Expats with a past

John `The Coach' Traynor (52)
Traynor strenuously denies allegations that he set up crime reporter Veronica Guerin for her murder.Garda and criminal sources allege that Traynor travels regularly between southern Spain, Amsterdam and Brussels to organise large-scale cannabis deals. Traynor, a former fraudster and associate of `The General', Martin Cahill, is believed to have made and spent a fortune from his involvement in the hash trade between 1994 and October 1996. In a phone interview with this reporter he denied that he had any part in Guerin's death.
Peter Mitchell (33)
Mitchell, from Dublin's north inner city, was alleged during two trials to be a member of the biggest cannabis gang that operated in Ireland in the mid-1990s.
Now based in Fuengirola, Spain, Mitchell is wanted by Gardai in connection with his alleged role in the gang. Mitchell and Traynor are believed to be in regular contact.
George `The Penguin' Mitchell (51)
Ballyfermot-born armed robber-turned-cannabis and ecstasy dealer Mitchell is unlikely ever to return home, as the Gardaí, the British police and the IRA are all keen to speak to him if he returns from Amsterdam, where he allegedly continues to run his hash business.Mitchell, a suspected member of the £30 million Beit art robbery gang led by Martin Cahill in the 1980s, served 18 months in jail since he left Ireland in 1996 after being caught during a robbery of computers in Holland. He is reportedly worth €15.3 million. Mitchell was accused in his absence in a court in London of being the organiser of a botched gangland hit on gangster Tony Brindle, a rival of the infamous Daly crime clan. Sources close to Mitchell have denied he was involved.
Tommy Savage (51)
Savage phoned Garda detectives from Amsterdam four years ago and said he had no part in the shooting dead of ex-INLA man Paddy `Teasy Weasy' McDonald in 1992.
However, because of newspaper reports about his alleged cannabis dealing, he has not returned because he says he would not get a fair trial.Savage, a former member of the Official IRA -- the old paramilitary wing of the Workers' Party -- was sentenced to nine years in Portlaoise for armed robbery in the 1970s. A number of his former colleagues have suffered violent deaths. In 1983 Danny McKeown was shot dead outside a Dublin dole office. Later that year Gerry Hourigan was killed in Ballymun. Michael Crinnion was murdered in Cork in 1995. Savage is believed to be close to George Mitchell.
Mick `The Corporal' Weldon (48)
Gardai have sought Weldon since 1993, when he fled the country as detectives prepared to bring him before the Special Criminal Court. He was found by Gardai with a gun allegedly in his possession.Weldon reportedly has his own plane and pilot's licence, and frequently flies to Colombia and Surinam. It is claimed by Garda sources that the former Irish Army corporal from Swords is one of the biggest cannabis barons in Europe.One criminal who knows Weldon insisted: "Mick is just like one of the lads who does a bit of this and that -- he's not an international gangster."Weldon's whereabouts are uncertain. He was last sighted in the Costa del Sol.
Seamus Ward
Ward was named during a trial two years ago as being a member of the same cannabis gang as Peter Mitchell. Ward, from Walkinstown, Dublin, has been missing since October 1996. Gardai believe he may be in the Costa del Sol, but criminal sources claim he is living in southern England.
Jim McCann
Jim "Just call me the Shamrock Pimpernel" McCann is wanted all over the world for a variety of crimes, and is regarded as a colourful figure in the underworld.
The reformed cannabis smuggler Howard Marks wrote in his autobiography that McCann mixed with unsuspecting IRA men and Hollywood actors like James Coburn during his heyday in the 1980s.McCann, originally from Belfast, in 1971 became the first man in decades to escape from Crumlin Road jail, where he was on remand for petrol-bombing Queen's University.
In the intervening period he linked up with international cannabis dealer Marks, while still trading on his reputation as a revolutionary. In 1977 he was arrested in France for extradition to Germany for allegedly bombing a British Army base in Moenchengladbach. A subsequent case failed, thanks largely to protests by French political radicals. Next he turned up in Naas, when Gardai caught him with nearly £100,000 worth of cannabis. When arrested, he would only say: "My name is Mr Nobody. My address is The World."McCann was later freed by the Garda on a technicality. He was last seen in Argentina.

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Sunday saw the celebration of the Día Sin Bañador, day without the bathing costume, organised by the Spanish Nudist Federation.

Sunday saw the celebration of the Día Sin Bañador, day without the bathing costume, organised by the Spanish Nudist Federation.

The federation is made up of 14 nudist associations from across the country but the day was particularly successful in Asturias and Cataluña where many took off their clothes in demand that nudist and non-nudist beaches no longer be separated

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Costa del Sol has turned into the Costa del Gloom.

Adding to Spain’s economic problems, the Costa del Sol has turned into the Costa del Gloom. The sun still shines, but the economic storm clouds have been gathering for some time and are now raining on the property developers’ parade.
Holiday and retirement homes that once looked like sure shot investments are now dropping in value. Apartments, often bought by speculators, have fallen in value by a third in the last year. Their owners – many from elsewhere in Europe – want to sell, but with mortgages difficult to get, there are few buyers.
More and more building projects are being put on hold, although the infrastructure is in place the homes will have to wait for better times.
After years of strong demand, fuelled by low interest rates, the Spanish property bubble finally burst. One of the most high profile victims was Spain’s largest developer Martinsa-Fadesa, which filed for bankruptcy protection last month.
Economics professor Juan Carlos Martinez said it is just the beginning: “What is clear is that many companies are facing a very complicated situation in which they have bought land, getting seriously in debt to do so and that, in today’s world you have to pay the money back. So if they are not getting any money from their principle business which is the sale of property what they have to do is get rid of dead weight, that is to get rid of certain assets they may have.”
The economic downturn has seen nearly a quarter of a million people have joined the jobless rolls in the last three months. In Spain’s building sites, the signs read ‘Not hiring.’
One unexpected side effect, French vineyards are seeing the return of Spanish grape pickers. For several years, they had had so much work back home that the flow of seasonal workers across the border had all but stopped. This year 12,000 are expected for the harvest in southern France.

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prices are falling, buyers are disappearing and developers, starved of loans by Spanish banks nervous about international financial instability

prices are falling, buyers are disappearing and developers, starved of loans by Spanish banks nervous about international financial instability, are going bust.
the Costas, developments lie half-finished, without water and electricity, and without any prospect of being sold.For Spain's notoriously corrupt and capricious planning regime, which gave birth to the developments now disfiguring virtually all the country's Mediterranean coastline, the chickens are coming home to roost.
Houses built on the nod of corrupt mayors are being refused retrospective planning permission by regional administrations under pressure from the green lobby. Many properties, new and not-so-new, are blighted by illegality and are the effectively worthless; others have simply been demolished.Scan the websites used by current or potential British expatriates and you will find people desperate for advice about how to reclaim deposits that they will, in many cases, never see again - and all at the wrong end of life, when lost savings cannot be recouped.Even the biggest Spanish firms are going under. Last month, Martinsa-Fadesa, a major and respected player, filed for bankruptcy.Gwilym Rhys-Jones is a financial investigator based on the Costa del Sol, and a longtime observer of the Spanish property scene. He says that even large, well-known builders were accepting deposits for off-plan developments that had no planning permission."These things are no more than pipe dreams, but there was such a ready supply of British and north European buyers that all they had to do was show them a pretty drawing and they were falling over themselves to buy them."Drive along the coast south of Alicante and the results of the Spanish property bubble are there to see: serried ranks of exquisitely tasteless, often empty, villas advancing in close order up isolated, parched hillsides.Many have been built in locations totally unsuitable for housing: by the sides of dual carriageways, away from shops and amenities - anywhere that developers could find a landowner willing to sell.Property has driven the Spanish economy like no other in the European Union. Last year, housing investment accounted for a tenth of GDP and 13 per cent of private sector jobs.

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former wife of BBVA executive, Andrés Toro Barea, who was murdered in Bollullos de la Mitación (Sevilla) last June, may have used a relative's gun

former wife of BBVA executive, Andrés Toro Barea, who was murdered in Bollullos de la Mitación (Sevilla) last June, may have used a relative's gun to commit the crime.
NRCS, who had separated from her former husband several months before his murder, was arrested last Tuesday and remanded into preventive custody following a preliminary court hearing two days later. Mr Toro's body was found on June 16th by colleagues concerned that he had not turned up for work. Since the break-up of his marriage, the 55-year-old banker - who was the director of the BBVA's debt-recovery department for western Andalucía - had been living on a part-time basis in the villa on the La Juliana residential estate in Bollullos where he was found dead on June 16 (photo).

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Figures from the Spanish tourist board show the number of Brits holidaying in Spain in the second quarter to June fell by 5 per cent

Figures from the Spanish tourist board show the number of Brits holidaying in Spain in the second quarter to June fell by 5 per cent compared to last year. Overall, the number of visitors to Spain was down 0.7 per cent. Of course, the British love affair with Iberia has not ended yet - Spain is still our favourite holiday destination, attracting about 12 million visitors each year. But the effect of the credit crunch, combined with the strength of the euro and the choice of cheaper destinations, has led many British tourists to say 'adiós España'. Others believe the British may also be tiring of the Spanish formula of sun, sand, sea and sangría. Frances Tuke, of the Association of British Travel Agents, says the bubble may have burst for Spain, which has seen a steep rise in visitors since 1997. 'People have different choices, perhaps we are tiring of the same thing.'
Down the coast from Benidorm, Marbella has long been a resort favoured by retired soap stars and a certain type of perma-tanned Briton. But there are hints here that, just like Benidorm, holidaymakers may be turning their backs on its charms.
Fewer Britons are filling the leather seats at Giangrossi, a 'designer ice cream lounge bar'. Owner Joanna Dunbar says she has heard complaints along the coast about the drop in visitor numbers. 'I grew up here and would defend the place, but I would not come here as a tourist. I don't blame people for looking elsewhere.'
Dunbar said people had been put off by a multimillion-pound civic corruption scandal which had led to the dissolution of Marbella city council and left hundreds of British property owners fearing that their illegally built homes could be demolished. José Luis Zoreda, vice-president of the industry body Alliance for Tourist Excellence, said the drop in British visitors 'clearly sounded the first alarm bells'. Other countries have seen tourist numbers rise - Turkey and Egypt by 15 per cent and 22 per cent respectively in the second quarter of 2008.

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Come visit Spain, the European point of entry for cocaine

A study of randomly selected Spanish euro notes carried out by chemists at the University of Valencia (UV) has shown that they contained traces of cocaine at an average concentration of 155 micrograms, which is the highest rate in Europe, according to an article published in the latest issue of Trends in Analytical Chemistry. The researchers also carried out a comparative study of the methods currently used in detecting the presence of cocaine on bank notes worldwide.
It may seem like an odd marketing campaign but "Come visit Spain, the European point of entry for cocaine" remains apt.Spanish Money Contains Higher Traces Of Cocaine Than Any Other European CurrencyThe most recent report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime warns that Spain is still the major point of entry of cocaine into Europe. In 2006, 41% of all hauls of the drug made on the continent were made on Spanish soil, where 50 metric tonnes were seized, followed by Portugal, with 35 metric tonnes. The UN also says the rate of cocaine use doubled in Spain between 1999 and 2005, increasing from 1.6% to 3% of those aged between 15 and 64, which is more than twice the rate for western Europe as a whole (1.2%).
“I find it profoundly embarrassing that we now all have cocaine in our wallets” - Miguel de la Guardia. Graphic: M. de la Guardia et al.“The latest technology means we can now carry out quantitative analysis of cocaine traces on any bank note, and as a result we can confirm that – at least in Spain – traces of the drug are found not only on notes that have been in direct contact with it, but on nearly all the notes in circulation,” said Miguel de la Guardia, co-author of the study and a professor in the Analytical Chemistry Department of the UV, in an interview with SINC. He explained that this was due to “cross contamination” between bank notes, as well as in money counting machines used by banks.
The chemist told SINC that the methods used to extract cocaine from the bank notes and to analyse it depended upon whether it was necessary to detect the drug quickly, in which case direct application methods are used (in which the drug is not separated from the bank note), such as thermal dissolution, with detection by mass spectrometry, ionic mobility spectrometry, or immune testing (with an antigen-antibody recognition system).Mass spectrometry is also used if the priority is to determine the exact amounts of cocaine on a note. However, in this case it is necessary to first separate the drug from the notes, using methods such as gas chromatography, liquid chromatography or capillary electrophoresis, using organic solvents.The study also analyses previous studies highlighting the concentrations of cocaine found in different currencies around the world, as well as the results of the random sample of Spanish bank notes gathered by the Valencian chemists, which detected concentrations of up to 889 microgrammes of the drug on some notes.
In the United States, which has the most highly contaminated bank notes of any country in the world, dollar bills containing more than 1,300 microgrammes of cocaine have been registered, although the average values were between 2.86 and 28.75 microgrammes, varying according to the year and city.The study also reveals that German euro bank notes have a cocaine concentration traces five times lower than that of the Spanish ones. With Irish bank notes, one statistic indicates that of 48 notes studied the highest concentration found was 0.576 microgrammes.
Another study, carried out on 356 Swiss franc notes, found that only 6% were contaminated with the drug (at concentrations above one nanogramme per note). The researchers were unable to find any quantitative data in the scientific literature relating to British pounds, but semi-quantitative data from a few years ago suggested that between 40% and 51% of bank notes were contaminated with cocaine, at levels of 0.0011 microgrammes per note.
The publication points out that there is an “unequivocal” relationship between the high levels of cocaine found in both American dollar bills and Spanish euro notes and the high consumption of the substance in both countries.
De la Guardia believes that cocaine “has become rooted in Spanish society, and is playing Russian roulette with the neuronal development of an entire generation”, and that for this reason greater efforts must be made to reduce consumption, as well as to destroy the glamorous image of cocaine “which is often portrayed by the media”. “I find it profoundly embarrassing that we now all have cocaine in our wallets,” the researcher added. Article: S. Armenta, M. de la Guardia. “Analytical methods to determine cocaine contamination of banknotes”.

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