The Gibraltar Government plans to sell large quantities of cigarettes seized by local law enforcement agencies during anti-smuggling operations.

The Gibraltar Government plans to sell large quantities of cigarettes seized by local law enforcement agencies during anti-smuggling operations.

At present those cigarettes are destroyed but the Government has published a proposed legislative amendment that will enable it to auction the confiscated goods.

The auctions will only be open to persons who are in possession of a valid wholesale licence and the proceeds will be paid into the consolidated fund.

 
The change comes against the background of a crackdown on tobacco smuggling, which has surged in recent months on the back of high unemployment in the Campo de Gibraltar.

The Royal Gibraltar Police and HM Customs (Gibraltar) have both intensified their anti-smuggling efforts, as have law enforcement agencies in Spain.

They are targeting the border area, housing estates and areas of town where people gather to buy and conceal cigarettes before heading across to Spain.

The aim is to disrupt and deter those involved.

The amended law will enable the Government to create additional revenue for the public purse as a result of the crackdown. At least some of that revenue will likely be channelled back into law enforcement, the Chronicle understands. The proposed amendment to the Tobacco Act 1997 seeks “…to provide the Government with the power to dispose of cigarettes by way of an auction when these have come into its possession by virtue of these having been forfeited by court order or otherwise come into the possession of the police or customs,” the text of the amendment states.

Only cigarettes of merchantable quality will be sold at auction. If the cigarettes are not fit for sale, they will be destroyed.

The Bill for the proposed amendment was published last week and has yet to be presented and debated in Parliament.

Stolen jewels recovered in Spain

The scam, police say, involved a fake sheik, a small man hidden inside a desk, and $17.5 million in jewellery including a tiara that apparently belonged to Eva Peron of Argentina.

Spanish authorities said on Wednesday they have recovered 6 million euros in jewels stolen in the bizarre crime in the eastern city of Valencia.

As the "sheik" handed over stacks of euros to a jeweler by placing them in the drawers of desk at a business center, the small man hidden inside switched them with stacks in which only the first and last notes were real, police said.

Both parties went back to the jewellery shop where the gems were stored in order to complete the transaction. But when the jeweller tried to inspect the money again, the bogus sheik and another assistant accompanying him roughed her up, threatened to kill her, and fled with the loot.

The jewellery included a diamond tiara that apparently once belonged to Argentina's legendary late first lady, a police statement said.

Italian authorities last week announced the discovery of 6 million euros worth of the jewels in a hotel strong box in Milan, Italy. Wednesday's police statement said the jewels were back with Spanish authorities and gave details of how the 2009 con and robbery was pulled off.

 

Boris Becker's Spanish villa embargoed

The German tennis star has been prevented from selling his £15million property on Majorca following a row with his gardener, who claims Becker owes him £246,000 for the grounds' upkeep.
A court in Palma had decided to hold the debt against the villa, meaning that if he does not pay up, it will be claimed against any eventual sale.
Becker confirmed there was an ongoing dispute but said he would appeal against the court's ruling.
"There is a lawsuit and we are fighting it," he said. "They wanted more money than they were supposed to get. It is my house and hasn't been taken."
The property has been on the market since 2007 and the 43–year–old wanted the gardens in pristine condition for the benefit of potential buyers.

But the agent, Matthias Kühn, denied this and said he had no responsibility for the German's debts.
Speaking about the case at Wimbledon, where he is commentating for the BBC, Becker said there had been a "first instance decision" but that an appeal was ongoing. "The lack of a decision should be respected by all," he said.
The case is just the latest in a string of financial headaches that the villa, in Arta, has caused Becker since he bought it in 1997. In 2001, he was ordered to tear half of it down after losing a battle with plan–ning officials and two years later was fined for failing to do so.
His extensive renovations had included the creation of servants' quarters, two guest houses, a swimming pool and a tennis court.
Furious residents said he had flouted local laws by building the vast complex on an exclusive stretch of coastline and seeking permission afterwards.
Last October, Becker agreed to pay around £36,000 to an architect in an out–of–court settlement while a building firm employed to carry out repairs to the property is also claiming more than £430,000 in unpaid bills, according to the Mallorca Zeitung, the local German–language newspaper.
Becker's property portfolio took a knock following his infamous liaison with Russian model Angela Ermakova in at the upmarket Japanese restaurant Nobu in London in 1999.
The well publicised encounter resulted in a love–child, Anna, and led to his £10million divorce from Barbara Feltus, who was also awarded their £1.8 million Miami home. The three–time Wimbledon champion's woes almost resulted in a jail term when he was accused of knowingly defrauding German tax authorities.
He claimed he had won the "most important victory" of his life when he was instead handed a hefty fine and a suspended sentence in 2002.
But he was back in court the following year when he was fined over his role in the financial collapse of a sports website.
Becker now lives in Switzerland with his wife Lilly but is currently staying at his home in SW19.

 

Gems from a collection once owned by the late first lady of Argentina Eva Peron, which had been stolen in Spain two years ago, were found in a luxury hotel in Milan

Gems from a collection once owned by the late first lady of Argentina Eva Peron, which had been stolen in Spain two years ago, were found in a luxury hotel in Milan, Italian police said on Wednesday.

The jewels, worth 6 million euro ($8.6 million), include a set of diamond rings, earrings and a tiara given to Peron, who was known as "Evita," by the Dutch royal family.



Lieutenant-Colonel Antonino Bolognani from Milan's investigative force told a news conference the occupants of the hotel room were on the run.

They are part a group from Serbia who had lived outside of Milan and set up scams involving fake bank notes organized through the Internet.

Posing as sheiks and Middle Eastern investors the thieves persuaded the owners of the Joyas Sofia jewelry shop in Valencia, Spain to sell them the collection, acquired from Peron's heirs after her death.

During a meeting in December 2009, the thieves asked the jewelers to put the gems on a desk while they counted the 10 million euros payment.

"Under the desk was hiding one of the accomplices, substituting the real money with fake bank notes under the eyes of the victims," Bolognani told reporters.

The sellers suspected something was wrong and the thieves ran, grabbing the jewels. After months of investigations by Spanish and Italian police six of the gang members were arrested in Spain in May 2010 and another man was held in Milan.

When police broke into the Italian hotel room on Tuesday a member of the gang escaped, leaving behind him about three quarters of the missing jewels.

Evita died of cancer in 1952 and her husband Juan Peron was ousted by a coup three years later. He returned from exile to become president again in 1973 but died a year later.

 

Ex ETA leader on trial in Spain for murder attempt

A former leader of the armed Basque separatist group ETA is on trial for allegedly trying to kill a businessman with a parcel bomb in 2002.
Prosecutors are seeking a 15-year term for Mikel de Garikoitz Aspiazu, who was arrested in France in 2008. The trial started Wednesday at the National Court.

Spanish newspapers say Aspiazu was sent to watch the proceedings from a glass chamber after he twice refused to stand when a judge asked him to.

Prior to that, he smiled, waved to relatives and said in the Basque language that he did not recognize the Spanish judicial system as having a right to try Basque people.

Aspiazu is under investigation in several other ETA-related cases in Spain, including a deadly bombing in 2006 that ended an ETA ceasefire.

 

The Mexican cartels have expanded their control over cocaine smuggling to the point where they are also involved in the smuggling of South American cocaine to Europe and Australia.

The Mexican cartels have expanded their control over cocaine smuggling to the point where they are also involved in the smuggling of South American cocaine to Europe and Australia. This expanded cocaine supply chain means that the Mexican cartels have assumed a greater risk of loss along the extended supply routes, but it also means that they earn a far greater percentage of the profit derived from South American cocaine than they did when the Colombian cartels called the shots.


While Mexican cartels have always been involved in the smuggling of marijuana to the U.S. market, and marijuana sales serve as an important profit pool for them, the increasing popularity of other drugs in the United States in recent years, such as black-tar heroin and methamphetamine, has also helped bring big money (and power) to the Mexican cartels. These drugs have proved to be quite lucrative for the Mexican cartels because the cartels own the entire production process. This is not the case with cocaine, which the cartels have to purchase from South American suppliers.


These changes in the flow of narcotics into the United States mean that the Mexican narcotics-smuggling corridors into the United States are now more lucrative than ever for the Mexican cartels, and the increasing value of these corridors has heightened the competition — and the violence — to control them. The fighting has become quite bloody and, in many cases, quite personal, involving blood vendettas that will not be easily buried.


The violence occurring in Mexico today also has quite a different dynamic from the violence that occurred in Colombia in the late 1980s. In Colombia at that time, Pablo Escobar declared war on the government, and his team of sicarios conducted terrorist attacks like destroying the Department of Administrative Security headquarters with a huge truck bomb and bombing a civilian airliner in an attempt to kill a presidential candidate, among other operations. Escobar thought his attacks could intimidate the Colombian government into the kind of accommodation being discussed in Mexico today, but his calculation was wrong and the attacks served only to steel public opinion and government resolve against him.


Most of the violence in Mexico today is cartel-on-cartel, and the cartels have not chosen to explicitly target civilians or the government. Even the violence we do see directed against Mexican police officers or government figures is usually not due to their positions but to the perception that they are on the payroll of a competing cartel. There are certainly exceptions to this, but cartel attacks against government figures are usually attempts to undercut the support network of a competing cartel and not acts of retribution against the government. Cartel groups like the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG) have even produced and distributed video statements in which they say they don’t want to fight the federal government and the military, just corrupt officers aligned with their enemies.


This dynamic means that, even if the Mexican military and federal police were to ease up on their operations against drug-smuggling activities, the war among the cartels (and factions of cartels) would still continue.

President of Baleares Port Authority arrested in corruption investigation

Ángel Matías, Director of the Baleares Port Authority, was arrested on Tuesday as a new search was ordered of the Port Authority offices in the corruption investigation ‘Mar Blau’. Also taken into custody was the engineer, Justo Aguado, and it’s understood that both men’s homes were searched by order of Instruction Court No. 8 in the city.

They have both previously been questioned as suspects in the case.

A third address was searched in Barcelona and a third person, whose identity has not been revealed, was arrested.

It’s understood that the alleged crimes under investigation are misuse of public funds, bribery and fraud.

The case relates to alleged irregularities in concessions awarded to the company Trapsa Yates by the Port Authority for the management of berths in Mahón and Ibiza.

 

Two robbers armed with an AK-47 assault rifle have stolen approximately 100,000 € from a Carrefour hypermarket in Sevilla.

The two hooded men arrived at the store in the centre of Dos Hermanas at 1,30pm on Monday, and fired off a round from the gun as a warning. They managed to tie up two security guards who were carrying the store’s weekend takings to an armed van outside the store and then make their escape with two sacks of money.

Closed circuit TV cameras recorded how they made their escape in a top of the range Audi car.

On their arrival at the scene police recovered several bullets from the Kalashnikov rifle

Spanish airline Iberia says a man stripped naked on a flight bound for Germany carrying 110 passengers

Spanish airline Iberia says a man stripped naked on a flight bound for Germany carrying 110 passengers, causing the pilot to turn back to Madrid airport minutes after takeoff.

"The flight took off around 7:45 p.m. Thursday and not long after a man took all his clothes off, became disruptive and then locked himself in a toilet," Iberia spokesman Santiago de Juan said Saturday.

He declined to give the passenger's nationality but said the incident caused considerable inconvenience to a "nearly full flight of passengers who reached their destination of Frankfurt late, after police had to come aboard to take the man off."

De Juan said flight disruptions are mostly caused by drunken passengers, but this time alcohol hadn't played a part.

Internet collective Anonymous has vowed to avenge of the arrest of three people in Spain who were suspected to be members of the group.

Anonymous didn’t say much.  All it did was post “V for Spain... We are Legion, so EXPECT US” on Twitter and “V For Spain Expect US.” on its blog.  Its blog post featured a red V, 
Spanish authorities said the three arrested individuals were suspected leaders of Anonymous members based in Spain. The individuals were suspected of coordinating the hacking of corporations, government websites (including those of the Spanish government), and specifically Sony’s PlayStation Network.

The police also claimed that one of the arrested Spaniard’s apartments contained a computer server that was used to hack Sony.

According to RTT, the arrest of the three Spanish members followed the detention of suspected Anonymous members in the US, UK, and Holland.

Anonymous is known for its politically motivated cyber attacks.  Most recently, it attacked government websites of Turkey to protest Internet censorship, government websites of Syria for “massive repression” and the abduction of a Syrian blogger, and the US Chamber of Commerce website for supporting the PROTECT IP Act.

Anonymous is also known for acts of vengeance.

Arguably the most infamous Anonymous attacks were against Amazon, PayPal, MasterCard, and Visa to punish their refusal to provide services to Wikileaks.

British tourist has been accused of attempted rape by a woman who was staying in the same hotel in the Calas de Mallorca resort in Manacor.

Diario de Mallorca reports that he was arrested by the National Police on Monday following the alleged assault the previous night. The two Britons, a 42 year old woman and a 26 year old man, had met for the first time in their hotel on Sunday and spent several hours together before the man allegedly tried to force himself on the woman and pushed her to the floor.

It’s understood that she telephoned the local police after reaching her hotel room, who accompanied her to file an official complaint with the National Police.

Spanish woman sought after chopped up bodies found in Vienna

authorities in Vienna have issued a European arrest warrant for a Spanish woman in connection with two bodies, chopped up into pieces, which have been found hidden in a cellar in the Austrian capital.

The 32 year old is named as Goizargi Estíbaliz C. and is reported by EFE to own an ice cream store in the building where the bodies were found and is thought to also be the owner of the cellar.
A police spokesman said the missing woman has not been seen since Tuesday.

One of the victims is a man who police believe may be the Spanish woman’s ex boyfriend. The sex and identity of the second body has not yet been determined, and it’s understood that there was a long period of time between the two deaths.

There were also reports of weapons found at the scene, but there has been no confirmation of the number or the type.

 

Cordoba man was caught trying to get to Algeciras with 147 kilos of drugs concealed in his vehicle

French citizen was arrested, also on Wednesday, when he tried to do the same with 18.4

On Thursday morning the Guardia Civil officers have seized 32.4 kilograms of cannabis resin more tourism Santander's neighbor of 57 years of age

 

The staff of the Prosecutor and the Group Company Cinológica the headquarters of the Guardia Civil de Ceuta recognition serving vehicle they board ferries bound for Algeciras have been seized on Wednesday and Thursday of nearly 200 kilograms of cannabis resin in false bottoms of three vehicles.

The first discovery took place early morning, when reviewing a 'Peugeot-307' national registry detector dog marked the civil guard who guided the possibility of the existence of narcotics inside. In such circumstances, we carried out "a thorough appreciation" of the entire interior of tourism, finding the existence of drugs, hidden inside a false bottom practiced in the trunk and rear seats of the same.

Once made the dismantling of the double bottom 147 kilograms were seized cannabis resin with an estimated value of 215,000 euros, the value of tourism thousand. For the above reasons we proceeded to the arrest of its occupant, PGG, born 1961, native and resident of the town of Córdoba.

Later, on 15.30, as reported by the Command through a press release, we proceeded to the recognition of a 'Ford Transit' French tuition, being located in the interior of your spare tire other 18.4 kilos cannabis resin valued at € 27,000. He was arrested the only occupant, the NZ French citizen, born in 1979.

On Thursday, acknowledging another car national registry of the Civil Guard agents have encountered inside the fuel tank of the car the amount of 32.4 kilograms of cannabis resin valued at 47,000 euros. Following the performance, we proceeded to the arrest of the only occupant of the same, MyPC, born in 1954, and natural and neighbor of Santander (Cantabria).

Those arrested in conjunction with the proceedings initiated, have been made available to the Magistrate's Court Guards of this city, on suspicion of a crime against public health, being operated substance deposited in the Health Area of ​​Delegation Government and operated vehicles available to those authorities.

Tansey and Henry were targeted as part of a multi-agency crackdown on north west organised crime. They were arrested during joint operations with the Spanish authorities.

Two men have been jailed for their roles in three armed robberies at banks in West Yorkshire and Lancashire, between June 2008 and June 2009, after almost half a million pounds was stolen.

Lee Tansey (33) of Pegwell Drive, Salford pleaded guilty to three offences at Lloyds TSB, Darwen, Lancashire on 5th June 2008 at the same bank in Elland, West Yorkshire on 18th June 2009 and HSBC, Marsh, Huddersfield on 26th June 2009.

Rickton Mark Henry (31) of Merridge Walk, Salford pleaded guilty to armed robbery at the HSBC bank, Marsh, Huddersfield on 26th June.

At Bradford Crown Court today (09/06) Tansey was sentenced to 11 years in prison and Henry was jailed for 8 years 8 months.

At 4.30pm on Thursday 5th June 2008, three men smashed the front door of Lloyds TSB Bank on Duckworth Street, Darwen, Lancashire. The bank had just closed to the public, but staff remained inside. Two of the men carrying a crow bar and a sledge hammer demanded the safe to be opened whilst one of the men collected money containers which were on the floor. The three men then left the bank and got inside a grey coloured Audi which was later found abandoned at a car park near to Midville Place. The Audi had been stolen from Prestwich on 29th May 2008. Cash totalling £42,870 was stolen from the bank.

At 10.55am on Thursday 18th June 2009, G4S were delivering cash to Lloyds TSB Bank, Southgate, Elland, West Yorkshire when three masked men carrying a machete, a sledgehammer and a crowbar demanded one of the cash boxes be opened by the delivery man. After being threatened with the weapons he opened the box and threw the contents at the offenders namely £25,000 in cash. One of the offenders then took a member of the bank staff to another room where cash was being stored and demanded the other bags which had been delivered. In total the men stole £150,000 in cash. The men got into a Vauxhall Zafira, which already contained a driver and drove to Saddleworth Road car park. At the car park one of the men got into a white van and drove it away. Two of the men left inside the Zafira walked away from the car park, shortly followed by the last man. The Zafira was then seen to be on fire. The Zafira was stolen from an address in Bury, Manchester on 3rd June 2009.

At 3.15pm on Friday 26th June 2009 three men walked into the HSBC Bank on Westbourne Road, Marsh, Huddersfield, carrying a machete, a sledge hammer and a crow bar. They forced their way into the secure staff section of the bank and emptied the tills of money before demanding the safe to be opened. The offenders took the contents of the safe but not before assaulting one of the employees. In total they stole over £306,000 in cash. The men got into a Vauxhall Vectra which was waiting near to the bank and drove away from the scene. A short time later it was found abandoned on Saville Road, Lindley, Huddersfield on fire.

Through enquiries made using West Yorkshire Police following the robbery officers discovered that the Vauxhall Vectra was seen earlier that day on M62 and appeared to be in convoy with a Vauxhall Combi car derived van.

Just before 4pm officers from Greater Manchester Police spotted the Combi van on the motorway and started to follow it. The van then drove off a speed. Officers continued to pursue the van and it eventually stopped in the multi storey car park of the Arndale Centre. The occupants fled into the shopping centre and out of sight.

When officers searched the van they found a sledgehammer, a crowbar and a machete as well as some clothing and further clothing was found inside one of the lifts.

Tansey and Henry were arrested at Liverpool Airport after they were extradited from Spain on European arrest warrants with the assistance of the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA).

Detective Inspector Warren Stevenson of West Yorkshire Police’s Crime Division said: “These men, armed with potentially lethal weapons, forced their way into banks and stole cash for their own benefits.

“They showed no concern for the workers who were trying to go about their business when they threatened them with violence if they didn’t hand over cash.

“People should be able to feel safe whilst at work and I hope they can all take some comfort from today’s sentencing.

“These men did everything they could to try and evade capture, even committing crime across Force boundaries, but thanks to some good detective work, some sharing of intelligence between Forces including Lancashire Police and the Serious and Organised Crime Agency, they were located in Spain and brought back to England under a European Arrest Warrant to face the Courts.”
 

Matt Burton from the Serious Organised Crime Agency said: "Tansey and Henry were targeted as part of a multi-agency crackdown on north west organised crime. They were arrested during joint operations with the Spanish authorities. Our international reach should leave other criminals in no doubt that life on the run will be uncomfortable, insecure and short lived."

Brugal corruption case in Alicante has revealed the use of privileged information in the city

The Brugal corruption case in Alicante has revealed the use of privileged information in the city, with the case summary revealing conversations between the businessman Enrique Ortiz and the current Mayor of the city, Sonia Castedo. At the time of the conversations she was the Councillor for Town Planning and was discussing 120 million € worth of business for Ortiz depending on the new PGOU Urban Plan.

The case summary also reveals conversations between Ortiz and the previous PP Mayor, Luis Díaz Alperi and other PP politicians.

Police think that Ortiz also made fake rental contracts on his yacht, and that he could have changed the registration number of the craft. It seems he rented the ‘Elena’ to a group of Russians for 108,000 €, 50,000 of which was without IVA/VAT.

Contracts to rent the yacht to Sedesa company are indicated. The firm belongs to a nephew of the regional vice president, Juan Cotino.

51 British and Irish clients of MacAnthony have taken Darragh MacAnthony to court, accusing him of fraud

51 British and Irish clients of the MacAnthony real estate business which has now closed down on the Costa del Sol have taken the owner, Darragh Stewart MacAnthony to the National Court on charges of fraud.

They accuse him of keeping 600,000 € which they had paid him for furniture for homes in different areas where he was operating, such as Bulgaria, Turkey and Morrocco.

El País reports that the lawyers say most of the deals were done in the company’s offices in Marbella, in the old Club Financiero building which was the command centre for Jesús Gil when he was mayor of the town. The lawyers claim that the company was left without any assets with a move to a ‘ghost office’ in Madrid, allegedly administered by a 90 year old man from Peru.

The 35 year old Irish businessman, who is also owner of Peterborough United football club, wrote on his blog over the weekend that his company had offered cheap furniture to its clients because he could buy it wholesale. He said there were thousands of clients and everything went well until the recession.

He denies any fraud, and said that he had been left without the furniture by the suppliers.

34 mafia chiefs have been arrested in Spain in the last ten years

National Police have said the Italian mafia is leading the traffic in cocaine in Spain. The police say that 24 different clans are in operation.

Over the past ten years, 34 Napolitano Camorra, Calabrian N’drangueta, and Cosa Nostra leaders have been caught in Spain, attracted here by the climate, and the cultural and linguistic similarities to home.

Police sources told 20minutos.es that, after Italy, Spain is country where most mafia chiefs have found refuge.

‘While Germany is the country for illicit money laundering for the Italian mafias and serves as a pick up point for the sale of arms to Eastern Europe, Spain is the operations base for bringing the drugs into Europe from Latin America’.

 

Seven years internment for Chilean youth who killed British pensioner

15 year old Chilean who was found guilty in February last year of stabbing to death a 71 year old British pensioner, Peter Cockshutt, to death, on the Costa del Silencio in Arona, Tenerife, has been sentenced to seven years of internment. Three years of the internment must be closed, followed by 26 months of probation.

The youth must also attend 20 months of therapy.
He had been found guilty of homicide, robbery and burglary.

Judge María Vega Álcarez, in Juvenile Court 1 in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, also imposed compensation of 103,000 € be paid to the wife of the victim, to be paid by the adolescent’s parents.

The victim’s body was found on the night of February 8, and the next day the accused was arrested, following identification of fingerprints at the scene and the fact that the youth was already in the Guardia Civil records.

 

Iranian illegal immigrant ring cracked in Altea

OFFICERS of the Guardia Civil arrested 14 people in Altea in connection with a ring of criminals organising illegal immigration. The police operation was co-ordinated by the National Court and involved approximately 40 officers from the Special Central Unit of the Guardia Civil in Madrid, in collaboration with Alicante’s Public Safety Unit.

The co-ordinated raids involved searching two houses in Altea in the Placa de Palau, and one in Altea la Olla. The suspected criminals were Iranians whose operations involved attempting to bring illegal immigrants into Spain from Iran and Afghanistan. They used forged passports and other supporting documents, which enabled the crossing of international borders, according to investigating sources. In each instance, the illegal immigrant was charged some €30,000 by the gang.

The raids were carried out simultaneously on the homes of the three Iranian families at 7.30am precisely, as is standard practice in such operations, in order to gain the element of surprise, and the officers had their faces covered with balaclavas to protect their identities for future clandestine and undercover operations. Door-breaking equipment was used to smash in all three front doors. The occupiers included children as young as six years old and couples. All the arrested persons were Iranian except for one of their wives, who was a Romanian national.

The suspects included six couples, plus four children, who were taken into custody, as well as the mother of one of the suspects.

The searches of the three properties lasted more than eight hours and it was at first assumed by locals that it was an anti-terrorist operation. Subsequently, the motive of the trafficking of illegal immigrants came to light. It was reported that computer records and documents were seized at the properties.

 

The Iranian families had been living in the houses for two months but officers had been told that they had been in Spain for just over three years. At the same time, one local resident described the detainees as ‘very kind and good people’.

Sources state that some 1,500 people were trafficked by the gang before it was broken up. The operation was initially detected operating out of Romania and subsequently Belgium, before it moved its base of operations to Spain. The gang had been under surveillance and several police agencies co-operated throughout Europe before the arrests were made on the Costa Blanca.

 

Bouncer gets €50,000 bail for disco death

Benidorm disco bouncer accused of causing the death of a customer will be released from custody on the condition he pays €50,000 bail, sources said. The proposal for him to be freed on bail was made by his defence lawyer, a week after he was taken into custody.

Two weeks ago the bouncer ejected the victim from the Hipodromo disco in Benidorm. According to the accused, he was removed from the premises because he was ‘robbing’ people and had several altercations earlier that night with nightclub staff.

He claims once the man was outside the club, he tried to assault the bouncer, which is when he pushed the victim to the ground, and the victim hit his head. He died a day later.

 

THOUSANDS of property owners in Calpe are not paying IBI or other taxes for their homes

THOUSANDS of  property owners in Calpe are not paying IBI or other taxes for their homes, a new report shows. A study carried out by EPPI SS Soluciones SL suggests there are 885 fincas (or plots of land) in the municipality which have been built on without this being recorded on the land registry and thus not beingtaxed IBI (land value tax).

These are shown on the land registry as vacant plots. Housing estates or groups of buildings on the same plot are considered fincas, so the number of actual ‘phantom’ properties in the town could be much higher.

Two photographs contained in the report are of the same plot of land. One taken of the current situation shows an urbanisation, the other is the same plot as recorded on the registry taken before any building took place.

Although the report commissioned by the town hall is dated July 2010,  it has not been made public until now.

Ian Haggath died last Wednesday, a week after he was targeted by a gang of thieves as he walked back to his hotel.

The 50-year-old had been staying with a friend at the three-star Janelas do Mar Hotel, in the Portuguese city of Albufeira in The Algarve.
Reports in Portugal state that he was beaten and left lying unconscious before paramedics rushed him to a Faro hospital with serious head injuries.
The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office confirmed he died on Wednesday, unable to overcome his terrible injuries.
The Sunday Sun understands that Mr Haggath’s body will be flown back to the UK this week.
It is believed he was set upon by four youths suspected of assaulting an Irish citizen in the same neighbourhood last month.

Reports suggest Mr Haggath had been walking back to his hotel from the dangerous Montechoro area of Albufeira when he was targeted by thieves in the early hours. He is thought to have suffered serious head injuries including broken cheek bones, a fractured skull and bleeding on the brain.
Passers-by called the local ambulance service, which gave initial treatment at the scene.
Mr Haggath, from the Dunston area of Gateshead, and a keen player for Dunston Bowls Club, was found motionless by three fellow holidaymakers, one of whom told police he had been subjected to abuse moments earlier by the four youths.
The victim, who has two brothers in Tyneside, was in a critical condition when he was admitted to hospital, later being transferred to an intermediate care unit.

British tourist has been killed in a suspected attack by a gang in the Portugese town of Faro.

Ian Haggath, 50, from the Dunston area of Gateshead, died on Wednesday.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said it was providing consular assistance and advised Britons to be aware of the possibility of attacks.

It said in a statement: "We are concerned about the possibility of violent attacks and take this matter very seriously."

"We have updated our travel advice to warn against the possibility of violent attacks and are in contact with the police and local authorities."

Gang of robbers arrested in Barcelona for posing as police to steal from tourists

The Mossos d’Esquadra have arrested a gang of 24 suspects from Romania who persuaded tourists to hand over their wallets and identity documents by posing as police officers. The Mossos said in a statement on Monday that they generally targeted tourists from the United States and Asia and are believed to have carried out at least 80 robberies in this way, obtaining proceeds of some 80,000 €.

The Catalan police force are seeking another 14 suspected members of the gang.

They used rented cars which appeared similar to those used by the Mossos and acted in groups of three or four people, with one of them playing the part of a tourist to strike up a conversation with bona fide visitors to the Catalan capital. Other gang members posing as police would then approach the group and ask each of them for their documentation. The true tourists usually followed suit when the false tourist obeyed the officers’ instructions.

EFE reports that some were even persuaded to hand over their credit cards and their PIN numbers when the fake officers said they needed them to verify the information.

It was only later that they found out they had been robbed.

 

British woman accused of causing fatal Alicante accident which killed two of her friends

British woman who jumped a red light on the main southern access to Alicante City on Monday night faces charges of involuntary manslaughter, after causing a fatal accident. The two passengers, two women from Britain aged 71 and 62, who were travelling in the rear of her rented car died when it was hit by a bus.

The 59 year old driver and her front seat passenger, aged 58, suffered serious injuries.

EFE reports that the accident happened on the Avenida de Elche shortly before 10.30pm when the car jumped a light while attempting to turn across the traffic and was hit in the rear by a number 27 bus. The bus driver and the only other occupant of the vehicle both escaped serious injury.

The accused appeared before a judge on Tuesday and was released with charges.

 

Half a ton of cannabis found stored in a country property in Coín

The Civil Guard released news this Wednesday that officers have recovered more than half a ton of cannabis from a countryside property in Coín which was used as a warehouse to store the drugs.

The house was under suspicion of being used by drug dealers and was under Civil Guard surveillance on May 11 when three people were seen driving away from the property. Officers moved to intercept, and saw them drop three blocks of cannabis onto the road as they attempted to escape.

The suspects were arrested shortly afterwards and 520 kilos of cannabis resin were recovered in a court-ordered search of the property. La Opinión de Málaga reports that officers also seized two GPS devices, a satellite telephone and supplies used to package the drugs for distribution.

 

Man arrested for savage triple murder in Asturias

42 year old miner from León, José Manuel Álvarez Fernández, killed three people when, armed with a machete, he went on the rampage in Degaña, Asturias, in the early hours of Monday. The three victims are the father, brother and current boyfriend of his ex partner.

He killed them as they sleeping in their beds, after using a mallet to batter down the front door of his ex girlfriend’s home.

His ex, who El País reports was elected as a Socialist councillor for Degaña in Sunday’s local elections, was injured in the attack, as was her mother, although neither of their lives are in danger. It’s understood that the suspect’s two children, aged 6 and 11, who lived with their mother, were not hurt in the attack and were unaware of what was happening in their home.

Their father was arrested in Villablino, León, some hours later.

 

250 kilos of hashish in Ceuta

Guardia Civil de Ceuta has involved more than 250 kilos of cannabis resin which were to be introduced into the peninsula through the port of Algeciras (Cádiz). During the operation, agents have arrested five people and four vehicles were involved.

The first performances took place in a French registration bus, which was found 66,600 grams of cannabis resin in the fuel tank and stopped MY, born in Morocco.

Later, the same units of the Guardia Civil came the recognition of a national registered vehicle in which they found 87,300 grams of the same drug in the double bottom of the trunk and rear seats. The only occupant was arrested and be JTB, native and resident of Barcelona.

Soon after, he made another record in a Belgian car where they found 82,800 kilos of psychotropic substance. Its occupants, the Belgians MR, and HEK were arrested.

The last intervention in the territory of another vehicle, resulted in 17,200 grams of hashish and stopping to BEM, born in Morocco.

 

MAN suspected of being one of Britain’s most notorious cocaine dealers has been arrested in Spain.

Jamie Dempsey, 33, changed his looks after his picture appeared on TV, but was caught near Marbella on Tuesday.

The Serious Organised Crime Agency suspect him of being involved with a £12.6million haul of cocaine, seized in 2009.

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Dempsey, named as one of Britain’s 10 most wanted men, was traced to a villa complex in a joint operation by Spain’s National Police and the paramilitary Civil Guard.

He is being held at a high-security prison near Madrid, awaiting extradition proceedings at the National Criminal Court.

If he agrees to return to Britain, a Soca escort will take him back within the next two weeks.

But if the Essex man decides to fight, the case could take months.

Costa del Sol-based Muldoon, 64, and his wife Kim were accused of leading an operation that conned £9million from hundreds of timeshare owners.

Costa del Sol-based Muldoon, 64, and his wife Kim were accused of leading an operation that conned £9million from hundreds of timeshare owners.
An arrest warrant has been issued for Kim Muldoon, believed to have headed to Turkey, and six other members of the gang after they missed a court hearing in Malaga, Spain, brought by 300 mainly British claimants.
Maidstone-born Toni Muldoon and nine other defendants were given suspended sentences of under two years on condition that they repaid £438,000 within two years. Six pleaded guilty to fraud, the rest agreed to charges of illicit association and received a one-year suspended prison term.
The scam was run from call centres in Fuengirola from 2001 to 2006. Britons seeking to offload overpriced timeshares were contacted by telesales staff from companies including Screenit and Platinum Properties and offered an enticing rate after being told a buyer was interested.
An upfront fee of about £1,200 was then demanded for the sale management, never to be seen again. Twenty-six other companies, all linked to Muldoon, presented a fresh front for the racket, allowing it to run unchecked. A follow-up scam by company Conectese, run by Scotsman Richard Bain, saw the timeshare victims offered “legal assistance” for £250 to get their money back.
Lawyer Antonio Flores, of Marbella firm Lawbird, who represented 160 British claimants, said: “The amount the claimants were defrauded is considered only a fraction of all those who were swindled. This was a multi- million-pound scam. Muldoon is just horrible. He’s a natural-born conman.”
Victim Victor Jacobs, 89, of Hauxton, Cambridgeshire, said he was conned by “crooks”. The former engineer and his wife Peggy, also 89, received a call in 2001 from a Muldoon-linked company offering to sell their timeshare.

Mr Jacobs was keen to sell, being fed up with high maintenance fees at Lanzarote Beach Club. “The caller, a young woman, said, ‘We’ve got a buyer lined up for you,’ ” he explained. “They gave me his name and told us we would have to pay in advance.” The couple sent the £926 fee but were not contacted again.
Thousands of victims are thought to have funded Muldoon’s lavish lifestyle which includes a mansion in Benalmadena. He wrote on social networking site Bebo: “I love the fact that my work is not work. It is my passion and as I feel I am also good at it that makes me a happy man.”
Muldoon has been linked to more than 50 companies based in the UK, Spain and offshore, part of a huge international racket investigated by Interpol. He is also understood to be wanted in the UK in connection with two scams which netted £6million, after 15,000 victims paid upfront fees to websites promising debt elimination and a string of escort work.

IRELAND REMAINS one of the “preferred destinations” in the EU for cigarette smuggling

IRELAND REMAINS one of the “preferred destinations” in the EU for cigarette smuggling because of its comparatively high taxes on tobacco, a new report into criminal activity in the union has found.

Europol, the agency that handles criminal intelligence within the union, published its EU Organised Crime Threat Assessment 2011 yesterday.

It covers a wide range of criminal activity, including the drugs trade, illegal immigration, human trafficking, fraud, counterfeiting, property and environmental crime and weapons trafficking.

Europol says the “outstanding” feature of its latest assessment is the increasing diversification of the organised crime threat.

While Ireland does not feature strongly in the report, it identifies five major geographical “criminal hubs” based on their proximity to markets, commercial and transport infrastructure, the prevalence of criminal groups and “opportunities for criminal migration”.

On cigarette smuggling, the report describes its economic impact on the EU as “significant”. It estimates the “substantial loss” to national and EU budgets at about €10 billion per year.

“Organised crime groups based in the EU are increasingly active in cigarette smuggling, seen as an attractive alternative to drug trafficking because of its lower penalties and large profits.”

Criminals attempt to move goods through the free trade zones of Dubai and Jebel Ali (UAE) and Port Said (Egypt), or through regions in which the EU law enforcement community has “weaker co-operation arrangements”.

These include Indonesia, the northern Philippines and areas of the Republic of Cyprus in which the government of Cyprus “does not exercise effective control”, the report says.

“Preferred destinations within the EU are countries with comparatively high taxes on tobacco, such as the Scandinavian countries, Germany, Spain, the UK and Ireland.”

The report also notes that large-scale domestic cultivation of herbal cannabis continues to increase in the EU and says a further expansion is expected.

It says what it describes as “Vietnamese groups” are prominent in the indoor cultivation of cannabis, particularly in Ireland, the UK, the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic and Poland.

“Traditionally hierarchical in structure, these have expanded to incorporate specialist roles for electricians, plumbers and the management of cultivation facilities . . .”

Europol also notes the “substantial” economic and social impact of VAT fraud. Annual losses by member states in some cases up to €3 billion, “imply this is a significant, multibillion euro illegal business”, it says.

Three men who tried to smuggle drugs into the country have been jailed for a total of 42 years following a UK Border Agency investigation.

The gang devised an elaborate plot involving a military airfield and coded text messages between smugglers on opposite sides of the English Channel.

Cocaine with an estimated street value of £3.5m was found on board a light aircraft which had flown from the French resort of Le Touquet when it touched down at Mona Airfield, Anglesey, in July 2009.

Officers from North Wales Police met the aircraft and carried out a search of the plane which revealed 14 kilos of the Class A drug.



UK Border Agency investigators later seized a mobile phone which carried coded text messages between the conspirators. It led to further examination of phone records, establishing the involvement of others in the plot.

Following a two-month trial at Liverpool Crown Court, the plane's owner David Watson was last month found guilty of conspiracy to smuggle cocaine.

Michael Cahillane, had previously admitted the same charge. A third man, Richard McArthur, had denied knowing the drugs were cocaine, but admitted a charge of smuggling cannabis.

The three men were sentenced at the same court. Watson received 20 years, Cahillane 16 years and McArthur six years.

Jim Jarvie, Deputy Director at the UK Border Agency's crime directorate, said: “This was clearly a significant smuggling operation, worth millions of pounds to the people involved. They clearly thought that arriving a small airfield would ensure they were able to by-pass law enforcement controls. This was not the case.

“The cocaine was destined for the north west of England. Together with the police, the UK Border Agency has made sure that these drugs have not reached the streets and the key players brought to account.”

man who was wanted in connection with alleged drugs crimes in the United States was arrested in Palma de Mallorca on Monday.

56 year old Carmelo A.C.M. from Argentina was wanted on a US international arrest warrant issued through Interpol for drug offences committed over a period of 20 months between 1987 and 1988. El Mundo newspaper reports that he is believed to be a member of a gang of drug smugglers which attempted to smuggle 1.3 tons of cocaine into the U.S.

The cargo was found hidden in cases of canned anchovies which had been shipped to port in Philadelphia on a ship from Mar del Plata, Argentina.

fitted tracking devices to Civil Guard vehicles and were also able to sabotage the coastal eletronic surveillance systemSome of the items seized by police

The National Police have made two more arrests in their investigations in Huelva into a network which helped drug smugglers to bypass controls on the coast of the province. Eight people were arrested last month, including two Civil Guard, and with these latest arrests police now say the network has been disbanded.

Detectives had been working on the case for the past seven months and discovered that the organisation had fitted tracking devices to 11 Civil Guard vehicles to control their movements. Another part of the service offered was to put the SIVE electronic surveillance system out of action in some areas, to allow the smugglers to approach the coast undetected.

The Interior Ministry said in a press release on Thursday that the two Civil Guard formed a key part of their operation, as did one of the latest two suspects taken into custody, a guard security for the Agencia Tributaria Tax Authority.

Almost two and a half tons of cannabis were seized in February during the course of the investigation.

 

 

THE Guardia Civil arrested four men of North African origin who landed with a powerboat off the coast of les Rotes Denia

THE Guardia Civil arrested four men of North African origin who landed with a powerboat off the coast of les Rotes Denia last Saturday. A local fisherman called the authorities that morning to advise them that he had spotted a boat about 14 miles offshore that appeared to be drifting.

With only thoughts of a rescue operation, the emergency services of the coastguard and Guardia Civil immediately went into action sending a helicopter and boat to save the drifting vessel.

However, the apparent hapless sailors in need of rescue fled from their would be rescuers, and landed their semi inflatable boat on the rocks of Les Rotes.

More Guardia Civil were present to arrest three men from the boat on grounds of disobeying instructions and failure to co-operate with the authorities. A fourth man escaped but was arrested later in the day.

The boat in question was not equipped with food, or any other provisions, and neither were any drugs found, but it is believed by the Guardia that this interception is linked with another more successful operation on Tuesday of last week, when a boat carrying 940 kilos of hashish was discovered off Santa Pola.

The two boats were of similar design, both being 12 metres long  and powered by a 250 HP outboard motor, giving them great speed.

The apparent modus operandi of such smugglers is to time their approaches to coincide with favourable tides and then throw the drugs into the sea at night knowing that they will float into land on the tide and be picked up by awaiting ‘gang’ members.