1,400 luxury homes in El Paraíso

An agreement was due to be signed in Estepona this Monday which will allow the Saudi royal family to go ahead with a project to build 1,400 luxury properties in the area of El Paraíso.La Opinión de Málaga reports it as a project previously approved by the Town Hall, but which was put on hold last June with the arrests in the Astapa corruption case. Some amendments have been made since then, including, at the request of the Partido Popular, a new road to connect the new urbanisation with other areas nearby. The Saudi royal family have also accepted to cede 30,000 square metres of land for public facilities.The paper said work could start at the beginning of next year, bringing much-needed employment in the local construction sector.

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British man accused by the business owner of stealing a barrel of beer worth 600 €.

British man named by Ideal newspaper as Leslie James B. has been arrested by the Almería Civil Guard for a spate of thefts from a business in Turre and selling the stolen items on to beach restaurants in Mojácar. He’s accused, according to Europa Press, of passing off cakes he allegedly stole from the shop as ones he had made himself.He was caught red-handed gaining access to the premises via a terrace and leaving with his haul. The suspect is reported to have a previous record for theft, and is also accused by the business owner of stealing a barrel of beer worth 600 €.

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Body found in the Alicante mountains where Michael Egglestone disappeared

Body found in the Alicante mountains where a British holidaymaker disappeared at the end of May is not believed to be that of the missing man, the UK Northern Echo reports this Thursday. The newspaper spoke to residents of Benichembla, where Michael Egglestone was staying when he disappeared, who said they had been told by the Guardia Civil that the body found on the mountains had not yet been identified. The newspaper said it’s believed to be a local man, and was being transferred for autopsy in Dénia on Wednesday night.52 year old ex soldier, Michael Leslie Eggleston, was last seen on 31st May when he set off on a hiking trip from Benichembla, a village where almost half the 750 or so inhabitants are foreign residents. He’s reported to be an experienced walker and set off well-prepared for the trip. A Civil Guard search has so far failed to find any trace of him and his wife, Janice, returned home to Nettlesworth, in the North East, this Wednesday night. She’s believed to have helped in the search for her missing husband, the paper said.The couple have two children and are reported to have been married for around 10 years.

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Top-level prostitution in Elche

Residents of a building in Elche, only constructed 18 months ago, say they have been fighting top-level prostitution in the block for the past five months.It’s because one of the flats on the fifth floor has become a luxury prostitution venue, and sees a never ending parade of prostitutes and their clients. The residents say they often have to put up with ‘unpleasant comments’ and so now they have started to protest by putting banners over their balconies saying ‘whores out’ and even hanging up some blow-up dolls. They have spent 19,000 € on a new video camera security system and a private guard, in an effort to intimidate possible clients heading for the 5th floor. One of the people thought to have rented the premises concerned told Público newspaper that they are doing no damage and bother nobody. 'When a client comes they ring the bell and the door opens, no more', and that they only operate from 11am to 11pm.

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Michael Leslie Eggleston went missing in the Alicante village of Benigembla a week ago

Guardia Civil has been continuing its search for the 54 year old British hiker who went missing in the Alicante village of Benigembla a week ago.Ex Soldier, Michael Leslie Eggleston, has not been seen since last Sunday when he went out hiking.
His wife reported his disappearance on Tuesday, but so far the search, using mountain teams and a helicopter, has revealed nothing. It is concentrated in the mountain areas of La Solana and La Laguna.Benigembla is a village with some 750 residents, 45% of them are foreign residents, mostly from the EU.

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

A multiple offender from Latvia and a Russian gangster, formerly a resident of Latvia, were arrested in Ecuador last week along with another citizen of Russia and three Ecuador citizens on the charges of large-scale drug smuggling, informs LETA.
The six were detained by Ecuador Police at Guayaquil Port after a ship sailing under the Spanish flag, that was taking 21 tons of molasses to Barcelona, was arrested. Experts later determined that molasses contained 17 tons of cocaine that had been mixed with the molasses.Guayaquil police inform that it is one of the largest drug consignment to be seized in Guayaquil. The Latvian police have not yet commented.One of the detainees is Vladimirs Mitrevics, alias Podsolnukh (sunflower), a resident of Latvia, and Russian citizen Maxim Tarnopolsky who was convicted in Latvia of vehicular manslaughter and sentenced to ten years in prison, after his "Mercedes-Benz G320" veered onto the wrong side of the road and collided with another three cars, killing three and injuring another three people.
In 2001, Tarnopolskis was sentenced to ten years in prison, but he escaped from Vecumnieki Prison in 2005.Mitrevics was charged and tried several times for various crimes, in 2003 he was given a one-year jail sentence, suspended for six months, for unlawful possession of narcotic substances.

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

Joseph Jones, 24, from Crescent Road, New Barnet, and Norman Jones, 50, from Dukes Head Yard, Highgate, abducted landscaper and scrap metal dealer John Finney last year because they believed he had stolen their drugs. They drove the 42-year-old father-of-four 30 miles to a business unit in Hertfordshire and tortured him before killing him and mutilating his body. Two weeks later a member of the public discovered Mr Finney's naked remains behind a garage block in Ickleford.
His hands and head have never been found. The father and son were sentenced today at St Albans Crown Court, in Bricket Road, after a jury on Monday found them guilty of murder. Joseph Jones's friend Mark Curran, 28, of Dollis Valley Way, Barnet, and Gary Lattimore, 40, formerly of Littleheath Road, Bexleyheath, were both cleared of murder. Jailing Norman Jones for a minimum of 33 years and his son for a minimum of 30 years, Judge Mr Justice MacDuff said: "You are both evil men with nothing to commend you. “You committed a meticulously planned murder. You decided summarily to execute a man who you thought, rightly or wrong, probably wrongly, had crossed you.
"It is difficult to comprehend how evil you are. You lack any semblance of humanity." Justice MacDuff said he was "close to tears" after reading a family impact statement from the murdered man's father. He added: “You have subjected the Finney family to unimaginable grief, the loss of a proper man and man of real worth." Speaking after the verdict, Mr Finney’s family said: “The past year has been so very hard for us as a family. We have had to try to understand why a loving son and father was taken from us in such a brutal way and come to terms with this immense loss in our lives. “We have been helped by the support shown by many kind-hearted people around us and we would like to thank them. “But nothing can replace John and he will continue to remain so very much in our thoughts and prayers.”
The sentence means Norman Jones, who was worth £7 million will not be eligible to apply for parole until he is 83. He claimed he had made his fortune from horse racing and property development in Spain, but police suspect he made his fortune through crime. Mr Finney was living with his girlfriend in a caravan at Park Farm, Northaw Road West, Northaw, Hertfordshire, when he was abducted in February last year. He had used his truck a few weeks earlier to help tow another vehicle out of a mud-filled ditch at the farm, which had links to the killers. When a consignment of drugs went missing from it, Mr Finney was suspected of being responsible, but police say he was innocent. The killers then set about a plan to exact revenge, using "dirty" mobile phones to make death threats and purchase the van used to abduct Mr Finney, which were later discarded. Mr Finney was dragged from his car at gunpoint at around 7pm on February 29, 2008. He was taken to a specially rented shack in Knowl Piece, Wilbury Way, Hitchin, and murdered. Mr William Harbage QC, prosecuting, asked the jury to conclude that Mr Finney had been shot in the head and wounds on his body indicated he had been tortured. Mr Harbage said: “Mr Finney seriously upset some thoroughly unscrupulous and ruthless people. This was a callous, cold-blooded, pre-meditated execution of a man against whom they bore a grudge." The Joneses fled to Spain after the killing and were arrested in Marbella on May 1, 2008. Detective Chief Inspector Bill Jephson, who led the investigation, said: "John was the victim of a calculated and pre-planned, savage attack. We will never fully understand the motive for such brutality and only those individuals responsible for John's death will know exactly what happened to him. “John was a well-known and respected member of the travelling community, and his death has had a profound impact. I am extremely grateful for their support and cooperation over the last year and for respecting the investigation.” Patrick Fields of the Crown Prosecution Service said: "This was a painstaking enquiry into a particularly brutal and grisly execution of a man who had done nothing wrong." Police believe a fifth person also took part in the murder, who they are still trying to identify.grandson and former son-in-law of gangster Charlie Kray were jailed for a minimum of 63 years Charlie Kray was the elder brother of gangster twins Ronnie and Reggie. He was seen as the quieter one of the trio who brought terror to London in the Sixties. He died aged 73 while serving a 12-year sentence for his part in a drugs plot.

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

Raffaele Amato, involved in a murderous turf war within the Camorra crime syndicate, was picked up Saturday in Marbella in a joint Italy-Spain operation, Naples prosecutor Giovandomenico Lepore said in a statement.Amato is accused of several homicides in connection with a feud dating back to 1991 between two Camorra clans that left more than a dozen people dead, he said.He was a top killer for boss Paolo Di Lauro, who was trying to keep control of the clan from rival Antonio Ruocco, Lepore said.In 2006, Di Lauro was convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison on charges of Mafia association, extortion and drug trafficking. On Sunday, prosecutors added subsequent charges to his sentence, along with six other people already behind bars.Amato was arrested in Spain in 2005 but was freed a year later on a technicality.The head of the Naples police squad, Vitrorio Pisani, said Amato had since become "the principal, or one of the principal importers of cocaine in Italy."The Camorra, the equivalent of the Sicilian Mafia for the Naples area, controls drug and arms trafficking, prostitution, extortion and illegal betting rackets.

Raffaele Amato, an alleged boss of the Camorra gang of Naples, had made a base in the glitzy coastal resort of Marbella, police say, even earning the nickname, 'the Spaniard.Neapolitan gangsters such as Raffaele Amato, the fugitive boss whom police captured Saturday night in the city of Marbella, have a name for Spain: La Costa Nostra, or Our Coast.The term plays off Cosa Nostra, or "Our Thing," as the mafia is called, and underscores what authorities say: that Spain has become a top foreign base for the Naples underworld, the Camorra, in the last decade. Spanish police have arrested half a dozen suspected Neapolitan crime figures this year alone."They use that name 'Costa Nostra' because it's like a second homeland for them," said Alessandro Pennasilico, an Italian anti-mafia prosecutor in Naples, in an interview. "They like Spain: the climate, the coast, the beaches, because it's close to their culture. And the Camorra goes where there is business. Spain is an important country regarding the trafficking of drugs."Amato's nickname is "the Spaniard." He partied in Marbella, a beachfront refuge of high-rolling international desperados and dubious fortunes. Investigators say he set up multinational cocaine deals in Barcelona. Moving among Spanish hideouts, he allegedly waged a long-distance war for the gloomy housing projects in Naples that are the heart of his empire.And he speaks Spanish, a language that resembles the Neapolitan dialect even more closely than it does Italian, like a native.The capture of Amato is a major victory for Italian anti-mafia investigators. The balding, 44-year-old kingpin gained notoriety for setting off a turf war with a rival clan between 2004 and 2007 that littered the high-rise slums of Naples with 70 bodies. The battle was retold in "Gomorra," a book by journalist Roberto Saviano, and in the recent film of the same name.Intense Camorra activity in Spain reveals evolving alliances and shifts in globalized crime networks, investigators say. Starting about seven years ago, Amato was a key player in a number of decisive underworld sit-downs in Spain, which is the gateway for Latin American cocaine smuggled into Europe, according to Antonio Laudati, a top official in Italy's Justice Ministry and former chief prosecutor in Naples.Europe became an increasingly hot market for cocaine because of rising demand, a strong currency and the hardening of U.S. borders after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Laudati said in a telephone interview. The Neapolitans met with Latin American and Spanish gangsters to build new partnerships and develop the European market, he said."They reorganized the routes," Laudati said. "One important route for cocaine into Spain went through North Africa. Another crossed the Balkans into Italy. And Barcelona became a hub for a land route for cocaine to Italy through France, where the Marseilles underworld has always had close ties to the Camorra. So you had a mixed operational group of bosses base itself in Spain."
The Camorra enlisted Spanish seagoing smugglers and front companies that concealed loads in shipments of products such as marble and seafood, Laudati said. Italian gangs also took advantage of the booms in real estate and construction in Spain to launder millions, according to authorities.Although the Neapolitan crime clans are flashy and murderous at home, they avoided violence in Spain because it was seen as a place to do high-level business and lie low.Nonetheless, the numerous arrests in Spain show that Spanish and Italian law enforcement have developed good cross-border cooperation. Amato was arrested in 2005 in Barcelona, but was released months later because of a judicial error in which the deadline for his prosecution passed by a day.Police began tracking him again in 2006. He lived in southern Spain and used fake Spanish documents to travel to see his family at upscale hotels in London, Tokyo and Turkey, according to Italian authorities and media reports.Last weekend, patient surveillance and wiretaps culminated when Italian and Spanish police trailed Amato on a 30-mile drive along the Mediterranean from Malaga. They arrested him on his way to a Saturday night date in Marbella, the glitzy capital of "his coast."

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Collapse of the pound Holiday makers will still pay around £85 more per €1,000 they spend this year, compared to April 2008

Collapse of the pound against the Dollar, and to a lesser extent the Euro, mean British holiday makers will find their break in the Med, or their Disneyland trip, much more expensive this year.
Research from moneysupermarket.com reveals it will cost Brits nearly £300 more for every $1,500 spent in the States now, compared to this time last year.For European travellers the outlook isn't much better, despite the pound's recent rally against the Euro holiday makers will still pay around £85 more per €1,000 they spend this year, compared to April 2008.Peter Harrison, travel money expert at moneysupermarket.com, said: "There can be no doubt the weakening pound will have a big impact on where people can afford to go on their summer holidays this year. Trips to Europe and America are going to be much more expensive for Brits, so making sure you organise your foreign currency in good time will be more important than ever."Using a credit or debit card which doesn't levy charges for use abroad, such as the Post Office credit card, is often the best way to keep foreign currency costs down."Another option is to get a prepaid card and load it with a set amount of holiday money. The rates on these cards are amongst the best in the market for travel money, and they can help people stick to budgets."

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Action star Dolph Lundgren's wife was left traumatized after robbers tied her up in their home

Action star Dolph Lundgren's wife was left traumatized after robbers tied her up in their home. The masked burglars abandoned the robbery after discovering the house belonged to the "Rocky IV" star.Three armed thieves broke into his Costa del Sol villa and tied his wife Anette, who was alone in the estate. They were terrorizing her into giving them cash, jewelries, and other valuables when they recognized the actor's picture in a family portrait.They quickly abandoned the raid.The 6ft. 5 in. karate black belter, who gained fame playing Russian boxer Ian Drago opposite Sylvester Stallone's Rocky in the film's fourth installment, consoled his wife when she phoned him in tears.A source told the Daily Mail, "Things might have turned out very differently if Dolph had been in.""The criminals fled as soon as they realized the owner of the house they had raided was someone they wouldn't want to come up against in a fight.""They left Anette pretty traumatized. She's Dolph's angel and anyone who messes with her is messing with him."The authorities are currently hunting the three attackers.The source said, "Police have got very few leads. All three burglars wore balaclavas and they've no real description to go on.""They're look at CCTV footage to see if they can advance the inquiry. Dolph's away on business a lot and he's increased security to try to avoid a repeat."Lundgren is currently filming Stallone's "The Expendables" with an all-star cast.

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WARNING:Portuguese man-of-war seen close to the beaches of the Costa del Sol, in southern Spain, and off the coast of Murcia, in the south-east.

Portuguese man-of-war , with their lethal stings, made an unusual incursion into waters normally considered too warm for them.The jellyfish have been seen close to the beaches of the Costa del Sol, in southern Spain, and off the coast of Murcia, in the south-east.
The Portuguese man-of-war, a jelly-like creature, gives a burning sting that is far more painful than that of a jellyfish.In extreme cases, the sting can cause heart attacks in victims who are allergic to it.Westerly winds have blown the Portuguese men-of-war into the Mediterranean through the Strait of Gibraltar and along the length of Spain's southern coast, scientists said."They go wherever they are driven by the wind," Xavier Pastor, of the Oceana NGO organisation, explained."They have little sails and that means that, if the wind is blowing in towards the coast, they end up on the coast."Pastor said groups of the creatures had been seen off Malaga and the Costa del Sol a few weeks ago.The latest sightings, around Murcia, were made by Spain's state-run Oceanography Centre of Murcia.The tentacles of a man-of-war can be 30 metres long and are strung with tiny stinging capsules that survive even when it has been washed up onto shore or if the tentacles have broken off.
The capsules have small triggers that release the stings when they are touched and hang below a pink-tinged blue bubble that acts as the sail.Pastor said there did not appear to be enough of the creatures to form a permanent colony in the Mediterranean but warned of dramatic consequences if they did."It would be a big problem for the tourist industry and for swimmers," he said. "This is far worse than having jellyfish."

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Arrested a taxi driver who is accused of raping a British tourist in the Marbella hotel

On Tuesday the woman, who is around 50 years old, had lunch in a restaurant in Marbella and then asked for a taxi to collect her and take her to her hotel.The taxi driver took the woman to her hotel and then apparently went with her up to her room. Sources close to the case say that the hotel receptionist saw the driver go up to the fourth floor and then come down some minutes later. It was during this period of time that the rape allegedly took place.
Once the driver had gone, the woman told a friend what had happened. The friend took the woman to the Costa del Sol Hospital for an examination. The results of the examination said that there were signs of sexual aggression involving penetration - which the woman says was against her will - and light bruising on her arms which could have been caused by being held down.
The hospital informed the National Police who arrested the taxi driver at a bus stop within a matter of hours. The driver was later released with charges by the courts.National Police officers have arrested a taxi driver who is accused of raping a foreign tourist in the Marbella hotel she was staying in.According to the sources close to the case, the victim originally intended to go home without bringing charges but she decided to do so and confirmed her version of events to the police.

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Hicham Mandari lying face down in a garage between Mijas and Fuengirola on the Costa del Sol with a bullet in his head

Spanish police first came upon the body of Hicham Mandari lying face down in a garage between Mijas and Fuengirola on the Costa del Sol with a bullet in his head, they thought him just one more victim of a revenge attack among gangsters, typical of the region. Or they said they did. But the death of the young Moroccan has involved the secret services of four countries and turned a spotlight upon the secretive, sometimes menacing world of the Moroccan royal court.Mandari's body was found around midnight on 4 August, but it was not until 11 days later that police confirmed the death and ventured that the assassination by a single 9mm bullet shot upwards from the back of the neck bore the hallmark of a professional contract killing. The crime was "the work of common delinquents, very probably French or Moroccan acting under contract", police said. But under contract from whom? "We are becoming aware that the victim had created a long list of enemies," a source said with more than the usual circumlocutory caution in the days that followed.Witnesses said the victim, aged 33, was hunted down to the spot where he died by a person with Arab features. Some testified to having seen Mandari in the streets accompanied by three "Arabs or Maghrebis". Others swore they saw two men flee the scene to jump into a van driven by a third man."The only thing we know for sure," confided a baffled police source, "is that Mandari was killed the day he arrived in Spain. Effectively, he headed directly to his rendezvous with death."
He had already survived three assassination attempts - the last in Paris in April 2003 sent him to hospital with three bullets in his body. He came out stuffed with cortisone and with a serious injury to his right leg. More than a month after his death, no further leads have appeared, and the circumstances of his death have become more mysterious.Investigations have partially uncovered a tale of alleged currency forgery, blackmail and corruption surrounding the court of the late Moroccan king, Hassan II, where Mandari was once a trusted courtier.The tables turned brutally against the ertswhile golden boy of the Moroccan jetset, who went so far as to declare himself King Hassan II's lovechild, and whom the authorities in Rabat came to dismiss as a dangerous delinquent and fantasist. From favourite son to hunted pariah, Mandari went on the run while threatening to spill the beans on palace dramas involving concubines and secret treachery that would shatter the modern image today's Moroccan royals have been trying to project.

While Spanish authorities kept quiet over the identity of the body in the carpark, French secret services tracked down a Frenchman of Algerian origin who had provided Mandari with a false Italian driving licence in the name of Ben Al Asan Ala Laoui Icam. The man apparently saw Mandari just before he took the flight to Malaga on the afternoon of 4 August. "I'm going to Spain for a couple of days perhaps to Italy," Mandari told him over a coffee, and in an unprecedented gesture, gave his accomplice his address book and a mobile phone. Moroccan, Bahreini and Saudi security services have since become involved.Spain later complained that the French dragged their feet for five days before revealing the man's real name. Hopes of getting a lead from his notebook were dashed. "He did everything in code," police said.One story for the murder was that Madari had made a romantic tryst with a young woman with whom he was infatuated and on whom he lavished money. She is said to be a senior member of the Moroccan hierarchy who was on holiday in Marbella just down the coast. Another hypothesis, suggested by al-Jazeera television, was that Mandari was heading for the Spanish costa in pursuit of a business opportunity: he planned to acquire a local radio station to beam broadcasts in favour of Moroccan democracy to his compatriots across the Mediterranean.The Spanish newspaper El Pais indicated that Mandari had given the Moroccan authorities ample grounds to wish him out of the way: "It is logical to give priority to a suspected act of revenge of Moroccan origin, since Mandari constantly made threats against Rabat." But a French security source, quoted by the Paris-based Libération, was more circumspect: "Since we're dealing with an individual implicated in so many shady activities and who had so many enemies, it's necessary to look in all possible directions."

The scene was the perfect choice for such a crime. The Costa del Sol, hangout for rich gangsters from everywhere, has become so used anonymous contract killings that it became dubbed the Costa del Plomo - the Coast of Lead. Here, far from prying eyes, whether they be the forces of law and order or rival gangs, criminal networks mastermind lucrative drug, money-laundering and revenge deals.
Spain's sun-bleached, palm tree-lined, gangland paradise is not so far from the environment in which Mandari grew up and from which he was expelled when he turned against his powerful protectors in 1999.
"A future chronicler of Morocco's ruling dynasty should mark the name of Hicham Mandari as that of the man who pierced the thick walls of the royal palace and revealed the secrets of a monarchy of divine right made mortal by the human, too human, frailties of the reigning family," wrote Le Monde.
Brought up by his mother, Sheherazade Mandari, née Fechtali, the young Hicham grew up in the 1980s under the protection of Hafid Benhachem, a future national security director, whose two sons became his boyhood friends. Never short of money, the trio used to tear round Rabat on a moped and frequent the capital's smartest disco, the Jefferson.Hicham then eloped with Hayat Filali, the daughter of a senior royal official. The couple were caught, but instead of being punished, received the blessing of the king to marry. This happy outcome was arranged by Hayat's aunt, Farida Cherkaoui, the king's favourite concubine.She further arranged that Mandari join the court as a member of the security department, which was headed by Mohamed Mediouri, who happened to be in love with King Hassan's wife, who was known as "mother of the princes". (When the king died in 1999, Mediouri married her and they still live together in Versailles and Marakech.)Mandari lost no time in winning over the women of the harem by showing them with gifts. He brought telephones and computers for the king's concubines, who were kept in seclusion and attended by white-robed servants.By the late 1990s, King Hassan, though weakened with age, still terrorised his subjects through the arbitrary use of arrest, torture or secret prisons. But within the ochre-washed palace walls, he could not control the avarice among his own servants, who - fearful of their status after the king's death - plundered silverware, paintings, carpets and furniture.Mandari, through his accomplices in the harem and other courtiers, gained access to the palace strongbox, where he helped himself to several of the king's blank cheques. These he used to strip the king's accounts of several hundred million dollars, plus crown jewels and secret documents, including an inventory of royal possessions abroad - or at least that is what he intimated later, in a brazen attempt to blackmail the royal house.He was confronted one day by a court official who had been asked by a Luxembourg bank to authenticate the royal signature on a huge cheque. Warned by court spies of the king's wrath, Mandari fled abroad with his wife and their baby daughter."His majesty entrusted me with an inquiry into the thefts," King Hassan's Interior Minister, Driss Basri, told Le Monde. "I think Mandari had in his possession three or four state secrets." Mr Basri made this confession after falling out with Hassan's son Mohammed and fleeing to exile in Paris.Mandari left Paris for Brussels, Frankfurt and finally reached the US, where he launched accusations against the Moroccan crown. On 6 June, 1999, he took out an advertisement in The Washington Post addressed to the king, in which he declared he was "a victim of lies" and demanded "a royal pardon". He went on: "You must understand, Majesty, that for my defence and those close to me, I have prepared dossiers containing information ... damaging to your image throughout the world." A fortnight later, he narrowly escaped being kidnapped in Florida.King Hassan died in July 1999 and was succeeded by Mohammed, who sought to cover up the scandal and extradite the former courtier to Morocco. Mandari was arrested in the US in connection with the circulation of falsified Bahrein dinars to the value of €350m (£238m), fabricated in Argentina, and spent three years fighting his extradition. He was freed in 2002 and extradited to France, in a brokered deal under which France promised not to hand him over to Morocco.In 2003, his wife left him and returned home, whereupon Mandari prounced himself Hassan's love child by Farida Cherkaoui and hence brother to the reigning monarch. Ms Cherkaoui has subsequently gone to ground. At this point he was arrested on charges of blackmailing the president of the Morocco's Foreign Trade Bank, Othman Benjelloun, one of the richest men in Morocco. Freed on bail in January 2004, Mandari was now fearing for his life.Mandari planned to call a press conference in the glitzy pleasure resort of Marbella on the eve of his death, to lay bare "the blackest pages of corruption of the kingdom now ruled by Hassan's son Mohammed ... and call upon democratic forces to fight for a state of law", according to Madrid's La Razon newspaper.
Mandari's opposition movement, the National Council of Free Moroccans, was dismissed by the Moroccan weekly Le Journal in July, just days before his death, as "a still-born fraud composed of two fanatics". Moroccan authorities were none the less alarmed when he asked the well-known left-wing Spanish lawyer Cristine Almeida to help him obtain a resident's permit.Mandari told Le Journal in his last interview that he "planned a press campaign particularly damaging to Morocco". He also hinted at scandal in France: "I know all the French ministers," he said. "I know Chirac very well. I called [the Interior Minister] Dominique de Villepin but he has been told not to talk to me. I know lots of things about other politicians too."The dissident Moroccan writer Ali Lmrabet described Mandari as "the man who knew too much". He "gave the impression of knowing many people in the palace", and would show to anyone interested a photocopy of a Moroccan diplomatic passport in which he is described as "special adviser to Hassan II", Mr Lmrabet wrote in the Spanish El Mundo daily.Mandari was like an orchid, a friend recalled: "Beautiful to look at, but rooted in mud." Whoever crushed this exotic bloom, few in the Moroccan royal court will mourn his passing.

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Police raids 60 prostitutes from Carambola, Canela, Manhatten and H2 roadside clubs

Eight club owners seized along with 60 prostitutes from the Carambola, Canela, Manhatten and H2 roadside clubs, all in El Ejido and Roquetas de Mar.largest network of traffickers of Russian women for means of sexual exploitation ever to have been investigated in Spain has brought the Spanish National Police to Almeria Province where the greatest number of arrests has been made.Operation ‘Zarpa’, which is in its third stage of development, has led to the arrests of 24 men and women in Almeria who have been controlling the illegal network. The Ministry for the Interior says a total of 400 women have now been arrested for being in Spain illegally as part of the operation, who were placed in flats which were tightly controlled and supervised. Eighteen properties in Almeria Province were raided by police, most of which were in El Ejido and the rest in Roquetas del Mar and Berja. The women were packed into small apartments, and police found as many as 14 beds in each flat.
More than two million euros have been sent back to Russia since 2006, and investigations have shown that the operation was controlled by married couples of both Spanish and Russian nationality. They will now face many years in prison.These exploiters lure girls to Spain with promises of a better life but once they arrive, their passports are taken away and they are subjected to a life of “sexual slavery”.

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Ley de Costas has to be respected and chiringuito beach restaurants be removed from the sand

Mayor of Torremolinos, Pedro Fernández Montes, described the statements from Juan Carlos Martín Fragueiro, as a barbarity and a new attack on the Costa del Sol, while in Benalmádena the Mayor, Javier Carnero, said the law did not understand the idiosyncrasies of this type of business, even though no restaurants in Benalmádena would be affected.Ley de Costas has to be respected and chiringuito beach restaurants be removed from the sand, ten large municipalities on the Costa del Sol say they are having none of it.They say they simply do not have the space to relocated the beach restaurants and say the economic cost of moving them and the threat to workers jobs also has to be considered.There is a clause in the Ley de Costas which allows exceptions when, given the nature of the construction of the beach restaurant, it cannot be moved, and now the local ayuntamientos say they are to use that clause to defend the status quo.
Mayor of Fuengirola, Esperanza Oña, said the movement of the chinguitos would lead to the elimination of the Paseo Marítimos, and that would prove disastrous for the local economy.
In Marbella, where 98% of the beach restaurant licences have expired, the Councilor for the Environment, Antonio Espada, said they did not want to see the restaurants disappear from the sand.

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Almuñecar has run out of money.Mayor set off on a trip to Morocco

Following the privatisation of its tax collection system, Almuñecar has run out of money.The Mayor, from the Convergencia Andaluza party, Juan Carlos Benavides, has warned municipal workers that this month’s wages are the last ones he can guarantee as the Town Hall is bankrupt.
Benavides blames the crisis on a lack of funding from the Junta and the Diputación, both, he said Socialist controlled. An ex Socialist himself, it was his decision to privatise the tax collection system, supported locally by the PP, which led to the current stalemate, with the Junta challenging the idea and the Granada courts which have meanwhile paralysing the operation.
The Diputación says that the Almuñecar Town Hall should have collected an income of some 3.4 million €, and they will help out, but the Mayor says he will not respond to ‘blackmail’.
After telling the municipal workers of their plight, El País reports the Mayor set off on a trip to Morocco.

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Murder of a young Dominican in Madrid has helped galvanize that immigrant community.

23-year-old Luis Carlos Polanco Peralta died last Friday after being shot twice in the neck. Madrid police arrested the alleged shooter who is of Spanish decent who worked as a private security guard. The exact motive for the murder is unknown, though police said that the assailant confused Polanco Peralta with a drug dealer.
Several hundreds mourners held a silent vigil for Polanco Peralta and clamored for justice to be served. Among those who took part in it where his widow who is expecting their child to be born next month and his mother who said that he “never messed around with anybody.” Some even compared Polanco Peralta’s murder to that of Lucrecia Pérez- another Dominican immigrant who in 1992 was murdered in an ugly bias attack.Polanco Peralta was killed in an area of the Tetuán district lined with bars and frequented by Latin Americans migrants. The neighborhood itself has been the scene of tensions between the growing immigrant community and traditional residents. As one old-timer callously observed:“There are daily brawls among them. They do not respect anyone. All they want to do is boss around. Now they cry out for justice over the death of that boy. What more do they want if, for starters, the shooter has already been detained! ” grumbled an elderly resident walking down the street. –

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Kevin John Palmer Costa timeshare salesman disappeared

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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British holidaymakers are deserting Spain in their droves latest figures show.

British holidaymakers are deserting Spain in their droves latest figures show. Spanish tourism bosses said 148,000 fewer Britons visited last month compared to January 2008 - a drop of 20.5 per cent. It is the lowest number since records began 15 years ago.
A source at the Ministry for Industry, Tourism and Commerce said: "British visitors are traditionally by far our largest market. "The fall is due to the worsening economic situation in the UK and the fall in the value of the pound. Britons are looking for cheaper holidays outside the Euro-zone." The southern region which includes the Costa del Sol, registered a massive 26.8 per cent drop in the number of January visitors from the UK. The Canary Islands, popular with Brits seeking winter sun, saw 47,000 fewer tourists from the UK, a fall of 17.5 per cent. The fall-off in British visitors is potentially devastating for Spain as 11 per cent of the economy depends on tourism. About 13.8 million Britons visited Spain in 2007.

The pound's poor rate of exchange against the euro means that British holidaymakers are staying in the UK or are heading for newer destinations.

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Maras are much more dangerous than the Sicilian Mafia or the Camorra of Naples and they are coming to Spain

Violent gangs like the Latin Kings are almost inactive in Spain, but the country is becoming worried about the possible arrival of more dangerous gangs from Central America.The alert was given by Pedro Gallego, a Civil Guard sergeant who lived in Honduras for four years, during which time he analyzed what are known in the region as "maras," violent groups made up of young men and women ranging in age from 10 to 30 who only know how to survive via crime.The result of that study is contained in "La Mara al Desnudo" (The Mara Revealed), his new book He devoted part of the work to discussing two old Latino gangs that are well-known in Spain: the Latin Kings and the Ñetas, which exist above all in the regions of Catalonia, Valencia, Madrid and Murcia.Gallego said that both groups "are only in a dormant state" after the police substantially weakened them."They are resurging spurred by the loss of jobs and the crisis," he said, and the situation could become more complicated when the Central American gangs get into Spain, since they have tight relations with international organized crime."They (the maras) are much more dangerous than the Sicilian Mafia or the Camorra of Naples," he warned.He said that whether the gangs take root will depend on the entry of specific immigration flows from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, the bastions of gangs such as Mara Salvatrucha and Mara 18.
Family reunification also plays a part: "There are parents who want to bring their children to Spain and some of them could be members of one of these gangs."In addition, immigrants who are already in Spain could join the gangs. "It's possible that they'll feel attracted to these gangs after suffering xenophobia and losing their jobs," Gallego said.The author warns that the gangs have a very rapid rate of expansion and therefore it is necessary to fight them as early as possible, with both social measures and support for families."When it's detected that a boy has joined (a gang) you have to guarantee him protection and help him get out because abandoning the group means death, in contrast to what happens in other gangs," Gallego said."They say that there are only three places where you can be a gangmember: jail, the hospital and the cemetery," the expert added.The bait for attracting a young person to a gang of this kind is an attraction to the lifestyle and its typical elements, the power status and the easy access to sex and drugs.
The members of the gang do not all come from broken families and many of them are even educated and have a good economic situation.Gallego in his book analyzes the possibility that the gangs may transform themselves into cultural associations, as happened in Catalonia in 2006."It was a very useful tool to halt the commission of criminal acts, but then it has not been studied how it evolved and it's certain that many gangs use the excuse of being associated (with it) to clean up their image without really having done so," he said.

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Metrovaces Spain's biggest property firm said that it lost €738m last year, the biggest loss in its history, as the value of its holdings dived

Spain's biggest property firm said on Friday that it lost €738m last year, the biggest loss in its 90-year history, as the value of its holdings dived following the collapse of the real estate markets in Spain and the UK.The purchase of HSBC's tower in Canary Wharf - the biggest property deal in British history - has helped sink its Spanish buyer, Metrovacesa.Owners of the beleaguered building company, the Sanahuja family, will hand control of the company to its creditor banks, including Santander, swapping a 55% stake in exchange for cancelling €2.1bn (£1.9bn) of debt claims.The purchase of the 42-storey tower in London's Docklands is seen as the peak of the real estate boom for Spanish businesses, which saw a succession of firms launch themselves into an unprecedented debt-fuelled expansion spree. At the peak of the market, 800,000 homes a year were being built in Spain - more than France, Germany and Britain put together.The Madrid-based Metrovacesa bought the 100,000 sq metre tower in Canary Wharf for £1.09bn in May 2007, financed with a £810m loan that it could not pay off or refinance as credit markets tightened.

Like buyout firms such as Baugur, which have also found themselves in trouble, Metrovacesa counted on rising values and cheap debt. The recession, however, has seen valuations go into reverse, while the credit crunch has dried up funds.

The Spanish company sold the tower - 8 Canada Square - back to HSBC last December for £838m, leading to a £250m gain for HSBC and a loss for Metrovacesa.
The real estate collapse has exacerbated Spain's plunge into recession because the sector accounts, directly and indirectly, for about a quarter of the economy. Thousands of firms are going bust and even top football clubs such as Valencia can no longer afford to pay their star players.The former Valencia chairman and real estate entrepreneur Juan Soler raised the club's debt to more than €400m and started building a new stadium before it had sold the land occupied by its current Mestalla stadium, which it has still not managed to do because of plunging property prices and the credit crunch. Work on the new stadium has stalled while the club rushes to get a new financing deal with new lenders. A local savings bank, Bancaja, has already cut off credit.London's commercial property prices have fallen 27% since the credit crunch hit. The latest blow to Canary Wharf came late last month when Morgan Stanley quit its lease of six floors of office space 10 years earlier than planned.

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Immigrants harassed by police who are allegedly under pressure to fulfill arrest quotas.

memo leaked to Spanish media this week is purported to have instructed one particular police station in the Madrid area — not in Lavapies — to arrest 30 undocumented immigrants per week.

Spain's sizable immigrant population already faces soaring unemployment in a souring economy and a government pushing jobless foreigners to go home. Now they complain they are also being harassed by police who are allegedly under pressure to fulfill arrest quotas.In Lavapies, one of Madrid's most multicultural neighborhoods, home to many North Africans, Latin Americans, Asians and people of other origins, immigrants say they are constantly asked for their papers to prove they are legal residents.
"Here, you will never see an immigrant without papers. They are afraid to go out on the street," said Abdel Kader, a 72-year-old Moroccan retiree who has lived in Spain for 40 years.Santo Aybar, a 33-year-old Dominican, said police "go to the subway station at seven in the morning and ask everybody for their papers."They ask to see my papers all day: at breakfast, at lunch and at dinner," Aybar said. "They treat us like trash, as if we were criminals."The Interior Ministry has denied there is any quota system. But police unions complain they are under pressure to make arrests, and say officers pushed to meet their targets have ended up simply stopping foreign-looking people at random at train stations and bus stops."Our officers want to crack down on crime, not on people trying to go to work," police union spokesman Alfredo Perdiguero said Tuesday.Such a tactic aimed at immigrants would reflect how drastically things have changed in Spain, and how quickly. Just two years ago, Spain's economy was on fire, and it relied heavily on immigrant labor in the all-important construction sector. Now the real estate bubble has burst, the economy is in a recessionary spiral and the jobless rate nationwide is 13.9 percent — and almost 22 percent among immigrants.The government has even launched a program offering jobless legal immigrants lump-sum payments of their unemployment benefits if they agree to go home for a few years until the economy recovers.Immigrants complain they are being made scapegoats for hard times after helping Spain create much wealth and become one of Europe's economic success stories.Spain's known immigrant population is nearly 5 million, about 11 percent of the total population.
Being in the country without a residency permit is not a crime but rather a misdemeanor. Those caught are arrested and fingerprinted and can be held for 24 hours. Then they are given an expulsion order but in many cases this is not acted on, Perdiguero said.Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, addressing Parliament on Tuesday, denied there was any kind of written or verbal order mandating a quota for arrests of people without papers."The main goal of the ministry's expulsion policy is none other than to focus on those foreigners, legal or illegal, who commit crimes in Spain," the minister said.In Lavapies, not everyone is convinced of that assertion.
"There have been a lot of police around here in the past few months. But when the press reports what is happening, they leave us alone for a few days," said Ahmed Alimi, a 48-year-old Moroccan who has lived in Lavapies for 20 years.
Raul Jimenez, a spokesman for Ruminahui, an association for Ecuadorean immigrants, added: "It is clear that there has been a toughening of how immigrants are treated, because there is no other way to understand this."

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