at a Marks and Spencer bureau de change in Carlisle noticed the currency among a bundle of sterling he wanted to convert to euros. Mr Harbinson subsequently gave evidence against his former associates and has now been placed on a witness protection programme. He told advocate depute Iain McSporran, prosecuting, that the gang had a direct connection to Colombian drug barons. He said Blenkinsop and Harkins were the brains behind the operation while the other accused were couriers paid to take euros to Spain and bring back drugs. In fact, the gang exchanged so much sterling into euros that Blenkinsop's local post office won an award for the amount of euros it sold. The jury was told they sourced their cocaine from Colombians based in Barcelona and transferred it to Harkins' house in the Spanish city. Harkins, a former upholsterer, would then put the drugs inside a suitcase and sew in a false bottom. The cocaine brought in by the gang was mostly destined for the Glasgow area, although some of it was also sold in Dumfries. Refuted claims Mr Harbinson also gave the court a detailed breakdown of how he was approached to become a courier and the payments made to transport the drugs. All of the accused claimed that he was a liar and a self-confessed cocaine addict and said that nobody would have used him as a drugs courier. After a five-week trial Blenkinsop, 43, of Winterhope Road, Annan; Harkins, 44, of West Princes Street, Helensburgh; Burns, 56, of Old Luss Road, Helensburgh; Dalrymple, 43, of Loanwath Road, Gretna; and Elvin, 35, of Garscadden View, Clydebank, were all convicted of being concerned in the supply of cocaine in Scotland, England and Spain. Blenkinsop was also convicted of being involved in the supply of cannabis and amphetamines while Harkins was found guilty of supplying amphetamines. Dalrymple and Elvin were only convicted of being involved in the drugs operation as couriers in 2009.

British man shot in Arona hold-up

 

British man, aged 58, was injured in an armed hold-up of a currency exchange shop in Arona, on the south of Tenerife, on Tuesday morning. It happened on the Paseo de Las Tosqueras in Playa de Las Américas, shortly before 9am. The injured man is named as Dennis in reports, and it’s understood that he works in the store and was shot in the right arm by the gunman. He is now under hospital treatment with an entry and exit wound in his arm from a 22 calibre weapon.

British couple arrested for holiday rentals scam on the Costa Blanca

 

British couple resident in Mojácar have been arrested by the Civil Guard for an alleged holiday rentals scam which is believed to have brought them profits of more than 150,000 €. Europa Press reports that the pair advertised properties available for short term let on the Costa Blanca which were not in fact available for rent but were occupied by their legitimate owners. The couple, who are named as John Anthony T., aged 41, and 37 year old Amanda Jane T., advertised online on several sites with photographs and descriptions of each of the properties. Their victims, which the Civil Guard said could number more than 60 in the UK, Portugal, France, Italy and Belgium, made the bookings online and were then contacted by email by the property management company. There was however no further contact once the deposit and then the remainder of the cost had been transferred into the couple’s account. Some of those affected then travelled out to the property they had rented in good faith, only to find them occupied by their owners. The Civil Guard investigation began in February after an official complaint was presented by a French woman to officers at the barracks in Pilar de la Horadada. It was followed by other denuncias from other foreign nationals with similar stories

Irishman stabbed on Ibiza

 

19 year old was attacked by two men, thought to be British, in what is thought to be a drug-related attackArchive Photo EFE A 19 year old Irish man, named as Jack McCarthy, was stabbed four times in the back and once below one of his eyes in an attack on Monday in Sant Antoni, Ibiza. It happened at 4pm in Calle Barcelona, and it’s thought that the man was ambushed by two others, thought to be British. One of the stab wounds perforated a lung, and the victim is now being treated in the Can Misses Hospital. The latest hospital statement says that he is making progress and is stable although serious. Tuesday morning the youngster wanted to discharge himself, but the doctors advised the duty Guardia and they have kept him under treatment. The Sant Antoni local police say that they found small quantities of drugs in the victim’s home, and materials indicating that he was dealing, and they presume the aggression was therefore drug-related.

229 kilos of hashish seized in the ports of Algeciras and Tarifa.

 

The Civil Guard has arrested 14 people on suspicion of crimes against public health and has involved 229 kilos of hashish in different activities conducted in the ports of Algeciras and Tarifa (Cadiz ).    As reported by the Armed Institute in a statement, actions have been carried out in step accessible for people and vehicles from ship to Tangier and Ceuta in the past week.    Thus, in the Port of Algeciras, Guardia Civil have arrested two people who had been attached to the body with adhesive tape 900 and 1.120 grams of hashish.    Also, the inspection several cars, double bottoms located inside practiced containing 26.2, 140.600 and 9.500 kilos of hashish, so that the six were detained vehicle occupants.    On the other hand, in the port of Tarifa, the Civil Guard has arrested five people who had attached to the body or inside the body of hashish amounts ranging from 350 to 1,200 grams.    Moreover, during the inspection in a car, located within 49.2 kilos of hashish hidden in a false bottom, so it has been the driver stopped.    The facts were instructed relevant steps, which together with the detainees and operated the drug have been made available to the Judicial Authority.

GUARDIA CIVIL caught three people in Almeria using instruments which are banned for recreational underwater fishing

 

GUARDIA CIVIL caught three people in Almeria using instruments which are banned for recreational underwater fishing.

 

They seized the fish which they had caught and handed it over to a charity.

They could be fined up to €60,000. One of them had already been reported for a similar event on another occasion. 

Two British women arrested after knife fight on Ibiza

Guardia Civil has arrested two British women for fighting with knives in Sant Antonio, Ibiza, according to a statement issued on Friday.

The British tourists, 29 year old Danielle V.P. and 28 year old Rachel Anne B.H. are reported to have been fighting with knifes in an argument over jealousy, according to investigators. One of them was carrying a kitchen knife and the other what is described as a barber’s shaving knife.

Neither of the two arrested were injured but two people who tried to stop the fight were. One needed several stitches to a wound according to the Guardia Civil.

It’s not the first time that knives have been used in a fight between British tourists this summer in Elvissa. Last July 28 two youngsters ended up n the Can Misses Hospital after a mass brawl, with one of the stabbed in the ribs, neck, and chest with a broken bottle, and another stabbed twice on the wrist. That fight was at the Jet Apartments and reportedly started when one person threw the other into the swimming pool and involved Liverpool and Manchester United supporters

 

Machines which dispense oxy shots for inhaling alcohol have been immobilised by the health department

The Baleares government has closed down machines at clubs in Magaluf which dispense the latest trend in shots on Mallorca, of inhaling alcohol into the lungs.

Dubbed as ‘Oxy Shots’, which are sold for around 4 €, the alcohol is mixed with oxygen gas which vaporises the alcohol, which is then inhaled via a tube inserted into the mouth. The effects of the alcohol are felt much more quickly as it is absorbed directly into the blood system.

A waiter on Magaluf’s famous Calle Punta Ballena told ABC newspaper that the oxy shots have been sold in most of the bars on the street for the past three or four years.

The regional government’s health department decided to immobilise six of the machines because there is no warning to consumers of the risk to health, a lack of hygiene, the inappropriate use of medical supp

Mexican pilot arrested at Barajas with a suitcase filled with cocaine

He assumed airport security for his flight would have been more lax last Thursday as the Pope's flight was landing at the same time


The Civil Guard released news on Thursday that a man was arrested for drug smuggling at Madrid Barajas last week, carrying 42 kilos of cocaine in his luggage.

The drugs were found in a suitcase which arrived on a flight from Mexico on August 18. The suspect, a 40 year old man named as R.G.G., was co-pilot on the flight.

According to the Civil Guard, he had attempted to smuggle such a large amount of cocaine into Spain because he had assumed that officers assigned at the airport would have been diverted to reinforce security for the Pope’s flight, which landed with the Pontiff in Madrid for World Youth Day at the same time as his.

 

Italian and Spanish police swooped on Salvatore D'Avino, one of Italy's most wanted fugitives, as he was filling his car with petrol in a town on the Costa del Sol.

D'Avino, 39, alleged to be a member of the Naples-based Camorra mafia, had been on the run for four years.
Italian police said he had been living under an assumed identity in Morocco.
A few days ago he travelled to Spain by boat with his Moroccan girlfriend, who is pregnant.
The young woman, who has not been named, wanted to show off photographs from their holiday and uploaded a number of pictures to her Facebook page.

But the images enabled Italian police to pin-point the whereabouts of D'Avino, who was on a list of Italy's 100 most wanted alleged mafia gangsters, and they arrested him on Tuesday near Marbella.
D'Avino is alleged to be a member of one of the drug-dealing clans that make up the Camorra, the Neapolitan cousin of Sicily's better known Cosa Nostra.
He was wanted on charges of drug trafficking and mafia association and if convicted faces up to 20 years in prison.
Facebook proved to be the undoing of another alleged mafia mobster last year, when police located him by tracking the internet key he used to log onto the internet.
Pasquale Manfredi, 33, who called himself "Scarface" in tribute to the gangster film starring Al Pacino, was wanted for killing a rival godfather with a shoulder-fired rocket launcher in 2004.

Safe stolen from Prince Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Salud’s palace in Marbella

NATIONAL POLICE are investigating the robbery of a 500-kilo safe from the palace of Prince Salman of Saudi Arabia in Marbella.

The safe, containing valuable jewellery and watches was apparently wrenched from the wall and taken in a van when the ‘Al Riyad’ palace, opposite the Puente Romano Hotel, was empty. The thieves left via the main gate and although the palace has CCTV cameras, they captured nothing of the robbery.

Prince Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, is the governor of Riad and brother of the deceased King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, and has been spending holidays with his family in Marbella for the past 30 years. This year, as Ramadan is in August, they returned to Saudi Arabia in late July.

 

two year old was on holiday at a hotel on Menorca

Onlookers were able to save a two year old British toddler who fell into the swimming pool in a hotel complex Ses Savines de Cala in Brut, Ciutadella.

Emergency services say the child fell into the pool when his parents were not looking and was rescued from the water already unconscious and showing symptoms of asphyxiation through drowning.

Before the ambulance arrived at the scene an onlooker carried out first aid on the child, performing the kiss of life.

The child recovered and was taken to the Clínica Menorca where he was kept under observation for a time. He was expected to be released later on Sunday.

 

British man seriously hurt in stabbing incident on the Costa Blanca

Two men, a Briton aged 53 and a 28 year old from the Czech Republic, are under treatment in the district hospital in Villajoyosa after they were stabbed during a brawl which broke out in a bar in Alfaz del Pi early on Sunday.

La Verdad newspaper indicates that their injuries are serious but are not considered to be life threatening. Neither man has been named in reports.

It happened in a bar in El Albir at around 7.30 on Sunday morning. The Civil Guard made an arrest in connection with the stabbings early on Monday, a 19 year old man from Colombia who El Mundo reports was arrested in Benidorm

 

Juan López de Uralde and other activists were arrested after breaking through security at the December 2009 summit in Copenhagen

A court in Denmark has handed down 14-day suspended sentences to eleven Greenpeace activists, including the former director of Greenpeace España, Juan López de Uralde, who gatecrashed a gala dinner at a climate change summit in Copenhagen in December 2009.

López de Uralde was amongst four activists who managed to bypass security to enter the gala hosted by Queen Margrethe of Denmark to unfurl a banner reading ‘Politicians Talk, Leaders Act’. The four had posed as the ‘head of state of the Natural Kingdom’, his wife, his bodyguard and chauffeur.

The then-Greenpeace España chief and his colleagues spent 20 days on remand before they were released with charges.

The prosecutor had applied for a two-year sentence, but reduced the request to at least 60 days at the hearing on Friday. He also applied for a ban the eight non-Danish nationals from returning to Denmark for six years, although that was turned down by the judge in the ruling made public on Monday.

An offence against the Queen, as the host of the banquet, was also turned down by the court.

A fine of 75,000 Kroner was imposed on Greenpeace Nordic.

Three tons of cannabis seized off the coast of Valencia

The Customs Authority boarded two boats off Valencia province, and another off Alicante

A ton of cannabis has been recovered by the Customs Authority from a boat which was boarded off the coast of Villajoyosa on Monday. The two crew members, who are both Spanish, have been arrested and further arrests have not been ruled in the investigation which has now been taken over by the National Police.

It came on the same day that another two boats were boarded off the coast of Valencia province and their cargoes of cannabis were also seized. Diario Información indicates that each was carrying another ton of the drug. Officers suspect that all three boats could have been supplied with their cargo from a mother ship further out at sea.

There has been no confirmation as yet on the number of arrests made in Valencia.

 

Bongo escaped from a local zoo and was calmly wandering around for five hours before he was captured

Two adult chimpanzees managed to escape from a zoo in Jaén province on Monday, the Zoo World Center in Mancha Real.

Bou-Bou was coaxed back in shortly afterwards, but the other chimp, Bongo, who stands one and half metres high and is six times stronger than a human, spent five hours calmly wandering around the streets and countryside of Mancha Real before he was captured.

There were no incidents on his stroll around the town and he was finally brought down with tranquilising darts. Diario de Jaén notes that two darts were needed to put him to sleep.

Six arrested after Cartagena kidnapping

National Police from Cartagena have arrested six people in connection with the kidnapping of a 26 year old Spaniard who was held against his will for ten days in the Los Nietos area of the town.

The man was also beaten as the four demanded that he returned money he owed them, and on his release on August 10 was admitted to hospital suffering injuries across all his body.

Police are reported to have some phone calls on August 5 and 6 which tipped them off about a possible kidnapping. The identity of the victim has not been revealed.

The six arrested, five men and a woman aged between 23 and 46 are all Spanish, now face charges of kidnap and causing injury. Four are being handled by the court in Cartagena, while two are in court in Alicante as that is where they were arrested.

 

Three French youths arrested for fatal stabbing of Briton in Lloret de Mar

French police have arrested three suspects in connection with the stabbing to death of a 15 year old British youngster in Lloret de Mar, Girona on July 17. The 15 year old Briton lived in the town, and was not a tourist.

Investigations by the Catalan regional police, Los MOssos d’Esquadra link the three to the death of the young Briton. They are all 21 and have been named as Remi Romai, Jereme P. and Ludwig Ale G.

Following this year’s clashes between drunk youngsters and the police in the town, the Town Hall has declared war on ‘drunken tourism’, and have since closed the bar outside which the fatal stabbing occurred. They note most of the problem comes from French and Italian tourists. Regional police are to more tightly control bar opening hours to try and avoid any more tragedies.

 

2,000 evacuated because of wild fire in Cartagena

2,000 people have been evacuated from their homes because of a fire in the Murcia sierra which was first reported at 11pm on Tuesday night.

The fire is known to have burnt out three properties and it is feared that the flames could reach the town of Portmán, close to the La Manga Golf Club in Cartagena.

There are no reports of any injuries, although Red Cross and 061 ambulances remain at the scene in case.

The high winds in the area are complicating the work of the fire fighters. They have sent ten trucks to the zone, and six forestry brigades are also fighting the flames. Airborne measures in the form of three helicopters and other planes were brought in at first light on Friday.

Mayor of La Unión which has also been affected, Francisco Bernabé, said ‘This is a disaster’. He confirmed to National Radio that all the population of Portmán had been evacuated, and described the wind in the zone as ‘tremendous’.

 

Spain hit by strike

The opening round of the Primera Liga season has been postponed because of strike action by the players.

The latest campaign in Spain was due to get under way on Saturday but authorities have been forced to shelve the schedule due to the ongoing dispute.

Negotiations between the Spanish Football League (LFP) and the country's players' union (AFE) broke down on Wednesday.

Representatives of the two organisations held a meeting in a bid to resolve the issue, which is related to wage structures in Spanish football, but failed to reach an agreement.

 

Waiter held in Turkey murders probe

prime and only suspect over the murders of two Northern Ireland women in Turkey is a teenage waiter who had been in a relationship with the daughter of one of the victims, sources have said.

The bodies of Marion Elizabeth Graham and Kathy Dinsmore, both from the Newry area of Co Down, were found in a forest near the port city of Izmir late on Thursday night.

Their throats had been cut, police sources have revealed.

The 17-year-old suspect is expected to be brought before a judge in Turkey later for a preliminary hearing. It is believed he has confessed to the attack.


Ms Graham owns a property in the Kusadasi area and had been spending a considerable amount of time in the popular Aegean resort with her 15-year-old daughter, Shannon.

Local reports from the Anatolia news agency suggested that one possible line of investigation centres on claims that the girl's mother had refused to allow the young couple to marry. It is understood the waiter's father and a taxi driver were also arrested.

The daughter was not with the women when they were attacked and had been on a boat trip out of Kusadasi for the day.

Irish diplomats are liaising with relatives of the two women, while an official from the Irish Embassy in Ankara has travelled to Izmir and an Irish hotelier based in Kusadasi is also in Izmir.

A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin confirmed consular staff are trying to track down family members. "We are providing consular assistance through the embassy in Ankara," the spokesman said.

South Down MP Margaret Ritchie said she was shocked by the deaths and offered her sympathy to the bereaved families, adding: "My thoughts are with those involved in this terrible incident. And also with their families, who never got the chance to say goodbye to their loved ones. I think all the people of South Down will be saddened by this news."

 

Burglars knock out their victims with sleeping gas

The Guardia Civil are investigating the burglaries of six homes in the Colinas de Procusan urbanisation at La Cala del Moral, near Rincón de la Victoria in Málaga.

The same gang attacked all the homes, using sleeping gas to put out the occupants. Most people were sleeping with the windows open and the burglars threw gas canisters in through the windows to knock out their victims.

When they woke, complete in most cases with a sore throat, and even vomiting, they found that wallets, and jewellery and other small items of value had gone. Curiously the thieves did not take any of the vehicles in the urbanisation, despite the keys being available to them.

Residents say they are worried, especially for their children.

 

predicted that wife-killer Dermot McArdle would be behind bars in a Spanish jail before the 12th anniversary of his wife's death.

CRIME reporter Michael O'Toole predicted that wife-killer Dermot McArdle would be behind bars in a Spanish jail before the 12th anniversary of his wife's death.

Michael, a journalist with 'The Star' who also lives in Louth, featured the 11 year long saga in his new book 'Slain Abroad' which chronicles the deaths of a series of Irish people abroad, including Kelly Ann Corcoran (28) who died after falling from a hotel balcony in Marbella on February 11th 2000.

Her husband, Dermot, was convicted in a Spanish court of her manslaughter in October 2008, but mounted a series of legal challenges to prevent serving the two year sentence he was handed down.

All of that changed on Friday last when McArdle dramatically revealed he would no longer be fighting extradition to Spain, and he will be flown out on Friday to begin his sentence.

'I had covered this case from the very beginning, it's been one of the most interesting because it has gone on so long.'

'On one side you had Dermot McArdle who fought every step of the way to clear his name, and on the other side there was the Corcoran family who were equally determined to get justice for Kelly Ann.'

Michael, a Spanish speaker, attended every day of the trial in Marbella nearly three years ago.

'Personally, there were so many things that stood out during the trial, but most of all it was the speech that Dermot McArdle gave on the stand. He was so cool and composed. It was one of the best performances I had ever seen.'

'But the worst moment of the trial was hearing Kelly Ann's name taken through the mud. It was heartbreaking really to see the impact that had on the family.

And he said it was a 'humbling' experience interviewing the Corcoran family on the day the verdict was delivered.

'It was obvious that they weren't interested in money, they just wanted him to say he was sorry.'

Michael welcomed last week's dramatic twist, saying 'It's been good to have followed this right through to its conclusion.