Body found in pond Evidence points to the woman meeting a violent death about a week ago.

The body of a woman has been found floating in an irrigation pond in Alicante. The find at Pilar de la Horadada, Alicante, close to Murcia, came just after 8am this morning. Divers were needed to recover the body, in an advanced state of decomposition, some ten metres out of reach.
Once recovered a metal belt was found round the body, thought to have weighed it down initially under the water.
As yet there are no details on the identity of the victim, or the cause of death, but she has been described as being in her 20’s and blonde, possibly from Eastern Europe.The case is in the hands of Instruction Court One in Orihuela, which has placed reporting restrictions in place, given that the evidence points to the woman meeting a violent death about a week ago.

Juan Antonio Roca investigated where he has obtained his bail money

Juan Antonio Roca, who was controversially released on 1 million € bail last week, has given an interview to the El Mundo newspaper.He told the paper that he became the cashier and money collector for the Town Hall, and claimed that he did not have any of the money which had been stolen from the town. He said that he did not give any money to the local councillors as had been claimed, but merely lent it to them. He said it was up to the Municipal Treasurer to sat what had happened to the missing 10 billion pesetas – some 60 million €.After two years in prison on remand, Roca has had plenty of time to reflect on his future which now sees more than 50 judicial procedures on the horizon. His current freedom has come at a price – 1 million € bail in the Malaya case and 450,000 in the saqueo case. He also told the paper that he was considering in reclaiming his work post at the Town Hall.Meanwhile the instruction judge in the Malaya case, Óscar Pérez, has asked the police money laundering unit to investigate where Roca has obtained his bail money.

British woman arrested in Benidorm on an international arrest warrant

45 year old British woman, named with the initials A.H., has been arrested in Benidorm on an international arrest warrant. The arrest was carried out at a hotel in the town on the request of the Italian authorities who want to talk to the woman about her alleged connections to the Sicilian Mafia. She is alleged to have carried out extortion, drug trafficking and even a killing for which she faces 24 years in an Italian prison.She will appear before Instruction Court 3 in the National Court in Madrid shortly according to National Police sources in Alicante.

Baggage handlers arrested at Airport

Four workers at Barajas airport in Madrid have been arrested for allowing cocaine into Spain. Three of the workers come from the baggage handling department, and unloaded the suitcases from the planes. They would then hide the drugs in rucksacks where they also put their lunch, and then sent it out of the airport later in found luggage.17 kilos of cocaine was intercepted when the airport’s own anti-drug force intervened.Those arrested have been named as 31 Clara A.R. from Madrid, 27 year old Luis Ismael C.M. from Cádiz, 33 year old Luis Pablo S. from Argentina, 26 year old Julian Yasid G.L., 30 year old Jimmy Darío M.B., 30 year old Alejandra María Z.O., 39 year old Maria Clemencia L.R, 38 year old John Jairo V.F, all from Colombia and Sergio Stalin M.M. from Ecuador.

Chief Inspector of the UDYCO specialist anti-drug and organised crime unit of the police in Málaga has been arrested.

Chief Inspector, named only in reports with the initials V.I.T. was arrested in the Málaga main police station by members of the Civil Guard on Saturday as part of an on-going operation based in Melilla against drug trafficking from North Africa.member of the UDYCO specialist anti-drug and organised crime unit of the police in Málaga has been arrested.Reports indicate that this latest arrest is not linked in any way to other arrests made of four UDYCO officers on the Costa del Sol last month.It’s understood the latest officer to be arrested faces charges of revealing confidential information and failing to report a crime.

Malian national living in Germany was arrested

A Malian national living in Germany was arrested Thursday, , at the port of Tangier, in possession of 1.2 kg of cocaine that he was trying to smuggle to Morocco aboard a car registered in Germany. The banned substance was concealed in a bag placed in the trunk of the car.

Liberian national has been arrested in the Moroccan city of Casablanca with 1.5 kg of cocaine

A Liberian national has been arrested in the Moroccan city of Casablanca with 1.5 kg of cocaine, police sources said in Rabat on Friday. The Liberian, whose identity was not indicated, was caught red-handed in a boule vard in Casablanca, while he was selling the drug. According to the police, the culprit confessed that he decided to sell the drug in Morocco instead of smuggling it into Europe and had been dealing in it between Rabat and Casablanca.

Spanish Police seized a suitcase full of fake $100 notes which they say was used to convince some victims who came to Spain

Law enforcement officers seized a suitcase full of fake $100 notes which they say was used to convince some victims who came to Spain in person to collect their "prize money". Spanish police have arrested 87 Nigerians suspected of defrauding at least 1,500 people in a postal and internet lottery scam. The arrests were made in and around Madrid in an operation co-ordinated with the FBI. Police said millions of euros were taken from the victims, most of them in the United States and European Union. Those targeted were wrongly told they had won a lottery and asked to send a payment before prize money could sent. Thousands of letters and e-mails, most in ungrammatical English, were sent out to prospective victims every day, police said. The faked documents asked them to make an initial payment of 900 euros ($1,400, £720) in taxes or administrative costs.
The scam is estimated to have netted around 20 million euros, but the actual sum could be many times that, say police.
Police said the number of those defrauded could run into many thousands, as most of them probably failed to report the crime out of embarrassment. Police estimate that only one in 1,000 recipients of the letters needed to fall for the fraud for it to make a profit. An Anglican bishop was among those duped, according to Spanish officials. The operation to track down the gang began in May 2007 when a huge number of identical letters destined for addresses in the US was discovered at Madrid's Barajas airport. Police confiscated hundreds of computers, mobile phones and 60,000 letters in a raid on more than 30 homes and businesses.

Stepfather of 18 year old Yulisa Antonia Pérez re-arrested and charged with her murder

stepfather of 18 year old Yulisa Antonia Pérez from the Dominican Republic, whose corpse was found on a rubbish tip near Arrecife (Lanzarote) at the end of last year, five days after she was reported missing, has been re-arrested and charged with her murder. The suspect was first taken into protective custody on the day Yulisa's body was found after being accused of her murder by some within the local Dominican community, who were threatening to lynch him. Yulisa's partially-buried body was found by a local man out walking his dog on November 13th and the autopsy revealed that she died of ashpyxiation. However, apart from having her hands tied behind her back, there were no other signs of violence, and she had not been raped. It seems that Yulisa's mother, Irma had moved in with the suspect around six months before Yulisa was killed. The family lived in the Los Geranios district of the island's capital.

70 year old Russian woman has been arrested for murder

70 year old Russian woman has been arrested for the murder of an elderly man of the same nationality who was found on Saturday evening at his home on the Los Altos de Torrevieja residential estate. The woman, who reportedly suffers from schizophrenia, is under arrest at Torrevieja Hospital, where she is being treated for a barbiturate overdose. She was found unconscious next to the body of her former husband at around 8pm last Saturday by one of the couple's grandchildren, who had gone to check that everything was okay after a couple of days without news.
The woman, who seems to have tried to take her own life after murdering her former husband, was arrested after her fingerprints were detected on the murder weapon - an axe - that was found next to the dead man's body.

Juan Antonio Roca innocent, that some of the charges against him were "full of irregularities," and vowed to begin setting about preparing his defence

Juan Antonio Roca, the man accused of masterminding widespread urbanisation-related corruption within Marbella Town Hall, was released from Albolote jail in Granada yesterday after spending the last two years behind bars. It took Roca's representatives 22 days to raise the one million euro bail payment demanded by the court. On his release from jail, Roca told journalists that he was innocent, that some of the charges against him were "full of irregularities," and vowed to begin setting about preparing his defence.
Roca is charged, among other things, with embezzlement, tax-fraud, money-laundering, forgery, illegal firearm possession, influence-trafficking and prevarication

"Martin the Bag"Lance arrested suspected Coke boss of Marbella

Spanish police have arrested a British man suspected by French authorities of being the head of a cocaine trafficking network, the interior ministry said Monday.It identified the man as Martin Lance N., 40, also known as "Martin the Bag", born in the central English town of Oadby near Leicester and a resident of the southern Spanish resort of Marbella.It said he was detained in the northeastern city of Barcelona.He is the object of an international arrest warrant issued by French authorities."He is suspected of being the head of a group involved in importing, manufacturing, producing, providing or acquiring narcotics, specifically cocaine," an interior ministry statement said.In particular, French police believe he was involved in smuggling 144 kilogrammes (317 pounds) of cocaine hidden in four mattresses that were found in Paris in June 2006.

Six specialist prosecutors to fight against drug trafficking on the Costa del Sol

Málaga province is to get six specialist prosecutors to fight against drug trafficking on the Costa del Sol. It will make the Málaga anti-drug unit the most important one in the country when it comes into operation next month. Diario Sur reports that the prosecutors to run the service are expected to be named later today, in what is a pilot program which will focus attention on Marbella, Torremolinos and possibly Vélez-Málaga.

four drug traffickers arrested in Orihuela

600 doses of cocaine and 500 of hashish were recovered in the operation. Three of those arrested are Spaniards local to Orihula while the fourth is Romanian.The man thought to be head of the gang has a previous record of 18 arrests and had created what police describe as a ‘real fort’ complete with cameras and guards in the street, against any possible raid by the police. 6000 € and other drug related equipment were also found. National Police in Orihuela have arrested four drug traffickers and cleaned up a point of sale near the Santo Domingo College.

Ger Dundon returns to Estepona on the Costa del Sol

Ger Dundon, the 21-year-old Limerick gang figure,is believed to have travelled to Spain last week. Dundon was stopped in one of the armour-clad cars, a BMW 3 series, for speeding in January. The other is a 4X4. Both cars, which are less than two years old, have now been seized by the Criminal Assets Bureau. The vehicles are built to order by specialist companies in Germany. Most of their sales are to Russia and eastern European countries with high crime rates and the two vehicles seized by CAB are the first to have come here.Gardai believe that Dundon left Limerick in the company of another young man and woman and went to Spain last week. He has been a regular visitor to the resort of Estepona on the Costa del Sol where he was known to keep company with Dublin gang figure, Paddy Doyle, who was shot dead in the resort in January. Ger Dundon received a suspended sentence for possessing drugs for supply three years ago and has no known legitimate means of income. Doyle was one of the two feuding Dublin gangs originally based in Drimnagh and was suspected of carrying out three murders in November 2005.Last month, when Ger Dundon appeared at Limerick District Court on traffic offences, he pulled up outside the courthouse in the armoured 4X4 and summoned associates, all wearing body armour, via an external PA system built into the front grille of the car. They gathered around the car door and shielded him as he made his way to the entrance.
Gardai also believe the recent upsurge of violent attacks in the city was directed from prison by Dundon's brother, the notorious gang leader Wayne Dundon. The McCarthy-Dundon gang have been building up supplies of weapons and other equipment and were said in court last year to have been behind the attempt to buy 20 automatic assault rifles, RPG rockets and handguns from people they believed to be arms dealers. It was, in fact, a sting organised by gardai and British police. Two associates of the gang were imprisoned in December for their part in the plot.
According to sources in Limerick, the McCarthy Dundons became the dominant gang force in the city last year after outgunning their deadly rivals, the Keane-Collopys. Tensions in Limerick had been rising in recent months before the latest round of murders. There have been at least a dozen shootings in the city related to the feuding. The worst, before last weekend, was the incident on March 25 when a gunman armed with an assault rifle fired shots into six houses in St Mary's Park. No one was injured but one bullet narrowly missed the head of an elderly woman sitting in her front living room watching television.
At least half of the shooting incidents in the past two months have taken place in the tiny Island enclave of St Mary's Park, St Ita's Street and St Munchin's Street, directed at members of the Keane-Collopy family.Intelligence had already led gardai to strengthen their presence in the city by sending the Emergency Response Unit (ERU) from Dublin. The "less-than-lethal" Taser weapon was put at the disposal of the ERU two months ago after a recommendation by the Garda Inspector, former Boston police commissioner, Kathleen O'Toole.
After last weekend, the head of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Detective Chief Superintendent Noel White, effectively moved his headquarters from Harcourt Square in Dublin to Limerick to direct investigations.
The first murder attempt was on an 18-year-old in the city centre on January 14. A female relative of Noel Campion from Moyross, who was assassinated two years ago, was fired on two weeks later. At the end of March there were a succession of attacks on homes in the Island area where members of the Keane-Collopy clan live.
The first incident last weekend appears to be retaliation for the attacks in the Island. Gardai believe that the gangs decided to take advantage of the fact that Munster was playing Gloucester last Saturday in the Heineken European rugby cup and that many gardai would be taking the day off to enjoy the match.

Spain is the major port of entry for South American cocaine, but large quantities also transport through Portugal.

According to the United Nations, Europe is the second largest illicit market in the world after the United States. Spain is the major port of entry for South American cocaine, but large quantities also transport through Portugal. US drugs official expressed concern Friday about growing quantities of cocaine being trafficked through Africa to Europe, as amounts of the stimulant reaching the United States tapers off."We are concerned because of the movement," US drug policy control director John Walters told reporters in Brussels.
He said that trafficking in 2007 had "shifted to cocaine coming out of Colombia, through Venezuela in increasing amounts, and by both maritime routes and by air, coming toward Europe."US figures showed that some 58,000 kilogrammes (128,000 pounds) of cocaine arrived in Europe from Venezuela last year -- compared to almost 29,000 (64,000 pounds) in 2000 -- while 3,600 kilogrammes (8,000 pounds) came from Colombia, well down from over 64,000 (141,000 pounds) eight years ago.
Walters, in the Belgian capital for talks with EU officials, was at a loss to explain exactly why Europe was becoming the destination of choice.
"There hasn't been a clear indication in 2007 of what may have happened with regard to flow," he said. "We need to understand this to figure out what's happening."
He acknowledged that a strong euro and higher street prices in Europe could have contributed to the change, but above all, he said, it was important to establish whether the shift was a temporary or more permanent phenomenon.
"Our goal, working with European nations, is not just to move the cocaine from the United States to Europe, our goal is to reduce the cocaine, so it is important to us what exactly is happening here," he said.
Walters said it may be necessary to re-focus the fight against cocaine trafficking slightly to Africa, to help its law enforcement bodies there better combat the drug while it is on the move.
"A movement through West Africa that destabilised the nations of West Africa further than they are already weakened state is not good for anybody," he said. "That is a critical issue."
"The question is: can we continue to accelerate efforts to reduce it at the source ... or do we also need to more extensively shift to building infrastructure in Africa to strengthen law enforcement and governance."

Sex crimes against minors has tripled between 2002 and 2007, now counting an average 1,400 cases per year.

According to figures released by the Portuguese prosecutors’ office (PGR), the number of cases relating to sex crimes against minors has tripled between 2002 and 2007, now counting an average 1,400 cases per year.These figures were established through a report by the Institutionalized Child’s Abuse and Sexual Commerce Protection Group, based on data supplied by the PJ police information unit.
It further states “the total number of crimes involving children and minors has risen between 2003 and 2007 by 628”.In 2007 alone, 561 cases of child abuse were instigated in the region of Lisbon, 23 more than in 2006, and 27 more than 2005.
The group has described this trend as being “very worrying”, given the “accentuated fall in victims’ ages, which in some cases reported as being less than one year old”.
Around 34.86 percent of cases involve some form of family relation between aggressor and victim, whilst the scene of crime in 46.14 percent of cases is the place of residence.Another major concern is the distribution of child pornography on the internet.In Lisbon, in 2007, 67 cases were investigated relating to child pornography, and nine missing children’s cases caused by online contact were successfully resolved.

Gardai have smashed a link between a Dublin drug-trafficking gang and their suppliers in Spain.

Gardai have smashed a link between a Dublin drug-trafficking gang and their suppliers in Spain.An operation resulted in the seizure of eight kilos of cocaine with a potential street value of up to €2.3m.
The cocaine was seized in a holdall bag after members of the Garda national drugs unit stopped and searched a car at Pearse Square, off Pearse Street, shortly before 10am yesterday.Two Dublin men, from Cabra and the north inner city, were arrested along with two men from the English midlands.Last night they were being held for questioning at Pearse Street Garda station under the Drug Trafficking Act.
The four, aged 23, 25, 44 and 47, can be detained without charge for up to seven days.Gardai believe the drugs shipment had been recently smuggled into the country and was being moved across the city to be prepared for distribution to a network of street dealers.The seizure was described by officers last night as "very significant" as it represented a major financial and operational blow to a trafficking gang, which had been at the centre of a lengthy investigation by the garda unit.Yesterday's seizure, which was led by the recently appointed head of the unit, Det Chief Supt Tony Quilter, was the result of a detailed intelligence gathering operation involving a number of national squads.Detectives are satisfied that all of the shipment was destined for distribution.The two Dublin-based suspects were already known to gardai and last night further inquiries were being carried out across the channel into the background of the English men.Gardai said the cocaine consignment had not been concealed in the car and the occupants had been taken totally by surprise. Further searches were carried out throughout the day. Initial examination of the cocaine suggested it had a high purity, which would push up its street value, after it had been mixed and watered down before distribution, to well over €2m.This was the latest in a series of substantial drug seizures so far this year and last night gardai were particularly pleased that they had struck a blow against the north city gang, which had been the focus of their attention for months.Gardai have been working closely with officers from several English police forces in an effort to break the links between Irish trafficking gangs and their network of suppliers in Britain.Similar exchanges have been taking place with police in Spain, where the Irish gangs are also known to have bases.

Dead Burglar in funeral parlor makes amazing recovery

A burglar who broke into a funeral parlor tried to fool police by playing dead, but the criminal’s acting skills left something to be desired. Police said they had no idea what a 23-year-old Spanish man was hoping to steal on March 17 when he broke into the Crespo Funeral Home in Burjassot, a small town outside Valencia. Neighbors alerted police when they heard the front door of the business being forced open in the middle of the night. Police arrived with the owner and eventually located the suspect lying on a table in a glassed-in chamber used for the viewing of deceased people during wakes. “The custom here is for dead people to be dressed in suits, in nice clothes that look presentable. This guy was in everyday clothes that were wrinkled and dirty,” said a local police official. “He was trying to fake being dead, but he was breathing,” the officer added. The unnamed suspect has served previous jail terms for robbery.

Car theft costa more than 40% of car thefts in Europe occur on the Costa del Sol

More than 40% of car thefts in Europe occur on the Costa del Sol according to a recent meeting of the National Police in Fuengirola. Spain is known as the gateway for trafficking of stolen cars into Africa and is considered one of the most important car showrooms in the world.It is planned that in a couple of years, all cars will be computerised and there will be a databank of information enabling all stolen cars to be located, worldwide and then returned to its rightful owner. The scheme will not however include Morocco, for they have a law that states that if a vehicle is brought into the country with illegal paperwork then it cannot be granted an exit visa. The only way that this could be rectified would be by an amendment to the Moroccan custom laws, which may never happen.
In Spain it is often international crime rings that organise the vehicle trafficking as the profit to be made is so huge. The most sought-after models include 4 wheel drives such as Mitsubishi, Mercedez, Range Rover and Jeeps which are most useful in countries where there is a lot of snow or desert. The route for stolen vehicles is usually via the ports of Almeria, Algeciras or Cadiz.With the abolition of European borders, the problem is getting out of hand.