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

Nine houses in Garrucha and Mojacar have been burgled, with the intruders amassing a haul worth thousands of euros in cash and home entertainment units.Five youths, aged between 14 and 16, who have been taken in for questioning, are thought to have stolen around 6,000 euros’ worth of audiovisual equipment, including home cinema equipment, LCD-screen televisions, Playstation 3 consoles and other multimedia items, which they sold on to a 53-year-old man, known as ‘Jeronimo’, who has also been arrested.Initial enquiries have suggested that he made the teenagers steal to order, so that he could sell the goods on to third parties. The teen gang took...

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

Stolen car gang thought to be behind the theft and alteration of top-of-the-range vehicles for re-sale has been broken up in Estepona.They are said to have stolen the cars from dealers and garages and modified their chassis numbers, registration plates and other elements that could lead to their identification.These were then sold on in North African countries, having been shipped out from the port of Algeciras.The suspects, of Moroccan and Bulgarian...

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

British holidaymakers are deserting Spain in their droves latest figures show. Spanish tourism bosses said 148,000 fewer Britons visited last month compared to January 2008 - a drop of 20.5 per cent. It is the lowest number since records began 15 years ago. A source at the Ministry for Industry, Tourism and Commerce said: "British visitors are traditionally by far our largest market. "The fall is due to the worsening economic situation in the UK...

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

Violent gangs like the Latin Kings are almost inactive in Spain, but the country is becoming worried about the possible arrival of more dangerous gangs from Central America.The alert was given by Pedro Gallego, a Civil Guard sergeant who lived in Honduras for four years, during which time he analyzed what are known in the region as "maras," violent groups made up of young men and women ranging in age from 10 to 30 who only know how to survive via...

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

Spain's biggest property firm said on Friday that it lost €738m last year, the biggest loss in its 90-year history, as the value of its holdings dived following the collapse of the real estate markets in Spain and the UK.The purchase of HSBC's tower in Canary Wharf - the biggest property deal in British history - has helped sink its Spanish buyer, Metrovacesa.Owners of the beleaguered building company, the Sanahuja family, will hand control of the company to its creditor banks, including Santander, swapping a 55% stake in exchange for cancelling €2.1bn (£1.9bn) of debt claims.The purchase of the 42-storey tower in London's Docklands is seen as...

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

memo leaked to Spanish media this week is purported to have instructed one particular police station in the Madrid area — not in Lavapies — to arrest 30 undocumented immigrants per week.Spain's sizable immigrant population already faces soaring unemployment in a souring economy and a government pushing jobless foreigners to go home. Now they complain they are also being harassed by police who are allegedly under pressure to fulfill arrest quotas.In Lavapies, one of Madrid's most multicultural neighborhoods, home to many North Africans, Latin Americans, Asians and people of other origins, immigrants say they are constantly asked for their papers...

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Users of pre-paid cards will find their service suspended in November if they have not identified themselves

new advertising campaign ‘Identifícate’ is to be launched by the Spanish government Interior Ministry at the end of this month with the objective of getting the 20 million mobile phone users with prepaid cards to register before a deadline date of November 7.It’s part of legislation passed in October 2007 under which unidentified mobile phone users will be cut off, as operators will be legally obliged to deactivate the cards which remain unidentified. The legislation was passed as a consequence of the terrorist attacks on the trains in Madrid on March 11 2004, when such pre-paid phones were used to activate the bombs. It’s estimated that currently...

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Search for the body of Marta del Castillo

Search for the body of Marta del Castillo, the 17 year old from Sevilla who went missing three weeks ago, and whose friend, 20 year old Miguel Carcaño D. has now confessed to her killing, has been extended downstream in the Guadalquivir River where Miguel said he threw the body, helped by his friend Samuel B.P.Police say the search has been extended as far as Sanlúcar de Barrameda 80kms away, and that it is being complicated by the 17 metre depth of the river and the fact that is tidal and there is a lot of mud. It could take days to find her body.Two helicopters are taking part in the search which will continue at first light on Monday.On Sunday...

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Cyril Jacquet shot his mother three times using his father's automatic pistol after she entered the family home.

Cyril Jacquet, 29, and his girlfriend were among the contestants on a new show to be aired on the Antena 3 channel on Sunday night. But the pair were pulled from the programme after rumours surfaced on the internet that he had murdered his parents when he was 15 years old.In 1994, Jacquet shot his mother three times using his father's automatic pistol after she entered the family home. A few hours later, Jacquet used the remaining seven bullets for his father.He was pictured smiling at their funeral and eventually confessed to the double killing claiming they had "scolded him" and "sometimes" hit him. After serving less than three years in a...

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Félix Martínez Touriño, has been shot dead in the street.

36 year old director of the Centro de Convenciones in Barcelona, Félix Martínez Touriño, has been shot dead in the street. His attacker shot him in the head in the San Gervasi area of the city yesterday and then made his escape on foot. Witnesses said the attacker was wearing a hat and scarf. Police are still to make an arrest and Los Mossos d’Esquadra say they are keeping all possibilities open in their investigations as to the motive for the killi...

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Nationalisation of tens of thousands of seaside residences in an attempt to protect the coastline from pollution

Environment Ministry is backtracking on plans to nationalize tens of thousands of seaside residences in an attempt to protect the coastline from pollution, the daily El Pais reported Monday. The Environment Ministry had intended to step up the application of a 1988 law prohibiting the construction of housing near the water line. The owners of such houses, many of whom are British and German nationals, would have been granted the right to use them for up to 60 years without being allowed to sell them. Protests from house owners and the British and German embassies have prompted the government to soften the plans, El Pais said. The owners of seaside...

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Iberia merger between the airline and British Airways was close.

chairman of Spain's Caja Madrid, the biggest shareholder in Iberia with 23%, said an agreement on a merger between the airline and British Airways was close."I believe the operation is close, that's my impression," Miguel Blesa told journalists as he presented the un- listed bank's 2008 results yesterday.Blesa is also deputy chairman of Iberia.When asked what was blocking a merger agreement, Blesa said the share split, corporate governance questions and the location of the combined group's headquarters all needed to be resolved."The perception now I think is that the share exchange will not be 60-40," he said of the likely stakes to be held by...

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Spanish police arrested 13 people Tuesday on suspicion of links to organized crime and terrorism groups.

Spanish police arrested 13 people Tuesday on suspicion of links to organized crime and terrorism groups.A police statement said the detainees -- 11 Pakistanis, a Nigerian and an Indian -- are suspected of belonging to an international crime gang involved in passport forgery, drug trafficking and people-smuggling.Police said they were investigating whether the group may also have supplied forged documents to international terror groups. Spanish police often use that term to refer to Islamic extremist organizations, but a police official refused to say if that applied this time.Earlier, news reports citing police sources said 15 people had been...

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