Domestic violence in Spain claimed the year’s 60th victim on Tuesday night

The victim is his ex partner and Spain's 60th victim of domestic violence this year

The building in Marchena where Inmaculada D. was killed - EFE

Domestic violence in Spain claimed the year’s 60th victim on Tuesday night when a 29 year old woman, Inmaculada D., died at the hands of her ex partner in Marchena, Sevilla. Her killer is named as Fernando F.G., who is also her distant uncle and the father of her three year old daughter.

The victim was stabbed to death and her current boyfriend received treatment for a minor stab wound.

EFE reports that after the stabbing the assailant went to a local bar before returning to the scene of the crime, a flat on Calle Maestro Moreno Torroba, where he was arrested by police without putting up any resistance. It’s understood that he had been under a distancing order since the summer.

A minute’s silence was held outside the Town Hall building in Marchena on Wednesday and three days of official mourning have been called in memory of Andalucía’s fifteenth victim of domestic violence this year.

Civil Guard have recovered 1 million € in jewellery and watches which were stolen in May

Five people have been arrested

EFE archive

The Civil Guard have recovered 1 million € in jewellery and watches which were stolen in May from stores on Madrid’s famous ‘Golden Mile’, the ‘Milla de Oro’ in the city’s Salamanca district.

Five people have been arrested and also face charges of drug trafficking, after officers confiscated more than three kilos of methamphetamine and another kilo of cannabis.

The first suspect to be arrested was a Ukrainian man who was caught in El Escorial in October selling luxury watches which had been stolen on the Golden Mile. His arrest led detectives to the gang’s main fences, two brothers who stored the merchandise in their parents’ home in the Canillas district of Madrid and used it as a meeting point with prospective purchasers.

The parents were also taken into custody when they were caught trying to throw the drugs which were on the premises out of the window.

Officers also seized 30,000 € in cash and four top range cars.

Pere Puig will serve a maximum of 25 years in prison

Pere Puig will serve a maximum of 25 years in prison

Pere Puig under police escort - EFE

The man known as the ‘Gunman of Olot’, the 58 year old labourer Pere Puig, has been sentenced to 60 years in prison on four counts of murder, for the shooting dead of his two bosses and two bank employees in December last year.

He will serve a maximum of 25 years behind bars. The convicted man has been ordered to compensate the victims’ families with 643,000 € and must also pay the court costs for the case.

The jury which found him guilty did not consider there to be any diminished responsibility in the case, as had been claimed by the defence.

The murder weapon was a hunting shotgun which he used first against his bosses, the father and son constructors Joan and Ángel Tubert. They were shot dead at 7.45 am on December 15, 2010, as they were eating breakfast in a local restaurant in Olot. He then went on to a local branch of the Caja de Ahorros del Mediterráneo savings bank and killed Rafael Turró and Ana Molas.

He immediately confessed the four killings to the police officers who arrested him.

Puig refused to answer any questions from the prosecution during his trial, restricting himself to only answering questions from his lawyer and ratifying the statements he had made during the instruction phase of the case. He said during that phase that he killed his bosses because they owed him money, and had shot dead the bank staff because he felt defrauded by the bank.

Two arrests have been made in the case of the German tourist, 67 year old P.A.C. who was found beaten to death

Police say he died as the result of a fight when he resisted their attempts to rob him

A suspect in handcuffs - EFE archive

Two arrests have been made in the case of the German tourist, 67 year old P.A.C. who was found beaten to death in a tourist complex in Playa del Inglés, San Bartolomé de Tirajana, on the south of Gran Canaria, on Sunday.

The suspects are both Spanish and are named as 27 year old Diego P.L., who was arrested on Tuesday, and Cristóbal P.N., an 18 year old who was taken into custody the following day. The latter is reported to have been known to the victim, who let him into the apartment owing to their friendship. The teenager then opened the door to the other man when the tourist’s attention was distracted.

Police indicated to EFE on Thursday that the man died in the fight which ensued when he resisted their attempts to rob him. The suspects fled the scene with a laptop computer, two mobile phones and a small amount of cash. Both are reported to have lengthy criminal records.

wanted by Spain and Belgium for money laundering and fraud

He was wanted by Spain and Belgium for money laundering and fraud

EFE archive

A U.S. national, named by Diario Sur as F.L.P., aged 54, who was wanted for crimes in both Spain and Belgium has been arrested in Fuengirola.

Acting on information that he may have moved to this part of the Costa del Sol, police had been keeping the area under surveillance and took him into custody as he was leaving a shop in the Miramar district of Fuengirola on December 13.

He was wanted on an arrest warrant for alleged money laundering which was issued by Spain in April 2010, and on a European warrant from 2007 issued by the authorities in Belgium for fraud, money laundering and illicit association.

Francisco Javier de Urquía has been found guilty of accepting bribes

Francisco Javier de Urquía has been found guilty of accepting bribes

Francisco Javier de Urquía - Photo EFE

The Supreme Court has decided to rehabilitate the Judge, Francisco Javier de Urquía, despite him being found guilty on two occasions of accepting bribes when he was the judge in the Instruction Court 2 in Marbella.

The High Court of Justice in Andalucía considered the judge had accepted 73,800 € from the man at the centre of the Malaya case, Juan Antonio Roca. The money reportedly helped him to by a property in exchange for judicial favours. A few days after the payment of the money, he blocked a Marbella TV station from showing an uncomfortable documentary on Roca.

In the Hidalgo case Urquía picked up 60,000 € for granting bail to three of the accused. He was instructing that case on money laundering of drug trafficking profits.

The Supreme Court has ruled however that having a criminal record does not mean you cannot hand out justice, and that Urquía can return to the judiciary as the 21 month suspension handed down has been served.

It’s the second time the 43 year old judge has got a favourable resolution from the Supreme Court, and where he has a third one still pending. But if a second charge against him becomes firm, then he will be suspended again as a judge.

Carmelo Gallico is wanted in Italy for murder, extortion and money laundering

Carmelo Gallico is wanted in Italy for murder, extortion and money laundering

Carmelo Gallico in police custody. Photo - Mossos d'Esquadra

A leading member of the Calabrian mafia, the ‘Ndrangheta’, has been arrested in Barcelona in an operation by the Mossos d’Esquadra Catalan police in cooperation with police in Italy.

The Mossos said in a statement on Wednesday that Carmelo Gallico, aged 46, was arrested on December 23, hiding out in a flat in the Eixample district, ‘where he tried to attract as little attention as possible’. His daily routine was to spend, ‘hours in the library, in a nearby gym and in certain bars in Eixample where he felt safe.’

Gallico is wanted in Italy for serious crimes including membership of a mafia organisation, murder, extortion and money laundering.

Four senior British police officers are under investigation over allegations of misconduct for partaking in a gangland killing case, news reports said.

Staffordshire Police launched an inquiry into the murder of amateur footballer Kevin Nunes, 20, who was gunned down in a country lane in 2002, British media reported. 

Nunes, a drug dealer who had been on the books of Tottenham Hotspur, was shot dead in an execution style killing after a gang dispute. 

His killers, Levi Walker, Antonio Christie, Adam Joof, Michael Osbourne and Owen Crooks were all jailed for life after being found guilty of murder by a jury at Leicester Crown Court. 

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) will look into the handling of the investigation into case of the four officers, including the lead on police ethics. Five men were jailed in connection with the killing in 2008. 

The IPCC confirmed that formal notice of investigation had been served on “a number of former and serving Staffordshire Police officers”. 

Meanwhile, Northamptonshire Police Authority confirmed that its force's chief constable Adrian Lee and deputy chief constable Suzette Davenport were being investigated. 

Lee is also the head of the Association of Chief Police Officers' ethics portfolio.

teenager who murdered a 16-year-old schoolboy outside a pub in Stretford has denied his motive was revenge for another gangland killing.

 

A teenager who murdered a 16-year-old schoolboy outside a pub in Stretford has denied his motive was revenge for another gangland killing. Moses Mathias told Manchester Crown Court he intended to commit a robbery but instead fired at a vehicle carrying Giuseppe Gregory out of "fear for my life". He said he did not learn of the death in May 2009 until the next day. Àt the age of 15 he later went on the run. Mathias, now 18, remained at large until he was arrested in Amsterdam earlier this year on a European Arrest Warrant after a joint investigation by the Serious Organised Crime Agency and GMP. He was flown back to the UK in June and four months later admitted the murder of the youngster who was gunned down in the early hours of May 11 in a car outside the Robin Hood pub in Stretford. In March 2010, Mathias's associates Njabulo Ndlovu and Hiruy Zerihun, then aged 19 and 18, were jailed for life and ordered to serve minimum terms of 21 years and 23 years respectively after they were convicted of Giuseppe's murder. Their trial heard the pair carried out the attack in revenge for the murder of Zerihun's boyhood friend Louis Brathwaite, also 16, who was shot dead in a betting shop in Withington, south Manchester, in January 2008. They were affiliated to Fallowfield Man Dem, a splinter group of the notorious Gooch Gang, who targeted Giuseppe and his friends because of their association to the rival gang the Longsight Crew. Mathias, of no fixed address, also admitted possessing - with Zerihun and Ndlovu - an imitation firearm, a self-loading pistol, a .32 pistol and six .32 bullet cartridges. But now he has argued the basis of his plea and claimed he did not know Louis Brathwaite, saying in evidence that the plan was to enter the pub and "rob the tills".

Jose Maria del Nido has been sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison for his role in the embezzlement of public funds in the southern Spanish town of Marbella.

Sevilla president Jose Maria del Nido has been sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison for his role in the embezzlement of public funds in the southern Spanish town of Marbella.

GettyImagesJose Maria Del Nido has had his issues in the past.

The offences took place between 1999 and 2003 when Del Nido worked as lawyer and he will also have to pay the Marbella town hall €2.7 million in compensation.

Marbella's former mayor, Julian Munoz, was also sentenced to seven and half years in prison, while former urban planning adviser Juan Antonio Roca got four.

Del Nido took charge of Sevilla in 2002 and the club has since gone on to win the UEFA Cup, Copa Del Rey, Spanish Supercopa and the UEFA Supercup under his guidance.

He will appeal his sentence to Madrid's Supreme Court.DISCLAIMER:Text may be subject to copyright.This blog does not claim copyright to any such text. Copyright remains with the original copyright holder.

A Spanish court on Wednesday heard new testimony from a young woman who alleges that one of the world's richest men, Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, raped her on a yacht

A Spanish court on Wednesday heard new testimony from a young woman who alleges that one of the world's richest men, Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, raped her on a yacht anchored at the Spanish island of Ibiza in 2008, said a court spokeswoman and a lawyer for the woman.

The prince and his lawyers were not present at the hearing. But, he has maintained that he is innocent, that he hasn't been in Ibiza in more than a decade, and that others have tried to impersonate him.

The woman, a 23-year-old dual Spanish and German citizen, provided the new testimony at the request of the Spanish prosecutor, who said some of her previous testimony needed to be clarified, the court spokeswoman and her lawyer said.

The woman, who has worked as a fashion model, entered the courthouse in Ibiza wearing a black hat and dark sunglasses to conceal her face from reporters outside, one of her lawyers, Max Turiel, told CNN by phone from Ibiza. Her mother accompanied her.

The two-hour, closed-door hearing included the woman, another one of her lawyers, the prosecutor and the investigating magistrate who is in charge of the investigation.

The magistrate is expected to ask the prosecutor to formulate questions that Spain would send to Saudi Arabia, for officials there to ask of the prince, said the court spokeswoman, who by custom is not identified. She talked to CNN by phone from Ibiza.

The woman filed her complaint in Ibiza in August of 2008, but a local judge shelved it last year, citing a lack of evidence that a crime had been committed, according to court documents. .

The woman appealed to the next highest court, the Balearic Island Provisional Court, which ruled that the lower court in Ibiza should reopen the investigation.

The lower court reopened the investigation last July, a court document shows, and it has labeled Prince Alwaleed as a person "imputado," or someone "under official investigation." Being named an imputado is a step short of an indictment. To this point, the prince has not been formally charged with any crime.

The Saudi prince is a billionaire and the biggest foreign investor in companies such as News Corp.

A statement, issued Wednesday by his lawyer in Madrid, reiterated the prince's innocence and said the prince was with his family in France in August of 2008 on a visit that was well-documented by his passport, cell phone records, hotel receipts, as well as photographs, video and eyewitness accounts.

"We strongly support the action of the Ibiza prosecutors and the judge to fully examine the false, unsubstantiated and constantly evolving story of the alleged victim, her mother and her lawyers," said the statement from the lawyer, Horacio Oliva. "The multiple inconsistent accounts lack even one corroborating witness nor do they present a single piece of evidence regarding" the prince.

But in her testimony on Wednesday, the woman maintained her accusation against the prince, said Turiel, her lawyer, despite what he termed tough questioning by the prosecutor seeking details of the alleged rape.

Turiel said the prosecutor's pointed questions on Wednesday, seeking to clarify the woman's earlier testimony, treated her "as if she were the one under investigation and not the victim."

According to an earlier court document in the investigation, the woman believed that her drink had been drugged. She sent a text message to a friend stating as much. She awoke on a yacht to find she was being sexually assaulted by a man she identified as Prince Alwaleed, according to the court document.

Turiel told CNN last September that "there were remains of semen" that should be examined against the prince's DNA, as well as "remains of a tranquilizer that produced the symptoms she had."

anti drink-drive campaign from Monday to Sunday this week

The DGT traffic authority is carrying out an anti drink-drive campaign from Monday to Sunday this week. We can expect more breathalyser controls as the DGT says it wants to crack down on office Christmas parties and other celebrations which are held ahead of Christmas.

The DGT reminds drivers that being under the effects of alcohol the risk of having an accident increases nine-fold. They say it slows down reaction time, causes vision problems, drowsiness, loss of control, excitability and problems with coordination.

Peter and Benjamin Schmidt were found guilty by an Alicante court of fraud,

Peter and Benjamin Schmidt were found guilty by an Alicante court of fraud, sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to repay the £50,000 deposit taken from Keith and Marilyn Brown in 2004.

A total of 60 people, mostly British, paid deposits in excess of £50,000 for property sold off-plan via the German father and son company Construciones Monte Puchol S.L.

Within the space of a year the expectant homeowners began to realise that building licenses had not and would not be granted to the Schmidts, who had illegally earmarked 'rustic' land on which to build the 60 properties.

It remains to be seen whether the decision will set a legal precedent and enable remaining victims, not just of the Schmidts, but of all fraudulent developers in Spain, to claw back their losses.

Despite the allegations of fraud and the evidence against the Schmidts, the Browns were required to fund the six-year legal action themselves – something that has left a bad taste in the mouth of Mr Brown, particularly as there is no guarantee that the Schmidts will actually pay back what they owe.

He's wanted for contempt of court in Arizona. He is under investigation by Italian police over his connection with an international bond scandal exposed by Reuters in August and totalling at least $500 million

He's wanted for contempt of court in Arizona. He is under investigation by Italian police over his connection with an international bond scandal exposed by Reuters in August and totalling at least $500 million (320 million pounds). And he is named as a key player in one of the first criminal indictments following the collapse of Iceland's economy.

But last week you could find David Spargo in a holiday resort on the Spanish island of Majorca. He's a regular at La Batucada cocktail bar, where he might be drinking anything from a cocktail to a beer or whisky. Locals say he also enjoys playing on the 95-euro-a-round (81 pound) Alcanada golf course, which overlooks the sparkling Mediterranean.

Since he arrived in Majorca early this year he has even tried to issue more bonds, one source told Reuters.

Spargo's case shows how tough it is for regulators and law enforcement agencies to track and punish alleged financial crimes across borders. Networks of 'shell companies' -- paper-only firms with few real operations -- make it hard enough to identify suspects. Even if regulators can identify them, they are often hard to bring to justice. Spargo may be of interest to officials in at least four jurisdictions around the world but police and civil guard officials on Majorca said they were unaware of the fraud investigation.

The 44-year old American is sought by U.S. Marshals for failing to repay $5.5 million to investors in Texas and Virginia who had bought bonds issued by his company. But because the charges against him are civil ones, the United States is not able to extradite him and the U.S. embassy in Madrid says they are not aware of Spargo's presence in Spain. Iceland and Britain (whose top financial services regulator recently called $500 million of bonds Spargo issued in 2008 a "fraudulent instrument") have also not tried to extradite him. A prosecutor in Italy declined to say whether authorities had tried to extradite anyone in connection with the case.

"There are likely to be hundreds of suspected white-collar criminals who have moved to other countries and are now living off the proceeds from their alleged crimes," says Andrew Gordon, forensic services partner at accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Police in the City of London say more and more criminals are trying to hide their operations in different countries, using myriad bank accounts to siphon off the profits.

Spargo himself denies any fraud. "A lot of your information is extremely incorrect," he told a Reuters reporter from the balcony of his second-floor apartment on November 28. "You'll find out in the next three days."

He did not elaborate

46 Sub Saharan migrants reached the beach in Ceuta on Wednesday morning by swimming across

A group of 46 Sub Saharan migrants reached the beach in Ceuta on Wednesday morning by swimming across from Morocco, using rubber rings and inner tubes from tyres to help themselves keep afloat.

They were part of a larger group which was spotted jumping into the sea near the Moroccan border at Tarajal, some of whom were stopped from going any further by the Moroccan gendarmerie.

Four of the group which managed to reach the Spanish North African enclave were treated by Cruz Roja personnel for minor injuries and hypothermia.

Two people have been arrested in Yecla, Murcia, in connection with a body

Two people have been arrested in Yecla, Murcia, in connection with a body which was found tied up in the boot of a crashed car on the A-31 motorway in Sax, Alicante, at the end of October.

The body was badly burnt after the car burst into flames on crashing into the central reservation, but was identified as a Spanish man from Yecla with a previous criminal record and the owner of the vehicle where he was found.

All that’s known about the two suspects is that they are also Spanish, aged 39 and 44, and were arrested in Yecla on November 25.

two and a half tons of marijuana have been seized from a drugs and money laundering network

two and a half tons of marijuana have been seized from a drugs and money laundering network based in Lorca after a months-long investigation which has arrested eight suspects.

Four are Spanish, one is from Morocco, and the remaining three are Italian. One of the Italian suspects is a man who was based in El Garrobillo, near Lorca, with a lengthy record for drug dealing and violent crime both in Italy and in Spain, who is thought to have laundered the proceeds from drug dealing by buying up large areas of land in the area. He had been under investigation since June and was found to be linked to the other suspects who are now in custody as part of the same criminal network.

The Interior Ministry said in a press release on Wednesday that the value of the personal and real estate property seized as part of the joint operation by the Civil Guard, National Police and the Agencia Tributaria Tax Authority amounts to more than 1 million €.