"HMS Scimitar was using Flag No.1 during gunnery practice _ not the Spanish national flag. Flag No.1 is traditionally used on gunnery targets due to its high visibility. However, we recognize its similarity to the Spanish national flag and will use an alternative marker during gunnery practice in this area in the future," a ministry spokesman in London said on condition of anonymity in line with government policy.
When a Spanish Civil Guard patrol boat approached the British vessel, the sailors in it quickly pulled the buoy out of the water, covered up the machine guns it had been using to fire at the marker, and warned through a bullhorn that the Spanish boat was in its way and head to leave, the newspaper El Mundo reported.Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega said the British ambassador has promised "a thorough investigation and to demand the corresponding accountability, taking the necessary measures so that an incident like this does not happen again."

Several members of the Unidad Central Operativa (UCO), a sub-unit of the Guardia Civil, have confirmed that they arrested three individuals last Thursday in connection with the murder of Alejandro Ponsoda, the former Mayor of Polop. At least two of the suspects arrested in Albatera in the south of Alicante Province this week are known to be of Czech origin. Those arrested are thought to be ‘proxy’ killers, hired by a third party to get rid of the Mayor who allegedly would not participate in city-planning irregularities. It is known that Ponsoda, the Mayor for 12 years, was against certain proposed urban developments and, despite the arrests, the authorities are still investigating the possibility that members of the Polop Council and their advisors are implicated. After more than two years, the seemingly stalled investigation was given renewed impetus after members of the UCO carried out surveillance on suspect premises in the town of Albatera. The specialised undercover unit acted independently of any other police authority, including the Police Local, when they raided the house anticipating a weapons cache. Instead, and after collecting evidence, they unexpectedly found a connection with the Ponsoda crime. Ponsoda was gunned down as he sat in his car shortly after arriving at his home. A British neighbour and acquaintance of the Mayor related how he had heard what he thought to be fireworks going off outside his window. On further investigation, he saw Ponsoda in the driver’s seat of his vehicle, having sustained three bullet wounds to the head and neck from two separate small calibre weapons. The 55-year-old Mayor was rushed to hospital in a comatose state; he succumbed to his injuries eight days later in the Alicante General Hospital.
At the time the village of Chirles and the home of Alejandro Ponsoda, was sealed off and an extensive search was mounted for the assassins. It was stated at the time that they had escaped on foot through the fields and myriad of tracks and paths in this area. The sophisticated ‘hit’ was believed to be the work of professional killers. In a town of just under 2,400 registered inhabitants (a third of the population is foreign); rumours immediately began to spread as to the motive for this classic ‘Mafia style’ execution. The OCU continued to focus their investigation on issues surrounding city-planning programs such as the Plan of Actuación Integral (PAI) and the General Plan of Ordenación Urbana (PGOU) but nothing could be proved one way or the other. The murder of Ponsoda has caused a huge rift in the community, the residents are ‘closed lipped’ about the whole issue. The present mayor of Polop and former Councillor for Urbanism under Ponsoda, Juan Cano, expressed his personal satisfaction after hearing someone had been arrested in relation to the crime. “They (the police) told us to us expect an arrest in the near future. I feel the pages to this story can be closed after the book has been open too long.”

tensions between Gibraltar and Spain are rising after the Guardia Civil came across a British Navy patrol which, the paper says, was carrying out firing practice last Tuesday on a buoy on which the Spanish flag was printed.El Mundo reports that the British cleared away their exercise when they noted the presence of the Guardia Civil, but the paper highlights that they had been firing at the Spanish flag.
The paper says that incidents between the Guardia Civil and the British Navy patrols around The Rock are ever more common. Spain believes such incidents only benefit the smugglers in the area and the Spanish Government indicated over the summer that they want to reach a new agreement with Britain on the joint control of the waters around Gibraltar.The new British Ambassador in Madrid, Giles Paxman, has been called in to give an explanation, and is reported by El Mundo to have presented his ‘excuses’ for the ‘error of judgement and lack of sensitivity’ by members of the Royal Navy.
The Partido Popular has asked the Spanish Foreign Minister, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, to explain the incident to Congress.

An Italian gang of armed bank robbers responsible for a string of assaults on branches in Málaga, Alicante, Valencia and Murcia have been arrested by National Police following the earlier arrest in Málaga of three of the group.Investigations then led National Police detectives to Granada province where the remaining two gang members were taken into custody at a service station in Loja. One of the two arrested there was the mother of another gang member and had a lengthy record in Italy for previous bank robberies.The Interior Ministry gives the gang’s haul during the time they operated in Spain as more than 150,000 €.

Supreme Court has confirmed the Málaga provincial court’s verdict in the death in Marbella in February 2000 of a woman who fell to her death from a hotel balcony. The victim’s Irish husband was found guilty of negligent homicide at his trial and Spain’s highest court has now confirmed that ruling after refusing to admit for consideration the appeal placed by his lawyers.The sentence was previously confirmed by the Andalucía High Court some months ago.It happened on 11th February 2000, the day, Diario Sur notes, that the couple, 39 year old Michael Dermot McArdle, from Dundalk, and his wife Kelly-Anne, had arrived in Marbella with their 3 year old son. The jury in the case agreed that the victim fell from the balcony during a row with her husband, and considered that he had no intention of killing her and had, in fact, tried to stop her from falling.The Andalucía High Court however said when it confirmed the lower court’s ruling that the accused had failed to observe the most fundamental duty of care which any person should observe in such a dangerous situation.

Juan Antonio Yagüe, a former GIL councillor in Marbella and brother to the town’s ex Mayor, Marisol Yagüe, has accepted serving nine sentences of 15 months in prison for planning charges against him which were due to come to court in Málaga. The news of the deal was revealed by Diario Sur this Monday and it’s understood that Yagüe has accepted serving the terms which had been requested by the prosecution service.Yagüe fled the country in 2006 and was arrested earlier this year on returning to Spain from Venezuela, after giving himself up to the Spanish Consulate there and flying home under a safe conduct order. He was wanted under an international arrest warrant after failing to turn up for a one-year sentence for planning crimes.The nine other cases against him also relate to planning crimes for which other Marbella ex councillors, including another former Mayor, Julián Muñoz, have already been found guilty. Yagüe was out of the country when their trials took place. They relate to licences issued to build new homes on land which was classified as unsuitable for development

British man is in Intensive Care after a stabbing incident in Fuengirola on Friday night. The 23 year old, named by Diario Sur as D.S., is reported to have suffered two stab wounds in the back and another in his chest.It happened on a street near the town’s Rey de España paseo marítimo, and all that is known about the assailant is the brief description the victim was able to give to the bouncer of a nearby nightclub, the Mai Tai, which he managed to reach as he sought help for his injuries. He described his attacker as short and thin, possibly Moroccan, wearing a white hooded jacket.The British man was rushed to the Costa del Sol Hospital in Marbella, where he remains in a serious condition.

body found floating in off Bolnuveo Beach in Mazarrón, near the Isla Cueva de los Lobos, on Sunday morning has been identified as a British woman reported missing by her family. Her name has not been released to the press, but she is understood from EFE to have lived locally, in the Bolnuevo area.There has been no indication as yet of exactly when the 49 year old was reported missing to the Civil Guard.

Seven youths, some of them mere children, were held by police over the weekend after a riot broke out in the Camino de los Almendrales district of Malaga City on Saturday 31 October. In the course of the gang fight, one 17-year-old was gravely injured and remains in a coma in the Intensive Care Unit of the Carlos Haya Hospital.
Another youth was also stabbed in the same incident. 20-year-old “AJD”, as police have identified him, is said to be in a stable condition.
Local police were called to the vicinity of the brawl, but once the seriousness of the injuries was known, the crime scene was handed over to the Homicide Unit of the National Police Corps. The investigation has thus far centred on reconstruc-ting the events of Saturday afternoon. The seven youths who spent the weekend in custody were identified by local officers as having been involved in the fighting, and having tried to flee the scene at the sound of police sirens.
The gang-based “rumble” was said by witnesses to have erupted at about one o’clock in the afternoon in a neighbourhood known locally as “El Puebecito”, a favourite haunt of Malaga city’s teenage gangs.First reports, taken exclusively from gang members loyal to the stabbed 20-year-old, suggest that the youngster who is now in a coma attacked the older man with a knife, allegedly in connection with an outstanding grievance. According to this (admittedly unreliable) version, the 17-year-old then wounded himself with his own weapon.Police are stressing that this account is unlikely to be true, given the seriousness of the injuries suffered by the teenager, which point to a severe beating in addition to the life-threatening stab wound.A local resident alerted the police after seeing a youngster soaked in blood. The teenager, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was rushed to hospital by ambulance after lapsing into a coma at the scene.

Allegations by a man arrested for robbery that he and his girlfriend were beaten by local police officers after they were taken into custody in June 2006 have been heard by a court and it looks as if a trial will now almost certainly take place after the Alicante provincial court recently turned down appeals placed by each of the nine defendants against their charges in the Torrevieja torture case.Twelve police officers, two Partido Popular councillors, and a nursing assistant at the Vega Baja district hospital are implicated, with possible charges ranging from torture, document forgery and failure to pursue a crime.A number of officers are charged in the case, as is the councillor who had responsibility for the local police force at the time, Pedro Valero, who is charged with others of attempting to cover up what allegedly happened. Sources report that he could face between one and four years in prison and the police inspector, Carlos María I.F., whose home was the target of the attempted burglary, faces up to eight years behind bars. The couple were arrested while trying to break into the home of the member of the local police force.The Guatemalan man who made the allegations of torture is due to appear in court to answer charges of attempted robbery having been arrested on 23rd June last year when he was caught allegedly trying to break into the house, his girlfriend was arrested at the time with him.The human rights organisation ‘Pro Derechos Humanos de España’ is placing a public interest suit in the case and is understood to be claiming civil responsibility from Torrevieja Town Hall should any compensation be granted in the sentence.

67 year old British man died in Torrevieja hospital yesterday just hours after being hit by a vehicle while walking along a pavement along Avenida Francisco Casanovas.
The impact was so violent that the man was embedded between the car and the brick wall of a house.

Five hundred people gathered in Constitution Square on Friday evening to protest at the murder of Juan Jose Martinez Roman on Monday afternoon.The city’s popular Notary was shot dead as he attempted to calm down two armed robbers during a bungled raid on his office. The robbers had earlier broken into the office cashbox from which they stole the contents, believed to be in the region of 400 euros.
Although the sizeable crowd was largely calm there were calls for the maximum sentence for what was described as a despicable crime. A spokesman representing the large business community in attendance, read a statement asking the "Society Torrevejense not stand by thinking that these tragedies only happen to others.
He said that the whole population should act as one in condemning the murder "because we must put a price on each of our lives” He asked if it was worth dying for just 3 or 400 euros, or even a million. “Life is priceless for us all” he stressed. “Today we pray for the memory of Juan José, tomorrow we could be in his position”. The statement was followed by applause and five minutes of silence.
Gabriel Marcos, a friend of Snr Martinez, who also works as an officer in the Notary then read a eulogy written by local poet Miguel Hernandez “la elegía a Ramón Sijé” He too called for the maximum penalty for the murder. Although there was a banner bearing words of protest the organizers decided that it would not be shown at the gathering. The evening finished once again with loud applause in the memory of the popular notary.

British man has been charged with starting a fire which affected 1.4 hectares of scrub in the Las Fuentes area of the city on October 6 this year. Named with the initials W.T.G.L., Diario Sur reports he faces charges of negligence after carrying out an unauthorised fire in his finca in the area, which led to the blaze.

Torrevieja notary, 54 year old Juan José Martínez Román, was shot dead in his office on Monday. Police sources have said that the two thieves entered his office and demanded money at 1230 at the office in Calle Ramón Gallud. When he refused they shot him twice. Reports indicate that the made off with a quantity of money, yet to be established. Health professionals tried to revive the victim for some 45 minutes.It all happened while clients were waiting outside and other workers were busy in other offices.The attack is strange as generally business at the notary is carried out with cheques and not cash. The Guardia Civil have set up a special task force to try and find those responsible

trial starts this week of eight people accused in one of Spain’s largest ever hauls of heroin: 50 kilos of the drug which were brought into the country hidden in the tyres of a lorry seized on an industrial estate in Torrevieja.Officers swooped on the gang’s vehicle repair shop in June 2006 as they were cutting through the tyres with a saw to remove the heroin.The eight accused in the case are reported by Diario Información as ex soldiers from Eastern Europe and face a possible 96 years in prison between them. The state prosecutor has also asked for a fine of almost 2 million € - the amount the heroin would have brought the gang if it had been sold on the black market.

‘jamonero de Trevélez’, sentenced this May for defrauding 200 of his neighbours, has written to Ideal newspaper apologising for what he did. Antonio Herrera is behind bars in Albolote after the provincial court in Granada sentenced him to 11 years and five months in prison.He was finally arrested in the Dominican Republic in 2007 after fleeing Trevélez three years before with the money his neighbours had invested in his jamón serrano companies. He still maintains that the fled the country because he was being pursued by the ‘Russian mafia’.Herrera said in the letter to Ideal that the plea bargain reached ahead of the trial left him unable to publically apologise for his actions in court. . The jamonero says in his letter of apology that he is the only person guilty and regrets the situation his neighbours are now suffering, whose accounts for the past five years, he said, are now undergoing inspection by the Hacienda Tax Authority.Ideal notes that Herrera plans to spend his time in prison on writing and to studying law.

52 year old man, Manuel R.S., faces a trial by jury this Tuesday for the murder of Lamyae D., a 23 year old woman studying pharmacy at Granada University who was found brutally stabbed to death in her flat in March last year. She suffered more than 20 stab wounds and, according to evidence from the prosecutor, was dragged back into the flat to be stabbed again as she tried to make her escape after the initial assault.Her killer confessed to the crime, saying in his statement that he was drunk at the time and had ‘lost his head’. He faces a possible 12 years in prison and compensation of 300,000 €.The victim and her assailant were known to each other and, for that reason, the private accusation presented by the young woman’s family believes he should spend 20 years behind bars with the additional charge of ‘abuse of confidence’.

Tres muertos en un tiroteo junto al penal cántabro de El Dueso

Three people were killed in a shooting outside El Dueso prison in Santoña, Cantabria, when an as yet to be identified gunman pulled up in a car driven by another man and opened fire on their van parked outside the prison. They then sped away from the scene.It has been revealed that one of the victims, known as Tomasín, was serving a sentence for four killings, and the police believe the shooting was the result of a settling of scores. Tomasín, full name Tomás Ruiz Fernández, was returning to prison after a pass according to reports.There are a number of ETA inmates in El Dueso prison, but central government offices in Cantabria have ruled out any connection between Monday’s shooting and a terrorist attack.

Triple murder in a shooting outside a prison in Cantabria on Monday morning was followed just a few hours later by a fatal shooting in Granada province, where two brothers from Portugal lost their lives. It happened at lunchtime on the industrial estate in Ogíjares, near the provincial capital, when another man arrived at the restaurant where the brothers were eating.They began a violent argument and both brothers, A.R. and M.R., were killed in the shootout which followed. The other man, a Spaniard named as F.R.F. from Granada province, was also hurt but survived his wounds. He was arrested nearby still with the murder weapon in his possession.
The argument is believed to have started over a previous argument the men’s wives had had earlier that day.

Two Chinese prostitutes have been arrested for dumping a client’s body in a doorway in Alicante City after he suddenly died during a party at the underground brothel where they worked in the San Blas area of the city. El Mundo said the autopsy shows he died of a heart attack after taking Viagra and other substances at the party.
The man’s body was found in the street in the early hours of Sunday near the brothel on Calle Doctor Santaolalla run by a woman from Romania. The prostitutes and a man who helped them to dump the body there were arrested the following day.

Operation controlled by the Instruction Court Two in Torrevieja, a group of 19 people, 13 Albano Kosovo men, and six Romanian women, have been arrested in connection with a series of thefts from villas while their owners were asleep inside.
The arrests were carried out by more than 20 people from the specialist ECO unit of the Guardia Civil who say the group are implicated in non violent burglaries carried out mostly in Valencia province, but also in Castellón, Alicante and Tarragona. Often a luxury car would be taken.Investigations started more than a year ago, and the swoops which started at 6,30am on Tuesday morning saw several homes being searched in the Valencia region, one of them just 50 metres from the Guardia Civil barracks in Valencia.

suspected paedophile is on the run in Huelva after escaping from cells at the city’s provincial court. He is a 28 year old Belgian named as S.P.T.S. who was arrested on Sunday for alleged sexual abuse of his girlfriend’s young daughter.
It’s understood that both he and the girlfriend live locally.The man managed to escape custody on Monday by faking severe stomach pains, assaulting the National Police officer who accompanied him to the bathroom and eluding capture by the Civil Guard officers who were on guard duty at the doors to the court building.Europa Press said he had no money or documentation with him when he made his escape. As of Wednesday, police had as yet failed to find the fugitive.

British man faces charges in Alicante after trying to smuggle a large amount of cannabis on board a plane bound for Dublin. He was arrested at El Altet Airport last weekend after Civil Guard officers discovered in a routine control of the luggage which was to be loaded onto the plane that he had 27 kilos of cannabis resin hidden inside his two suitcases.He is named as a 27 year old with the initials V.B. and was arrested after the officers identified him as the owner of the suitcases in question. He now faces a drug trafficking charge from the courts.

Scotland Yard has opened an investigation into the death of Olga Pleguezuelos Puzueu. The 35 year old Spanish woman was married to the Briton, Mark Campbell, the information director of the ILD company which wants to build the largest casino complex in Europe, Gran Scala, in the Los Monegros desert in Aragón.A statement from the British police says they received an emergency call from a resident of a home in Harrow and found the body of the woman on their arrival at the scene. It had been stabbed several times.A 53 year old man was arrested at the scene, but his name has not yet been revealed, although it is known that he had injuries to his neck and one of his wrists, and has been admitted to hospital.The victim worked in marketing and had recently been promoted in the Aristocrat Europe company.

Eight of the 20 suspects arrested in the ‘Operación Poniente’ corruption case in El Ejido have now been remanded to custody by the investigating judge, including the Mayor, Juan Enciso, who Judge Montserrat Peña decided should be refused bail after five hours of questioning on Friday. The head of Instruction Court No. 2 in Almería City took the same decision for the municipal auditor, José Alemán.

The businessman, Juan Antonio Galán, considered the head of the Madrid branch of the corruption network, was the last to be questioned by the judge and was sent to prison on Saturday. The three joined José Amate, a former manager of the municipal services company, El Sur, which is believed to be at the centre of the corruption. Amate is the administrator of Arborimar and Maviroad, two companies which works inspectors discovered on an inspection last month were employing staff illegally.

His sons and two sons in law are also on remand, while Amate’s two daughters were granted 50,000 € bail by the judge. The Mayor’s wife and daughter were released with charges.The eighth suspect sent to prison in the case is the businessman Ambrosio Cuevas.
The corruption network is believed to have misappropriated through El Sur and a network of companies linked to the municipal services company more than 150 million € over a period of at least six years. The charges against the group following the raid on El Ejido Town Hall last Tuesday range from money laundering, misappropriation of public funds and document falsification, to bribery and influence peddling.

Elderly couple found in the ashes of a house fire in Villarubia on the outskirts of Córdoba on Friday, had been shot before the blaze broke out. Police say all the options, including domestic violence, remain open as more scientific tests are carried out.One of the family said that the couple had been together for ten years. The woman had three children from an earlier marriage, and the man is thought to have a similar number. A nephew lived with the couple, but was not at home at the time of the tragedy. He is said to be devastated.

Alicante leads the field for the number of vehicle thefts which take place in the province every day, surpassing even the capital, Madrid, in official figures from the Attorney General’s office for cases of this type which came to court last year.
Of the almost 80,000 cases in Spain last year, close to 13,900 of them were in Alicante. It’s an average of 38 vehicles every day and equates to one in every six vehicles stolen across the country.
Diario Información notes that, while vehicle theft in Spain as a whole rose by 5.4% last year, the result for Alicante was a massive increase of 39.2%. Manuel Martínez, from the AUGC Civil Guard association, told the newspaper that the province has become an important base for all types of criminal organisations over recent years, many of which are involved in the organised theft of vehicles.Many of the stolen cars are then usually stripped down to be sold on as spare parts. One noted case was in Almoradí, where a gang was broken up which had stolen an estimated 500 cars over the previous 5 years.

A Civil Guard officer called out to an accident at Las Pedrizas this April, then killed by another vehicle which skidded in the heavy rain, was remembered by his colleagues this Sunday, when his father was awarded a posthumous decoration on his behalf of his son.José Luis Blanca Lorca, who was based in Casabermeja, was 37 years old when he died and received a standing ovation in his memory at celebrations held at Civil Guard command in Málaga ahead of the Día del Pilar, the patron saint of the armed forces and of the Civil Guard.Diario Sur reports there were also some words at the ceremony for Juan Jesús Bueno Ortigoso, another Civil Guard officer who was injured while attending an accident on the roads of Málaga. He went into a coma after he was hit by a drunk driver on the road to Campillos last month, also while attending the scene of a previous accident.

Civil Guards are in hospital after their barracks in Los Montecillos, Dos Hermanas in Sevilla, was attacked by a crowd of local residents on Saturday night. The incident began when a group of youngsters started throwing stones onto the garage roof at the barracks and they and their colleagues came out into the street to try and put a stop to their actions.They were, however, forced to retreat back inside and call for reinforcements, as stones and other objects rained down from nearby balconies and windows. El País reports some 40 people were involved in the incident.
One of the Civil Guard suffered head injuries after being hit with a stick during the confrontation and the other was stabbed in the hand. It’s understood this last is due to undergo surgery for the stab wound on Tuesday.Los Montecillos is a conflictive area which is known to be used by drug dealers and where a similar assault on officers took place this April when they were attempting to arrest a local woman on a drugs charge.

Tax Authority has impounded a container at the port in Algeciras found to hold contraband weapons bound for Nigeria. The 30 weapons included 24 shotguns and six pistols, and were hidden in suitcases wrapped up in clothes behind cars which had been loaded onto the container.El Mundo said a large part of the ammunition which also found in the suitcases is of a type which is banned as illegal in Spain.
No arrests have as yet been reported in the case.

man charged with an axe attack in Órgiva two years ago pleaded guilty at his trial at the Granada provincial court this Tuesday, and has accepted a prison term of 3 years and 9 months for attempted murder. The victim, Francisco G.E., was attacked from behind with the weapon after an argument with his assailant’s father in a local bar, suffering a fracture in his skull.It happened in May 2007 after Francisco G.E. came to blows with his attacker’s father, José L.B., now deceased, during their argument in the bar. The father later told his son what had happened, and the two lured the other man into an alleyway, where the son, José Manuel M.S., attacked him with the axe and the father kicked him and beat him as he lay injured on the ground. Father and son then fled the scene.Europa Press notes that the court imposed a fine of 120 € on the victim for the injuries he himself caused during the fight.

El País printed details of links from the Gürtel corruption case to the Costa del Sol. One of the companies implicated in the affair, Teconsa, gave donations worth 318,000 € to Alhaurín el Grande, where the Mayor Juan Martín Serón spent the money on a library and the sponsorship of a basketball team. The paper says the money was paid via the Proinsa company, which planned to build 2,500 homes with swimming pools and golf course in the area known as Finca la Mota. Juan Martín Serón is currently released on 100,000 € bail and facing charges of perversion of the course of justice, bribery and money laundering. He said on Wednesday that Teconsa received nothing in exchange for their donations.The man at the centre of the Gürtel case, businessman Francisco Correa, is now also known to have purchased 16 plots of land and five apartments in Marbella between 2003 and 2008, despite, according to the case summary, not filling in any income tax return since 1999. He is the son in law of the late real estate promoter, Emilio Rodríguez Bugallo, who was indicted in the Malaya case. Correa paid his 500,000 € bail money, and the case summary says that to clear that debt Rodríguez Bugallo sold several properties in El Embrujo Playa to Correa as a way also of clearing himself of assets.

Britain's most wanted man has been arrested in Spain – after four years on the run.
Ronald Priestley, 69, from Colton, Leeds, masterminded a £4.25m banknote counterfeit fraud.He was sentenced to eight years in his absence four years ago.Priestley was arrested in Malaga. A world-wide hunt for him was launched when he failed to attend a Leeds Crown Court hearing in August 2005 to face charges of conspiracy to counterfeit £20 banknotes with a face value of £4.25m.He had disappeared from his luxury home in Colton. The house was protected by electric fences and guard dogs.
In their hunt for Priestley police urged Spain's expatriate British community on the Costa del Sol to help bring the pensioner, orginally from Bramley, to justice.
Priestley had a criminal past in counterfeiting long before 2005. In December 2002 he was stripped of more than £2.2m at Bradford Crown Court.Police raids on his home in Park Road, Colton, and factories near Huddersfield, had netted 138,000 bottles of fake fragrances and 1,500 bottles of Spanish sparkling wine relabelled as Moet et Chandon champagne.Officers also found £104,000 cash hidden in secret compartments at his home.In April that year he had been jailed for 18 months after admitting three counts of conspiracy to sell or distribute counterfeit goods – but was released early from jail.Priestley was arrested as part of crime-fighting charity Crimestoppers' Operation Captura, which has identified criminals living in Spain wanted in the UK. Crimestoppers and the Serious Organised Crime Agency work closely with British Embassy and Spanish law enforcement agencies.Priestley was featured in the campaign's first 10 appeals in October 2006. He is the 25th out of 50 wanted individuals arrested in the past 10 days.

36 year old Briton, Richard Henry Roberts, has been sent to prison for 18 years for killing his compatriot, Daniel Hastelow in January 2008. The court in Palma de Mallorca heard how the accused had stabbed the sleeping victim eight times.
A second Briton arrested at the time, Paul A. Griffiths, was found not guilty and released without charge.The court and jury considered it proved that after an argument in a bar earlier the aggressor, Richard H Roberts, went to the apartment where the victim was sleeping under the effects of alcohol and drugs, broke in and stabbed the victim with a 20 cm long and 4cm wide knife eight times. The other Briton Paul Griffiths looked on.The two were arrested at the airport the following day.Richard Robert has also been ordered to pay 90,000 € compensation to the victim’s family. He has a previous record for violent theft, causing injury and robbery.jury on the holiday island of Majorca found Richard Henry Roberts, 36, guilty of the murder of nightclub bouncer Daniel Hastelow after a trial.But another Merseyside man, jointly accused of the killing in the popular resort of Palmanova in January last year, was acquitted by the jury of nine because of “lack of proof”.Roberts admitted stabbing the 26-year-old victim, from Walsall, seven times.
But he claimed it was self defence when the four-day trial began on Monday.
Yesterday, the jury rejected his claim he grabbed a knife from a table to defend himself when Mr Hastelow attacked him, delivering heavy blows.They convicted Roberts of murder, rejecting a defence plea for a manslaughter verdict.But the jury accepted the defence argument that evidence was not produced to support prosecution claims that Paul Anthony Griffiths, 23, also from Liverpool, took part in the deliberate killing of Mr Hastelow.It was alleged Griffiths beat the victim with a baseball bat as he lay sleeping in an apartment in the resort on the island’s south coast.Griffiths admitted being present when Mr Hastelow was killed, but denied taking any part in his death.The jury also dismissed a charge against both accused of breaking into the apartment where Mr Hastelow died.After the verdicts, Judge Eduardo Calderon formally acquitted Griffiths and dismissed him from the court.The state prosecutor then asked for an 18 year prison sentence for Roberts.He also asked Judge Calderon to order Roberts to pay compensation of 90,000 Euros – around £81,000 – to the victim’s family.The judge’s written sentence will be known later.

Brutal Marbella crime syndicate plotted to snatch and ransom the family of a top UK TV presenter. brutal crime syndicate plotted to snatch and ransom the family of a top TV presenter.Law agencies across Europe fear any celeb is at risk in the Spanish resorts where Britons flock for sunshine holidays.The player, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was targeted while visiting the area at the end of last year's football season. But the plan was aborted at the last minute.Ex-British intelligence agent Paul Grimshaw, now a security consultant in Marbella, said: "Crime gangs from Eastern Europe and Russian are moving in. The area is teeming with wealth."They don't care who they target as long as there is money to be earned. The footballer was picked out for that reason"They got cold feet. But reliable sources are adamant that a highprofile celebrity kidnapping is only a matter of time. Footballers, especially wealthy ones, should be vigilant at all times."Grimshaw revealed the threat of kidnap is scaring the wealthy away from Spain. He said: "Former England manager Steve McClaren sold his villa last year over fears about the rising crime rate. The Qatar royal family has not visited its 14-bedroom home in Marbella for nearly five years and will probably never return."A personal security officer for Spanish-based CCS24Gibraltar said: "I've worked on the Costa del Sol for ten years and crime has never been worse. It's dangerous and frightening. Kidnappings, drug-trafficking and robberies happen all the time."High walls and cameras don't deter these criminals. If they want to get you - they will."Leeds-born Grimshaw, 46, alerted the Football Association and the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) to the soccer star plot. He wrote in August: "An England player was the target of a kidnap plot after the Champions League Final in Moscow in 2008. It is believed the player was pinpointed at either a training camp or during a vacation in southern Spain."Anybody travelling abroad should review their security arrangements. This threat was not limited to one player."Pfa chief executive Gordon Taylor said: "We can't afford not to take information like this seriously in this day and age.
"Liverpool's Steven Gerrard and Everton's Phil Jagielka were targeted by burglars. Spurs player Wilson Palacios' brother Edwin was kidnapped in Honduras in May. Wilson paid a £125,000 ransom but Edwin was murdered."There is precedent for snatching soccer stars. Manchester United ace Dimitar Berbatov was kidnapped in his native Bulgaria while an 18-year-old with CSKA Sofia. He was freed unharmed but recalled yesterday: "It was a horrific ordeal."Grimshaw, who has lived in Spain for 20 years, warned: "Abduction worries have rocketed, particularly in Marbella."The Russian Mafia has been gaining ground in Spain since the last property boom made it an attractive place to launder money. They prey on the rich - and will stop at nothing.In June, four Russians grabbed a man in the street in Estepona and told him he would die within 24 hours unless he paid them £12,000. He escaped after being tortured for two days. Some gangs are Kosovan Albanians, often ex-soldiers. Others are Romanian and Lithuanian.The family of property developer Frank Capa - a pal of Rod Stewart - paid a £1 million for his release after he was kidnapped in Marbella in 2004.
Ian Watmore of the FA confirmed they were reviewing player security after Grimshaw's tip. A security officer added: "Famous footballers and celebrities are sitting ducks. I advise them to choose their friends carefully."

Two gang members who are thought to have fled to Spain after raiding HSBC .As reported yesterday Patrick McDonagh and Carl Hargin were jailed for stealing more than £300,000 from the Westbourne Road branch in an armed, daylight robbery in June.
Hargin, 24, got eight years and eight months and McDonagh, 28, got seven years and four months after admitting the offence.Det Chf Insp McDermott, of West Yorkshire Police’s crime division, said: “They were obviously dangerous and very professional in the way they planned and prepared the offence, using stolen vehicles, one of which was later burned out and abandoned.“The level of violence used at the scene was horrific and it was lucky the bank staff were not seriously injured.“It’s a good result to have got the sentences they received.”Hargin, of Salford, and McDonagh, of Cheetham Hill in Manchester, were part of a four-strong gang who armed themselves with a sledgehammer, a machete and a crowbar when they targeted the bank on the afternoon of June 26.After forcing staff to open the safe, they fled in a Vauxhall Vectra with hold-alls full of cash.The car was later burned out and the gang got in a van, which was spotted by police.It sparked a dramatic chase from Huddersfield to Manchester city centre, where Greater Manchester Police caught up with them in the Arndale Shopping Centre car park.Det Chf Insp McDermott said one of the gang attempted to strip off his clothes and hide behind cars before he was caught.Hargin and McDonagh were arrested, but the others escaped.Det Chf Insp McDermott added: “It was a great team effort between West Yorkshire Police and Greater Manchester Police. They reacted quickly to information we gave to them and in difficult circumstances managed to safely arrest two violent offenders.”He confirmed the other two gang members were thought to have fled to Spain and added: “We have identified who the other two suspects are, and they have been circulated as wanted.“The case is still a live inquiry and we are still actively pursuing them.”

Michael Eddleston, 27, from Doncaster, is accused of three counts of illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs. He was one of 10 men featured earlier this month in an appeal on the Costa Del Sol, known as Operation Captura. The Crimestoppers charity said Mr Eddleston surrendered himself at the British Consulate in Majorca. It said his arrest was a "fantastic result". Mr Eddleston is alleged to be a member of a crime group which carried out a drug trafficking operation from Doncaster and Morley in West Yorkshire. He was identified after a joint investigation between South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire Police in 2006. Officers recovered large quantities of heroin and amphetamine sulphate valued at £65,000 as part of the operation. Eight men arrested and charged with offences of conspiracy to supply Class A and Class B drugs were jailed at Sheffield Crown Court in November 2006, after entering guilty pleas.

35 year old man wanted in the United States in connection with child pornography has been arrested in Spain while trying to leave the country. The arrest was made in Málaga by officers from the international crime unit of the Costa del Sol Organised Crime and Drugs Squad and the National Court in Madrid will now handle the suspect’s extradition back to the United States.Named by Europa Press as M.R.W., he was wanted on a warrant from the Maricopa County Superior Court in Arizona on 10 counts of possession, transport and distribution of child pornography. He was charged in February last year after police found a large amount of pornographic material on the computers he used at a number of residences in Arizona.The suspect is married with two twin daughters, and it’s understood the original complaint to police came from his wife’s sister.

Body of a woman has been found inside a suitcase left on a street in Barcelona. A local resident alerted the regional police force, Los Mossos d’Escuadra, who said that the body showed clear signs of violence.The suitcase as found in the La Bordeta, Zona Franca, of the city, close to the Gran Vía, at 11pm on Monday night.
There are some unconfirmed reports that the victim could be Latin American, and reporting restrictions have been placed on the case.

Andalucía High Court has reduced sentencing for the 22 year old man, Francisco M.P.P., found guilty earlier this year of the murder of a teenager who was stabbed while trying to break up a fight in Benalmadena’s Plaza Solymar two years ago.The accused was found guilty at a trial by jury this May and sentenced to 17 years in prison.The High Court has however ruled, in a decision published by La Opinión de Málaga this Tuesday, that there was no premeditation in the fatal stabbing, reducing Francisco M.P.P.’s sentence to 13 years behind bars and finding him guilty of the lesser charge of homicide.17 year old José Pedro Fernández died at 6am on 18th November 2007 when he was stabbed in the heart outside a Benalmádena disco. Another suspect in his death, who was just hours away from his 18th birthday when the crime was committed, was found not guilty by a juvenile court.