Five Moroccan men were arrested at the weekend and are said by the Guardia Civil to have been members of a violent group that has been using pistols in holdups at petrol stations. The arrests took place in Águilas but the crimes cover a wide area. The gang is also said to have created a climate of intimidation amongst other Moroccans. More arrests are expected as investigations continue. Finally, Murcia priests became suspicious at the number of English women in their 50s who were being married to Nigerian men who didn't speak any Spanish. They took their suspicions to the Guardia Civil and a huge increase has been identified in the number of marriages between Nigerian males and women of Gypsy origin. Study of documentation provided for the marriages showed many common addresses and other suspicious aspects. Some of the women had only been in Murcia for a day. About 40 cases of alleged marriages of convenience, which aim to get residency for non-EU immigrants, are now being investigated and there are suspicions that an organised crime gang may be involved. recent string of successes by police and security forces has seen several gangs accused of committing major crimes arrested while a strong crack-down continues. The investigations and arrests have been carried out by National Police, Local Police and the Guardia Civil. Many specialist units have been involved, from those who target organised crime, to groups that investigate money laundering and officers who are anti-drug experts. Crime has become a major concern for both Spanish and foreign residents on the Costas and police and security forces resources are being significantly increased. In Murcia it has been announced that additional National Police officers are about to enter service, with 40 being assigned to Murcia City, 30 to Cartagena and 20 to Lorca. The Guardia Civil presence in the province will now stand at about 250 agents, 200 of whom will be on regular duties and another 50 on specialist tasks. These include units specializing in fighting violent crime and in special operations. The Guardia is adding 40 new vehicles to its fleet.

Every week there are reports of additional vehicles being bought for Local Police and of more officers being added in towns and cities. More police dogs are aiding the fight against crime. Recently agents of the National Police and officers from La Unión, Cartagena and Alcantarilla, participated in an intensive course in work with police dogs. Many Local Police forces are now adding dog units to their resources, including one at Pilar de la Horadada. The dogs are trained to track, chase and detain suspects and to detect drugs at places which include schools and public institutions. Drugs are the reason behind a great many crimes, from large operations involving international criminals to dealing at street level. Drug users are responsible for many of the crimes, such as robberies that cause so much suffering to law-abiding people. Out in the Mediterranean the big war against drugs continues day and night. Sophisticated electronic surveillance systems around the narrowest crossing point, the Gibraltar Straits, mean that smugglers have moved their operations northwards with the coastlines of Murcia and Alicante now being targeted.

A light-engine aircraft carrying 600 kg of hashish crashed in southern Spain on Thursday, Spanish police said in a report.
"A plane carrying 600 kg of hashish packaged in 20 bags crash-landed in rice fields not far from Sevilla," the report read, adding that the plane's pilot and its sole passenger had fled the scene of the crash. Police eventually located and arrested the plane's occupants several kilometers away from the crash site. They have been accused of drug trafficking. Neither the identities of the suspected drug smugglers, nor the origin of the hashish have been disclosed. However, drugs are mostly trafficked into Spain from Morocco

Guardia Civil officers have arrested a 21-year-old man in Pego on suspicion of drug-peddling. He was reportedly caught red-handed in a street on Sunday with 22 bags of white powder. Police say that his odd behaviour attracted their attention. The powder was tested by forensics and was found to be cocaine.

Tangier,Customs services at the port of Tangiers arrested, on Tuesday, two Spaniards and a Moroccan with 72kg of hashish concealed onboard a car registered in Spain.
Moroccan with 72kg of hashish concealed onboard a car registered in Spain.In a separate catch, Moroccan authorities also seized some 24Kg of cannabis resin found in the dashboard of a vehicle registered in Spain. On Monday, Moroccan customs apprehended an Iranian-born Spanish national with 19kg of cannabis resin, locally known as chira, that he attempted to bring from Spain on board a luxury vehicle Since the beginning of January, drug seizures at the port of Tangier
are almost daily. The arrested traffickers of different nationalities are brought before court where they face sentences ranging from 5 to 10 years in prison and very heavy fines set according to the
quantity of drugs seized.

Nador, Moroccan Royal Navy on Wednesday seized 2,004 kg of cannabis resin, locally known as chira, in the region of Nador (northeast), local authorities said.
resin, locally known as chira, in the region of Nador (northeast), local authorities said.The drug was found on board a powerful dinghy that was bound for southern Spain. The dealers managed to flee aboard another dinghy.
This brings to 5,724kilos the amount of this drug seized over the past 24 hours in the city.
Another 60 kilos of hashish were seized, Wednesday, in Casablanca. Three drug dealers were arrested during this operation, according to police sources. At the port of Tangier (north), customs and police services seized a total of 160 kg of hashish in three catches and arrested eight individuals. The new catches came less than 24 hours after the seizure of no less than 5.6 metric tons (MT) of cannabis products in the cities of Tangier (north)and Nador (northeast).
Since the turn of the year, the rate of drug seizures has accelerated on almost a daily basis. The traffickers face sentences ranging from 5 to 10 years in prison and hefty fines set according to the quantity seized.

38-year Nigerian lady living in Germany was arrested at the Mohammed V Airport in Casablanca on Monday, with 46 capsules of cocaine in her stomach, a police source told PANA here Tuesday. The lady flew into Casablanca from the Malian capital, Bamako, on her way to Madrid, Spain. On 8 February, two Nigerians and a Ghanaian were arrested at the same airport with capsules of cocaine in the stomach

Catalan regional police have arrested six Latin American youths in connection with a street fight that ended in the death of a 16-year-old Venezuelan girl. The Catalan police could not say if the 25 youths that took part in the fight early on Sunday morning were members of organised youth gangs. The main suspect of the crime is Alexis Emmanuel C.M, 20, a native of the Dominican Republic. The young man is believed to have stabbed his victim to death. The police said that they had recovered the knife that probably caused the death of the Venezuelan adolescent. The fight took place in a suburb of Barcelona, where the youths had met at a party. Police could not say what was the cause of the fight.

ITV programme broadcast on Monday night, ‘Expats Under Attack,’denounced the east european gangs that were targeting Northern Europeans, with a piece to camera of a reformed gang member. The chalk signs left by the gangs outside properties and the brutal violent robberies suffered by British expats. It spoke of foreigners, especially Brits, being targeted by criminal gangs in Spain, and one person interviewed said police in Spain are poorly paid and tend not to want to spend too much time on a specific case. In Málaga province, it noted a stabbing in Fuengirola, and highlighted the case of Gary Dunne, who was stabbed to death near Torremolinos, Málaga province, in March 2006, and whose family have been fighting for permission to bring his body home for burial.

National Police said in a press release on Monday that the two men, Francisco Javier V.T. and Rubén V.V., were intercepted near Vera last Wednesday night as they were returning from a drug-buying trip to Alicante. They were chased along the motorway, hitting one of the vehicles in pursuit, and throwing part of the drugs out of the car window as they tried to make their escape.125 kilometre police chase along the A-7 motorway last week ended with two drug dealers in custody and a large amount of cocaine confiscated by the officers in pursuit. They were finally caught at the exit for Balanegra, more than 120 kilometres from where the car chase began. EFE said officers found 300 grams of cocaine in the car, and a further 100 grams in a later search of Francisco Javier’s home.

English man wanted in connection with a shooting incident in Ibiza in which three people were injured has been arrested by police in Amsterdam.
Kevin R is wanted in connection with what is believed to have been a shoot-out between two rival gangs - one British, one Moroccan - over the sale of drugs in certain areas of Sant Antoni.A warrant for his arrest was issued by a judge in Ibiza after he skipped bail.
Kevin R. was in the front passenger seat of a 4x4 BMW that was shot nine times during the incident. The driver of the car, Sean W. received a gunshot wound and is currently in Palma Prison awaiting trial.Another Briton, Keith D., is wanted in connection with the same incident.Though British, he is alleged to have rented the car from which the Moroccans fired at their British rivals in the BMW.BRITON suspected of being involved in a dramatic shoot-out between rival drug gangs in Ibiza has been arrested in Holland.The gun battle happened in the resort of San Antonio, on the island’s west coast, in August, two years ago.Shots were fired during a car chase through the centre of the town.The driver of one of the cars was shot and seriously injured.Two young Belfast tourists, caught in the cross fire as they left a disco, were also hit and wounded.The man, detained in Holland, allegedly skipped bail after being arrested by Spanish police.Most of those arrested were from Merseyside.Spain is expected to seek the man’s extradition from Holland.An international arrest warrant was issued for a 26-year-old Newcastle man allegedly involved in the shoot-out.

National police squad has detained a 15-year-old Guinean girl in Palma who was found operating as a prostitute in a single’s club in Palma during the early hours of the morning.
The police communiqué said that the girl’s mother had reported her having left home on the 29th of last month. The officers who located the 15-year-old were members of a special unit which investigates illegal immigration and the use of false documentation. During an inspection of the club in calle S’Aigua Dolca, the girl was asked to provide identification but she was only able to produce a DNI card belonging to a cousin. The police were able to see the person and the card failed to tally. They then arrested the club’s owner - a 60-year-old Spaniard, Ramón L.G. along with a second Guinean - 22-year-old Arminda O.A. who had played a key part in allowing the 15-year-old to operate as a prostitute in the club.The police have taken the case to the Balearic Under-age court who have set up special protectin measures, but the anti-illegal immigration unit have not ruled out making further arrests.

Man electrocuted on trying to rob copper from wiring
A person walking out in the countryside, gathering wild asparagus near Establiments had a gruesome surprise when he came across the body of a 33-year-old man who police believe had been electrocuted whilst he was trying to prize the copper interior layers out of cables at a transformer belonging to the power supply company Gesa. A 15'000 volt charge put an end to his life. Investigators believe that Antonio Carrillo Redondo died on Thursday afternoon, but his body was not found until yesterday. He had parked his car near Puigpunyent and made directly for the transformer station, forcing the lock on the structure which housed the cables. In a careless moment he touched a loose, exposed wire.

Health officials in Andalusia on Thursday confirmed that a bottle of fruit juice containing a "high concentration of cocaine" was responsible for the death of a 40-year-old man in his home in Ogíjares, Granada, on 28 January.
Juan Carlos Cuadros began vomiting, passed out and died in his sister's arms half an hour after drinking a tropical blend of fruit juices of the Jugo de Noni Tahitian brand that he had apparently bought on the internet. His wife, who only took a sip, complained of a burning sensation affecting her throat and tongue. Regional health chief María Jesús Montero said that tests had shown the Mexican-made drink was contaminated with a large amount of cocaine. She said Spanish health authorities have ordered stores to withdraw it, and that anyone who has bought bottles should hand them in to health authorities.

Guardia Civil has broken up a large crime gang on the Costa del Sol today. 19 people have been arrested and another six are implicated in the crimes which where generally violent thefts from homes on the Costa del Sol, together with credit card fraud. Jewellery worth 800,000 € has been recovered together with 100,000 € in cash and computer material.Those detained are 14 Algerians, 6 Spaniards, 4 Moroccans and a Frenchman. Most of the arrests were in Málaga province although two did take place in Alicante.A shop which bought and sold gold has been searched and closed as part of the police investigations, in connection with the fencing of the stolen items.The group was headed by an Algerian who is reported to have crashed his car into an unmarked civil guard car at the time of his arrest.The Civil Guard are expected to release more information later.

Three of the Civil Guard officers suspected of involvement in the theft of almost half a ton of cocaine from Barcelona Port in January 2005 have now been remanded to custody, and it’s understood, according to information from El País newspaper, that another two were released with charges. Also remanded was an ex chief inspector with the National Police. A former Civil Guard who is now a local police officer was granted bail of 3,000 €, the paper said.The charges against them are drug trafficking, corruption, unlawful association, bribery and revealing secret information, and they are believed to have helped a gang to steal the cocaine which was under guard at the port. More than a ton of the drug had come in on a container of frozen prawns, and was seized thanks to information from the US Drug Enforcement Agency.El País said the investigation into the theft reopened recently thanks to information from a reformed criminal. They also note telephone tapping which took place after the theft, and said the gang who stole the drugs knew security would be lax when they arrived at the port to break into the container.

National Police operation against a drug smuggling gang which operated between Ceuta and the Costa del Sol, and which brought large amounts of cannabis into Spain illegally. Central government offices in Ceuta said eleven arrests have taken place in Marbella, Estepona and Ceuta, and that six of them were from the Autonomous City, two from Málaga province, and the remaining three were Moroccan.It has been a joint investigation on both sides of the Strait, which brought information that the gang planned to make a drugs run to Estepona on the 5th of this month. The haul amounted to more one and a half tons of cannabis, and would, according to information from EFE, have brought the smugglers almost 2.5 million €.Also confiscated in the operation were the Zodiac boat the smugglers used for the trip across the Strait of Gibraltar, a stolen van and two other vehicles, satellite telephones, and GPS navigation equipment.

A 25-year-old woman died has died after being stabbed during a robbery last Thursday evening at the mattress and bedding shop where she worked in the centre of Chiclana, Cádiz province. Police said Dolores Amaya Ramírez died almost instantly but not before she rang her family on her mobile to tell them she had been stabbed. The attacker, who had his face covered, managed to escape. The local council cancelled the carnival parade which was to take place last weekend and a demonstration against violent crime was planned for Monday lunchtime.

The Guardia Civil have arrested a gang of drug traffickers involved in two shooting incidents in Coín. They said the gang was a “family clan” in which the women did the planning and looked after the investments, while the men transported the drugs and settled scores. Operacion Fuensanta, named after the area in Coín where the two shootings took place last November, came to a head on February 13th, when searches carried out in Malaga, Mijas and Fuengirola provided vital information for cracking the case. Two-and-a-half kilos of high-purity cocaine, two pistols and ammunition, together with several vehicles and cash in both euros and dollars were also recovered. Three people have been sent to jail without bail, and another three have been released on bail with charges against them.

Increasing amounts of black cocaine are being smuggled to Spain, with police discovering couriers of the drug which is undetectable to sniffer dogs and regular tests, the daily El Mundo reported on Tuesday.Police detained two Romanian women whose bags had inner linings made with the rubber-like substance, press reports said.Flying in from Brazil, the women made a stopover in Portugal, deliberately left their bags at Lisbon airport, and then requested them to be brought to a Madrid hotel, in an attempt to mislead police.
Police seized 16 kilos of the drug. The haul, which was destined for the Dutch market, was estimated to be worth a million euros.Black cocaine is a combination of regular cocaine and various chemicals, making it very difficult to detect.

Three armed men waved pistols as they attacked a Jewelery Store 'Boutique Tourbillón'in upmarket Puerto Banus close to Marbella. the home of the superrich. The armed robbers overpowered the security gaurd in a well planned Hiest.They stripped the fitting of jewellery and no one has yet managed to put a figure on the theft1.5 million € worth of top name watches have been stolen from a jewellers in Puerto Banús, Marbella, according to police sources. Three or four people, thought to be from Eastern Europe, took part in the attack after smashing the windows of the establishment with large hammers. The National Police in Marbella are now investigating the robbery and are waiting to see the recordings from security cameras in operation in the area.It happened around noon yesterday and the thieves were armed with pistols which may have been fake. They wore hats and large sunglasses and managed to overpower the security guard at the Boutique Tourbillon in Muelle Ribera before he could react. He was unhurt in the attack.
It all took a few minutes and the men escaped in a large car on the A7 motorway direction Málaga.

"Mari Luz’s family are considering legal measures because of the posters showing their daughter and MadeleineHUELVA, 17 (EUROPA PRESS) –
Mari Luz Cortés’s family today requested the immediate halting of the distribution of posters in Portugal that show their daughter next to Madeleine McCann, they will also study possible legal measures with regard to this.
In statements made to journalists after a meeting with Manuel Chaves, Mari’s father, Juan José Cortés, confirmed that the family “had not given their permission” because “it is not the appropriate strategy to mix both cases nor that Mari Luz should have to be related to the case of Madeleine”.“They are two totally different cases with two lines of inquiry that are completely different” according to Juan José Cortés, who announced his intention of making a complaint before the British Embassy “so that a reprimand is made to the person responsible for this”.The family is planning to travel to Rumania, Portugal, France and Morocco to distribute posters of Mari Luz."

Crowds demonstrated in Totana this Saturday, in a protest against planning corruption and its effects on the town. Totana’s Partido Popular Mayor, José Martínez Andreo, was only released on bail at the beginning of February after two months in prison following his arrest in the case, and the ex Mayor, Juan Morales, is waiting to be called for questioning by the Murcia High Court of Justice. Another 12 suspects have been interviewed as part of the investigation.Saturday’s demonstration was called by two platforms: ‘The Murcia Region is not for sale,’ and ‘No to this development plan for Totana,’ in reference to the proposed new local development plan for the town. The protestors could be heard shouting out ‘Totana is not for sale,’ and ‘Totana is not Marbella,’ La Verdad newspaper said.The local Partido Popular said 300 people attended, while the organisers put numbers at more than 1,500.

Amy Fitzpatrick family has announced what is quoted by EFE as a substantial reward for reliable information which could lead to finding the missing teenager. The news came in a statement from Dave Mahon, the partner of Amy’s mother, Audrey, who said all information would be treated in the strictest confidence, and calling on anyone who may have a possible lead to contact either the family or the Civil Guard

ex Mayor of Marbella, Pedro Román, has been granted what is known as tempory time in prison, where he is being held on remand in the Malaya and other town planning irregularity cases centred on Marbella. It means that he will only have to sleep in the Alhaurin de la Torre jail from Sunday to Thursday nights.His lawyers say he will therefore leave the prison on Friday for the first time. He has been held on remand so far for more than nine months, and has seen his bail amount reduced to 200,000 €, which he has since paid. However he was not released because of a year’s firm sentence against him in the Moansa case.

Most credit cards are stolen in Marbella on the streets, where 62 per cent of them take place, followed by shopping centres, discotheques and bars, which account for 18 per cent of the total. Fewer cards are stolen on public transport, accounting for 12 per cent of the total. Credit cards are stolen in Marbella more often than in Malaga City, which accounts for 29 per cent of the regional total. By autonomous regions, Andalucía is only beaten by Madrid in this ranking. Men between the ages of 35 and 44 are most likely to become victims of credit card theft in Marbella, accounting for 61 per cent of the total, according to the study, while women represent 39 per cent of the total number of victims.It goes without saying that in any area which has a large population of wealthy people throughout the year, credid card theft will flourish, we are reminded by the CPP group, which carried out the survey among 9,500 card-holding clients. Apart from telling us which regions suffer most from credit card theft, the CPP report also analyses the profile of victims, places, seasons and times that credit card theft generally takes place.Marbella is the municipality in Andalucía with the highest rate of credit card theft, according to a recent study carried out by the CPP group, the leading international company in credit card protection and services.
The easiest way to steal a credit card is not, as we might believe, to plan a visit to one’s home in the dead of night, but to snatch a bag or briefcase during the bright light of day. And nobody is free of the scourge. According to to the report, the thieves do not distinguish between local residents, foreign residents, national tourists or visiting foreign tourists.The weekend is the most popular time for robberies (46 per cent), especially on Saturday nights between the hours of nine and eleven, when 31 per cent of them take place. This is clearly the time when most people are out and about on the streets with money in their pockets – in a manner of speaking, of course – on their way to eat out or have a few drinks with friends.
Victims are 61 per cent men, 68 per cent at Christmas and during sales, and women 39 per cent. Age: Men between 35 and 44 and women between 45 and 54.Places: Streets: 62 per cent. Shops discos and bars: 18 per cent, and public transport: 12 per cent.In fact, there is nothing special about the men of Marbella that makes them more prone than anywhere else in the country to credit card theft. Throughout the country, we are told, 61 per cent of victims are men, against 39 per cent of women. Most credit cards are stolen from most men (68 per cent of the total) around the Christmas period and during sales. The percentage figure drops to 32 per cent in the case of women, whose ages tend to vary between 45 and 54, against an age range of between 35 and 44 for men.The high season for theft of this kind in Marbella is July and August, which is hardly surprising in view of the tourism figures for the same period. Curiously, apart from the immediate Christmas period, December is not a great month for credit card thieves, although most people use credit cards to pay for Christmas gifts these days. The figure for theft during the month of December as a whole is eight per cent of the annual total.

Graham Hall was arrested on the Costa del Sol, accused of handling nearly £6m worth of cocaine.Graham Hall, 41, from Wallsend, North Tyneside, was apprehended on Tuesday, just hours after notorious Dublin drugs dealer Paddy Doyle was gunned down on the edge of the resort town of Estepona, west of Marbella.It was not clear last night whether Mr Hall had been released or if he was still being held by police.Spanish murder squad detectives are working with Irish officers and are trying to establish a link between the drugs haul and the death of Mr Doyle last Monday.Clues found at the scene of the brutal shooting led the Costa del Sol Drugs and Organised Crime Unit (Udyco) to set up a number of control points in the Estepona area.On Tuesday, officers approached a group of people loading furniture on to a van in the town, a popular tourist destination. On inspecting the pieces, ranging from wardrobes to sofas, they discovered the 140 kilos of cocaine hidden in secret compartments inside.Seven people, six British and one Irish, were arrested, one a youth. It is believed the drugs were to be transported back to Britain to sell on the streets, where they could be worth up to £5.8m. Mr Hall was one of those arrested along with Edward Thompson, 49, from Liverpool.Spanish police have been working in collaboration with the Irish Garda following Monday’s shooting of Mr Doyle, a known Dublin gang member and drug dealer on the Bel-Air estate in Estepona.An enforcer for a major Dublin drugs gang, Mr Doyle had to flee to Spain after being involved in a gangland feud which has claimed 10 lives since 2002.He has been personally linked with at least three shootings.
It is thought that the 28-year-old was caught in an ambush set up by a rival drugs gang, thought to be either Turkish or Russian. The shooting took place at around 2pm on Monday. The victim was travelling in the front passenger seat of the vehicle accompanied by driver Gary Hutch, also a convicted Dublin criminal, when a gunman opened fire from another vehicle.After the first shots hit the car in the windscreen, the victim threw himself from the vehicle and attempted to escape on foot. The gunman continued to fire, hitting the victim in the head and the face, apparently at point-blank range. Meanwhile, Mr Hutch lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a lamppost some 30 metres away from Mr Doyle’s body.The post mortem examination, which took two days due to its complexity, revealed that Doyle had been riddled with 15 bullets.

Columbian appeared in court last week accused of receiving cocaine cocaine smuggled from abroad. On 7th August 2006, a package addressed to the accused was intercepted at Barajas airport and found to contain a bicycle which had over a kilo of cocaine concealed inside the frame.The package was allowed to be delivered to the man who was arrested when he received it at his home. When removed from the bicycle, the cocaine was found to be 86% pure with a street value of 105,000€. The accused was sentenced to 9 years imprisonment.

A 37 year-old American national, Kevin J.T, has been sentenced to 9 years imprisonment for smuggling cocaine into Spain. He was arrested at El Altet airport in February 2007 when he arrived on a flight from Bogota, Colombia and a search by customs officers revealed that over 4 kilos of cocaine were concealed in a false compartment of his suitcase. The drug was found to be 86% pure, with a street value of more than 400,000€.The accused is originally from Peurto Rico in Central America. He has already been in jail for a year while awaiting trial at the court in Elche.

The Greater Accra Regional Tribunal yesterday remanded into prison custody Nicolas Yeboah, a Ghanaian resident in Spain for attempting to export eighty pellets of cocaine to Spain. Yeboah, charged with attempted exportation of narcotic drugs pleaded not guilty. He is to reappear on February 20. The facts as narrated by Mr Asiamah Sampong, a State Attorney were that, on 23 June 2005, Yeboah arrived at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) to board a KLM flight to Spain. Mr. Sampong said due to his demeanour, personnel of the Narcotic Control Board (NACOB) on duty at the airport suspected him of carrying drugs. The NACOB officials arrested Yeboah and escorted him to the 37 Military Hospital where an ex-ray examination revealed he had some foreign materials in his stomach. Prosecution said Yeboah under the supervision of medical officers and security personnel expelled 80 pellets of oval shaped whitish substances suspected to be narcotic drugs. When Yeboah was interrogated, he admitted the offence and stated that he was to deliver the substance to one Yakubu for a fee of 2000 Euros. The substance is in the custody of the Ghana Standard Board where analytical examination was being conducted. In a related development, the court has remanded into police custody Issa Ibrahim for possessing a quantity of Indian hemp. Ibrahim allegedly told security personnel he had been in the drug business for five months and had his source of supply from Nkonya. He has pleaded not guilty to possessing cannabis sativa, a narcotic drug. Prosecution said on June 6, last year, security personnel had information that the accused was dealing in drugs at a house at Abofu, near Achimota. Officials from NACOB proceeded to the house and arrested Ibrahim who was in the process of wrapping dried leaves believed to be cannabis sativa. When his house was searched three big and 10 small wrappers were found. Prosecution said Ibrahim claimed ownership and stated that he had been in drug business for five months and had his supply from a man at Nkonya, but refused to mention his accomplice. When the leaves were sent to the Ghana Standards Board for examination it proved to be cannabis sativa.

Guardia Civil have arrested a Tyneside man in a £9.2m cocaine bust on the Costa del Sol.Graham Hall, 41, of Wallsend, was held with six others following the discovery of the drugs destined for the UK.Hall was detained hours after Dublin drugs baron Paddy Doyle was shot dead in Estepona near Marbella.Northumbria Police said they haven’t had any communications with the Spanish authorities over Hall’s arrest but are making further inquiries.Murder squad detectives are working with Irish officers and are trying to establish links between the drugs haul and Doyle’s death last Monday.Officers from Spain’s Drugs and Organised Crime Unit approached a group of men loading furniture on to a van in the town on Tuesday.And discovered the 140 kilos of cocaine in secret compartments inside the furniture.Seven men, six British and one Irish, were arrested. Hall was one of those arrested along with Edward Thompson, 49, from Liverpool.Spanish police have been working in collaboration with the Irish Garda following the assassination of Dublin gang member Doyle.A man wanted for a gangland killing on Tyneside two years ago was named last month among 10 suspected criminals hiding in the “Costa del Crime”.Police believe Allan Foster flew from his Spanish hideaway to assassinate David ‘Noddy’ Rice in South Shields in May 2006 with a silenced semi-automatic gun.It is thought he flew out of the country the day after the killing, at a seaside car park near Marsden Grotto, and has remained a fugitive since.Foster, 31, was named among 10 suspects by Crimestoppers on a most-wanted website targeting the Costa del Sol.Mr Rice, 42, was shot nine times by two masked men on the seafront at South Tyneside after being lured to the meeting by Steven Bevens, 39.Bevens worked for Foster, who police believe fired the fatal shots. Last year Bevens was sentenced to life with a minimum of 26 years behind bars for murder, while getaway driver Derek Blackburn, 51, of Humberside, who turned informer on the duo, was given four years for assisting an offender, later cut to two and a half years.A Foreign Office spokeswoman said this afternoon: "A British National was detained on February 5, however he was later released without charge."

Spanish police arrested 76 people nationwide on Sunday in what is being touted as the country's biggest ever investigation into internet fraud.Investigators reckon some of the suspects made more than €3bn through auction fraud. They would apparently offer expensive goods such as plasma TVs and cars for sale online, scarpering once the deals were made without handing over the goods, according to local reports. Others allegedly used stolen banking credentials to transfer money into their accounts, possibly as a part of a wider phishing scam.
More than half of those arrested and detained are Spaniards. Five Ukrainians, four Romanians, two Russians, two Moroccans and five people from Guniea were also hauled in for questioning in the same investigation, AFP adds.
Spanish police are urging consumers to be careful when buying goods online. They have complained that a lack of resources and weak judicial penalties against convicted fraudsters is hampering police efforts to stamp out the problem

The Spanish police arrested an Icelandic male in his 30s last week after almost one kilo of a substance, allegedly amphetamine, was discovered in the vehicle he was driving in San Fulgencio near Torreviaja in the province of Alicante.
According to local police, they found the man suspicious because he drove back and forth within the town limits and therefore stopped the car. The driver was alone in the vehicle and likely a tourist, Fréttabladid reports.
The Icelander is currently in custody and waiting to appear before the court in Guardamar del Segura.

The Guardia Civil have arrested six people, all Italian nationals, after an investigation into a series of jewellery thefts throughout Andalucía
‘Operación Duelo’ began in October last year after information was received from the Portuguese authorities relating to the possible involvement of an individual in a number of crimes in that country. An investigation led to the establishment of a connection between this individual and a gang of jewel thieves operating on the Costa del Sol.
The gang would carefully plan their robberies, gathering details about peoples movements and routines before actually making their move. However, if something went wrong, the gang were not averse to using extreme violence.
The arrests were made in Torremolinos, San Pedro de Alcántara, Málaga, Alhaurín de la Torre and Algorrobo. One of those detained is also sought by the French police under an international arrest warrant for various crimes carrying a penalty of 24 years in prison. The six men have been charged with robbery with violence and intimidation, robbery with force, crimes against the public health and conspiracy.
The gang are thought to have been responsible for at least 16 crimes, including a €130,000 jewellery theft from an hotel in Torremolinos in November 2007, a €350,000 jewellery heist in Jérez de la Frontera, also in November 2007, and a €300,000 robbery carried out at an hotel in Granada.

Spanish press reported Guardia Civil’s heavily armed organised crime unit yesterday mounted a anti-drugs operation in Palma.
A series of raids were mounted simultaneously with a number of drugs swoops carried out across Spain as part of a nationwide operation.
armed officers wearing ski masks and with air support from a Guardia Civil helicopter stormed at least two properties in the Son Gotleu neighbourhood of the capital.
The operation was still ongoing but at least 13 people had been arrested.
Police sources also confirmed that over eight kilos of various drugs have been seized over the past two weeks since the operation was first given the all clear by police chiefs.
It was also revealed last night that further arrests may be made today.
Police are not ruling out another wave of raids on suspect properties in Palma.
The Guardia Civil had mounted a series of house raids in Palma and made a number of arrests as part of a simultaneous operation carried out in various parts of the country. international drug smuggling network operating in Palma, Madrid and Barcelona.
Guardia Civil chiefs debriefed the media on the exact results of Operation Lagos which has resulted in the break up of an international gang smuggling cocaine into Palma and other parts of Spain from Holland.
A total of 14 people have been arrested, one is being treated in hospital after he tried to escape by leaping from a second floor balcony in Palma, and nearly ten kilos of cocaine seized.
Guardia chiefs said yesterday that, since the gang began operating in Spain, it has smuggled between 50 and 60 kilos of cocaine in to the country.
The operation began in 2006 when the Guardia Civil caught a couple of Nigerians trying to smuggle cocaine into Barcelona from Casablanca. The subsequent investigation led police to Palma where the alleged brains behind the smuggling operation was based and since then, the organised crime squad has been monitoring the activities of a number of mules used to smuggle the drugs. Apparently, each would smuggle around a kilo of cocaine out of the Republic of Guinea, to Casablanca and then onto Amsterdam before the final stretch of the journey to Palma via Madrid and Barcelona.
The Guardia Civil explained yesterday that the tickets for the smuggling drug mules were booked in Spain and paid via international money transfer offices.
The mules were also given basic travel allowance of 500 euros, the minimum figure certain countries demand a tourist is carrying in order to enter the country.
The gang also covered hotel bills in cities such as Madrid, Barcelona and Amsterdam and also provided guarantees of financial aid should any of the smugglers get arrested and that funds would be paid to partners and family should the suspect end up in prison.
The Madrid and Barcelona operations were responsible for “retrieving” the drugs which were swallowed and smuggled inside the body as well as hiring new mules for future drug runs from West Africa to Palma.
The gang was described as being extremely well organised.
Key members used a special code the few times they used the telephone, for example.
The operation was yesterday hailed as a major success for Palma’s Guardia Civil organised crime unit which was only set up at the end of last year and for the war against drugs and organised crime in Spain.

"That these people were ready to go into action as terrorists in Spain - that came as a surprise," said Judge Baltasar Garzon, Spain's highest antiterrorism magistrate. "In my opinion, the jihadi threat from Pakistan is the biggest emerging threat we are facing in Europe. Pakistan is an ideological and training hotbed for jihadists, and they are being exported here."
Officials say the Barcelona case points to a more serious dynamic: Pakistanis with no apparent previous links to Europe who appear to have been sent there on a terrorist mission.
"We had 20 terrorists show up in Spain that had been trained in Pakistan that were going to be suicide bombers, fanning out over Europe," Mike McConnell, director of US national intelligence, told the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday.
Although some of the suspects had been living in Spain, McConnell's remarks underscored statements by the Spanish authorities that in addition to the 14 suspects who had been arrested, others had eluded capture.
In late 2004, the police arrested 11 Pakistani men on suspicion of plotting to attack two landmark buildings in Barcelona, financing terrorism, and drug trafficking, although only six were convicted, two for document forgery.

Spanish press are announcing that a man has been detained in El Torrejón close to the disappearance of Mari Luz on suspicion of attempting to take a young girl from the street. The seven year old was leaving her grandmother house when the attempt was made an aunt rushed to help the child. The police were called and a man was detained.large crowds have gathered outside the National police station

Nightmare holiday home company Overseas Property Investments PLC has been shut down.
Five investors took the firm to court after paying almost £1million for homes in Cyprus that never materialised.
The company, run by John, Rhodri and Daniel Foote, of Swansea, was put into compulsory liquidation after the High Court heard that furious investors had "completely lost faith" in it.

Pinares de Mijas is located in one of the best areas on the Costa del Sol. It is situated between the new racecourse of Mijas and within walking distance to the beach at El Chaparral.


Golf Girona These high quality golf resort villas are designed to the highest quality and overlook the excellent golf course and nearby mountains. The whole panoramic view is breathtaking. Costa Brava.Peralada The Golf Peralada resort is truly exclusive and peaceful, everything you would expect from this idyllic setting. The villas are built to the highest quality in true Catalonian style. Two of the many developments advertised in spain by Overseas Property Investments PLC .Overseas Property Investments (OPI) is the exclusive choice for the sophisticated property investor seeking high returns with a reduced element of risk.
With over £50m in asset end-values, and controlling around £100 million in project value, this dynamic, profit focused company is a pioneer in overseas land and property investments, specialising in the funding of fast-track property developments in Croatia, Cyprus, Spain and France. OPI are constantly searching the globe for outstanding opportunities and are currently evaluating possible ventures in Bulgaria, Dubai, Canada, Florida, Turkey and the Caribbean.
From our roots as a successful UK Property company, OPI has achieved remarkable success by perfecting our project funding model. Whenever possible we take full ownership of the development and negotiate the best possible payment terms, or, alternatively we buy the whole development on an "Off-Plan basis".
Whichever funding strategy we implement, we always seek to limit the initial deposit and look to the local banks and financial institutions to carry the rest of the financing.
This strategic approach substantially reduces the risks traditionally associated with Off-Plan developments and gives OPI's dedicated property sales division sufficient time to sell the projects onwards for substantial profit.
OPI’s capital base has come by way of investment from the public purchasing shares in our UK Plc. By combining our resources we are able to negotiate the purchase of either whole developments or large parts thereof, which allows us to secure the best discounts, unavailable to the individual investor.
OPI’s sister company Property in Britain Plc, was formed 5 years ago, has 195 private investors, and enjoying significant growth in its U.K. and overseas projects. Property in Britain has several large developments in the UK with projects end values of £6 million.
OPI was formed to emulate Property in Britain in the overseas market, utilising our investment modules, knowledge and expertise.
The company has successfully used this initial capitalisation on medium term deals, but is now looking to fund shorter term investments through other vehicles. Hence the launch of Fifty : Fifty Gold & Fifty :Fifty Silver.
Given our prominence in the market, we are constantly offered opportunities from various sources. On every potential deal we carry out our due diligence and if it does not reach our benchmark parameters the deal is rejected.

An eighteen month old baby girl has been found drowned in a swimming pool on the outskirts of Órgiva, after she went missing on Sunday afternoon. The child, reported as British, was discovered in a pool in a neighbouring property five minutes after a family friend contacted the 112 emergency centre to report her missing, EFE reports.
The news agency said it happened in the Malcandruna area of Órgiva, and names the child as M.M.C.

According to the Irish press ,Paddy Doyle picked a fight with the son of a Russian mafia boss based on the Costa. Doyle came out best in the fight but paid later with his life. He was cornered and shot close to Estepona. Doyle was in Spain to evade the bloody feud between the Drimnagh-based gangs in Dublin and, gardai believe, to establish a new drugs base there. Doyle was named in connection with at least three murders in the feud and had been in Spain since 2006 after he was suspected of involvement in the shooting dead of gang rival Noel Roche in Clontarf, Dublin in November 2005.
Doyle's associate, 'Fat Freddie' Thompson, is believed to have been spending most of his time in Spain to avoid assassination by his rivals in Dublin. His whereabouts were unknown but he is believed to have been in Doyle's company shortly before Doyle and Gary Hutch were ambushed in Estepona.
Paddy Doyle, it seems, was not smart enough to live by the rules that have kept the older and wiser criminals rich and at liberty in the sun. According to gardai, Doyle picked a fight with the son of a Russian mafia boss based on the Costa. Doyle came out best in the fight but paid later with his life. He was cornered and peppered with shots, possibly fired from an assault shotgun, on Tuesday night in the town.
The killing was a professional hit. The Russians normally keep a low profile,living in gated developments.The Russians are a force on the Costa del Sol and don't take insults lightly. After Doyle crossed them, his end was swift and savage. The assassination bore all the hallmarks of the Spetsnaz, the Russian special forces, many former members of which now work for the crime bosses on the Costa del Sol.Doyle was one of a generation of young Irishmen who have taken their chances in southern Spain. His death is a tragedy for his family, which has been active in the anti-drugs movement in central Dublin for years. Past events, however, show that Doyle’s murder was no surprise.
Doyle joins an infamous list of expatriate Dublin criminals who left the capital, in the expectation that they could apply the same tactics they did here - terror and physical violence - but who found that the rules of engagement were different when dealing with gangs from former Russian and eastern European states.
The nature of Doyle’s murder is perhaps the only surprise, in a region where organised crime gang ‘hits’ are more frequently preceded by kidnapping, torture and the disposal of remains in an undisclosed location.

Spanish press reports the attempted abduction of british child on the Costa del Sol. The mother-of-two revealed how the 11-year-old stepped in when an African man tried to lure the two-year-old British holidaymaker into his van with the help of a cat.
The housewife, who lives in Marbella, told how after taking photographs from his van, the man in his 30s held the animal out to be stroked.
But just as the toddler started to pet the cat, her son Ben pulled him away.
“He is pretty clued up and realised what was going on,” she revealed.
“He grabbed the little boy’s hand and said ‘no, no, no’ before running back to us.
“You can say he has became a bit of a hero.”
While police have not been able to identify the culprit, a Nigerian man was charged last week with the attempted snatch of a Spanish two-year-old in Málaga a fortnight ago.
In the terrifying incident in the Rosaleda shopping centre, the 32-year-old man, whose name was given as Oduwa O, tried to grab the toddler out of his grandmother’s arms.
Incredibly, there have already been 22 reported abduction attempts of children across Spain so far this year, with Amy Fitzpatrick in Mijas and Mari luz in Huelva still missing.
“It is terrifying that there are people out there operating on the Costa del Sol,” said the British housewife, who has asked not to be named.
“My daughter is so pretty with blonde waist-length hair. I am now obviously very careful to never let them out of my sight.”
She and her husband, who commutes back to the UK to work, had been dining with friends on the terrace of Rosmarino restaurant in June, 2007.
While they ate, their son, 11, and daughter, 8, ran around playing in the square with half a dozen other British children.
It was about 10pm and still light, when a man had driven up in a white locksmith’s van and parked just out of sight of the square and fellow diners.
“This man, an African in his 30s had a camera and started taking photographs of the children, and in particular tried to get this two-year-old to come over to the van,” said the mother-of-two from London.
“He was using a cat to get the kids to come closer.

The Guardia Civil have arrested a group of seven people in connection with a spate of house burglaries in the Alicante region. The arrests are linked to some 20 thefts carried out in the province, the receipt of stolen property, and the trafficking of firearms.
It comes as the last stage of earlier action by the security forces carried out last year which saw a previous 28 people arrested, most of them from Algeria and specialists in violent robberies from the inside of private homes.
The use of stolen credit cards was the link the police needed to make the new arrests which were made in Torrevieja and Elche. Those now held are aged between 25 and 55, four of them are Moroccan and the remaining three are from Holland, Romania and Spain. They were found to be in the possession of false British and French driving licences, as well as ten mobile phones and several tools of the trade.

The Interior Ministry said in a statement that top range cars were stolen in Italy and were sold on in Spain once the Vehicle Identification Numbers had been altered. The first of the ten cars so far traced – altogether valued at 1 million € - was a Porsche tracked to a car dealer in Almería province using GPS technology, and was found to have been sold by two men from Elche in Alicante.
Police have uncovered an international network which trafficked in stolen luxury cars between Spain and Italy, and have made five arrests in connection with fraud, falsifying documents, and vehicle theft. The suspects are three Spaniards and two Italians.
The Ministry said another two vehicles stolen in Italy last December proved to have been bought from the Alicante vendors via companies set up by the network. The Ministry said police are now trying to locate other vehicles which the network put up for sale in Valencia, Alicante, Seville, Cuenca, Murcia, La Rioja and Navarra

Large haul of Hash siezed on Marbella beach by the Guardia Civil 55 bales of Hashish were siezed plus three cars, mobile phones.GPS satellite navigation equipement. The new SIVA radar which operates on the coast has been instrumental in another large drug siezure.

Audrey Fitzpatrick, was questioned by police on Wednesday over an alleged assault last Friday. A neighbour is understood to have reported Audrey Fitzpatrick to police, and the Irish Independent said it relates to a row over loud music, during which the neighbour was allegedly struck by Mrs Fitzpatrick, who they say told the person who complained that the song was one of her daughter’s favourites. Franco Rey confirmed that Audrey has been to the police station to answer the complaint and that she has made an official statement.

A trawler fishing off the coast of Mazarrón has brought up almost a ton of cannabis resin in its nets, while trawling at a depth of 70 metres off Cabo Tiñoso on Wednesday.
The crew immediately informed the Civil Guard of their find and handed the drugs over to the custody of officers waiting to receive it once the vessel docked in port. EFE said it was found to weigh 960.7 kilos

ex Mayor of Marbella, Julian Muñoz. He was sentenced to prison for a year at the start of this month for granting a building licence for a ten story building in a green zone, and on Wednesday he was sentenced in Penal Court 7 in Málaga to another year in prison for giving the go-ahead to the construction of 108 homes on land which should have been used for sports facilities. The latest sentence is the fifth against the ex Mayor and takes his total prison sentences so far to four years.

There have been no positive sightings of the teenager since she went missing. There had been reported sightings of Amy in Wexford but these have been ruled out by Irish Police.
THE family of missing Amy Fitzpatrick are holding a 16th birthday party in her honour tomorrow, Amy Fitzpatrick who has been missing since New Years Day, turns 16 tomorrow and her brother Dean (17) has helped to organise a party for her friends.
Last night, her stepdfather Dave Mahon said they are holding the get-together in a local bar at 7pm tomorrow evening.
Balloons featuring Amy's face will be released outside the bar.
"There have been no new leads at all," said Dave.
"It's getting harder as the days go by. It's been a month and several days now since she was last seen."
The teenager vanished after leaving her friend's house near Fuengirola in Spain at 10pm on New Years Day. She set out on the 20 minute walk to her own house but has not been seen since.

A Ugandan woman, Ann Wills Kayiwa, has been sentenced to 28 years imprisonment after a Mauritian court here found her guilty of importing 625 grammes of heroin, Port-Louis, Mauritius judicial sources told PANA Tuesday.
Ms Kayiwa was arrested 1 March 2003, at Plaisance airport, south of the island, with the drug concealed in her genitals.
The drug was discovered after she was taken to hospital by the police for an X-ray.

An American national was arrested Tuesday by Moroccan cu stoms officers at the port of Tanger (north) with 26 kilogrammes of cannabis, th e government press agency, MAP, reported.
Erik B., 29, was arrested after customs officers discovered the drug concealed i n his car's chassis, MAP noted, adding that he was about to board a ferry bound for Algesiras, south of Spain.
Charged with "drug trafficking at international level," Eric will be prosecuted Wednesday and may face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison if found guilty.

White balloons were released into the sky in the Plaza de los Niños Bosnios in Huelva on Tuesday, for the safe return of five year old Mari Luz, who went missing in the city on 13th January. Her parents, Juan José Cortés and Irene Suárez, were at the head of a demonstration which marched from their home in the district of El Torrejón to La Orden, supported by the hundred people who accompanied them on the march.Hundreds more were waiting in the square in La Orden, where a manifesto from local associations was read out, calling for Mari Luz to be set free. A minute’s silence was held before the balloons were released.

Clifford Hobbs, 47, escaped from a prison van on his way to a court appearance and cost the taxpayer millions while detectives spent the next four years tracking him down to Spain. Hobbs, from Bermondsey, had only stood to serve two or three years in prison for the original crime after getting caught red-handed trying to steal £1million from a cash-intransit van. But the villain, dubbed "arrogant" by the judge, would not do the time and plotted a "sophisticated" escape in which a security guard was shot on June 10, 2003.
The court heard how Hobbs and fellow escapee Noel Cunningham, 43, banged on the door of the van while it was travelling from Brixton prison to Inner London Crown Court. The lags were signalling to a team of hijackers who tracked the van to the court then sprang a violent attack on driver Neil Chetty.
Hobbs was convicted of having a firearm with intent to escape from lawful custody.
The jury failed to reach a verdict on a second charge of wounding with intent and were discharged.
Hobbs had already admitted conspiracy to steal and escape from lawful custody. Cunningham remains on the run.

Dave Mahon, the partner of Amy’s mother, Audrey, has travelled to Tangiers with a friend to hand out posters and photos of the teenager. It’s reported that the family has no leads that Amy might be there, but it is easily accessible from the Costa del Sol, just a short ferry ride across the Strait of Gibraltar from Algeciras, across the border in Cádiz province.

27-year-old Patrick Doyle from Portland Row in Dublin was shot twice in the head, after the car in which he was a passenger came under fire.convicted Dublin drug dealer has been shot dead on the Costa del Sol in Spain.
The 4x4 BMW came under fire from another vehicle in the village of Cancelada, near Estepona.A second man is reported to have been injured in the attack.A third man escaped unharmed
The shooting took place just before 2pm Spanish time.

Patrick Doyle from Portland Row in Dublin s died in a shooting incident in Estepona today. It happened at 2pm in Calle Mejorana in the Bel Air urbanisation in Cancelada, and National Police are still at the scene. first there were unconfirmed reports in the press in Spain that a man who was shot dead in Estepona on Monday afternoon was British. It happened on the Bel Air Urbanisation in the Cancelada area shortly before 2 pm, when he was travelling in the front passenger seat of a BMW car driven by a friend, also from the UK.
A witness who saw what happened told Europa Press that the occupants of a car of the same make opened fire as they drove past. At least five shots were fired, four hitting the front windshield and another through the passenger door.
Both men then tried to escape on foot when the car crashed into a lamppost on Calle Mejorana, but the passenger was shot twice in the head when he got out of the car.
It’s understood the driver has been questioned by police, but there are no reports of any arrests as yet. The order to remove the body was granted at 3,20pm, and police found a four wheel drive vehicle at the scene with five gunshots, four in the windscreen and one in the front passenger door.
The victim, aged 25-30 was travelling in the passenger seat according to a witness at the scene who said the four wheel drive was fired at by another car. The driver lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a lamppost. When the passenger got out of the four wheel drive, he was shot twice in the head.
There have been no arrests in the case as yet.

Audrey Fitzpatrick led a candlelit vigil to mark more than a month since the 15-year-old's disappearance. An emotional Audrey Fitzpatrick (39) was supported by her partner Dave Mahon (36) and a crowd of over 100 ex-pats and locals. Too overcome to speak, she broke down in tears, leaving Mr Mahon to thank everyone for their prayers on her behalf.

The Sunday edition of El País newspaper has revealed some of the content of the part of the case summary now lifted from secrecy in investigations in Murcia into the Town Halls of Torre Pacheco and Fuente Álamo. It concerns telephone conversations recorded by court order, where the constructor, Facundo Armero, is heard saying to the Mayor of Torre Pacheco, Daniel García, ‘I want the Torre Pacheco zoning plans approved now.’
Armero is one of the 14 suspects who have been questioned by Judge Arantxa Moreno so far in the case. They also include the Partido Popular Mayors of the two towns, Daniel García, and from Fuente Álamo, María Antonio Conesa. The investigation follows a complaint from the prosecutor’s office at the Murcia High Court of Justice into alleged administrative irregularities, with a long list of alleged crimes: misappropriation of funds, influence peddling, bribery, perversion of the justice, revealing secret information, fraud, and activities prohibited to public servants. Municipal planning documents were seized from both local corporations last summer in police swoops on the Town Hall buildings.
Facundo Armero is under suspicion as the main man behind the corruption, and was previously a partner in Polaris World before he sold off his share for 300 million €.
El País said Daniel García worked as a lawyer for Armero’s companies before his election as Mayor of Torre Pacheco.

Spanish police have arrested 14 people suspected of running a prostitution ring and human trafficking, authorities said Saturday.
The group recruited hundreds of women coming mainly from Brazil. Gang members arranged passports and air tickets to Spain, where the women were persuaded and forced to work illegally as prostitutes in clubs in the southern regions of Andalusia and Extremadura and then to hand over their earnings, a police statement said.
The arrested include eleven Spaniards and three Brazilians, the statement added. Some 54 women were also turned to immigration officials and are awaiting deportation.
The suspects are also accused of extortion and abduction.

Spanish police have broken up a gang of Romanian human traffickers who were faking identity documents and credit cards. Twenty-two people have been arrested, the majority of them Romanians, between Valencia and Alicante in southeast Spain. In the past month, police have broken a similar gang involved in prostituting Eastern European women who were brought to Spain on false pretences. The investigation began in 2003, after a Romanian girl claimed a gang had forced her into prostitution. The gang specialized in bringing Romanian women, often under-age girls, to Spain to force them into prostitution, using fake documents. Police seized false passports, identity papers, credit cards, scanners, computers, printers and one firearm and one fake gun.

Bulgarian human trafficking ring that allegedly operated a large prostitution network on Spain's Canary Islands has been dismantled by Spanish and Bulgarian police, the Interior Ministry said Tuesday.
Spanish authorities have arrested and charged 33 suspects, including 15 Bulgarians, the country's top police officer, Valentin Petrov, told a news conference.
The ring — allegedly led by 35-year-old Bulgarian, who was not identified by name — is suspected of organizing the smuggling of more than 500 women from eastern European countries into Spain, where police said the victims were treated as "sex slaves."
"The women's freedom of movement was restricted, and they were often subjected to violence," Petrov said, adding that they were forced to work as prostitutes.
Spanish police have been investigating the group for two years in a joint operation with Bulgarian colleagues, Petrov said.

Spanish police arrested seven people in a crackdown on a human-trafficking ring that allegedly forced Eastern European women into prostitution, officials said Saturday.
Police said the gang, led by a 41-year-old Albanian suspect arrested in Calonge, held around 40 women as virtual sex slaves.
Other members of the gang include three Russians, a native of Kosovo and an Armenian citizen.
The arrests took place in the northeastern Mediterranean coastal region of Costa Brava, where the gang allegedly smuggled in women, mostly from Russia, forcing them to work streetwalking or in roadside brothels, police said.
Police said the group employed two people based in St. Petersburg, Russia, who targeted women by offering jobs in Spain in exchange for Ð2,000 (US$2,675).
Police said the suspects, whose ages ranged from 20 to 41, had been taken to court in Figueres where they were expected to be charged with coercion, crimes related to prostitution, human-trafficking with a view to prostitution, forgery and belonging to an illegal organization.
According to the Russian Interior Ministry, human trafficking from Russia has increased in recent years.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights reported last year that more than 500,000 women have been smuggled out of Russia illegally since the fall of the Soviet Union in early 1990s.

Wealthy expat Yvonne O'Brien, 44, was killed in a horrific attack at a flat she rented on the island.The 1999 murder of a British woman Yvonne O'Brien in Majorca are to reopen the case and quiz a new suspect.
She had been stripped, hanged and stabbed more than 40 times.
A British man in his 50s - believed to come from Keighley, West Yorks, where Yvonne grew up - is to be questioned after being named by a private investigator hired by Yvonne's family.
In another development, police in Bournemouth are to investigate possible links to the murder of Heather Barnett, 48, at her home in the town in 2002.

Oneil Abrahams, 35, of Norristown,
Detectives had been closing in on an operation that had pumped at least $750,000 worth of pot into the region, Ferman said. In November, Marlon Abrahams, 33, known as "Kirk," was taken into custody, enabling police to locate his brother, Oneil "Pony" Abrahams, in California, where he was apprehended.
Ferman said the pair led a group of eight mules or drug couriers, six of whom are also in custody. She said the significance of the arrests exceeds the financial worth of the operation.
"These drug traffickers thought they were untouchable," Ferman said, adding that knowledge of their illegal activity dates back to 2001.
Ferman said the marijuana, which came from various locations, including California and Arizona, was placed in large, white plastic paint buckets. Those containers were then sealed in cardboard boxes and shipped through UPS, FedEx and DHL. The marijuana itself was encased in plastic lined with an oily residue to conceal the smell, Ferman said.
The profits were used to purchase a residence in East Norriton Township, Ferman said, which police have seized under drug forfeiture laws. Improvements to the home, which were paid in cash, included an in-ground swimming pool and top-of-the-line furnishings, she said.
In addition to the brothers, the following Norristown residents were charged with participating in the drug operation:
Rasheen Sakoo Jones, 33; Minnie McKay, 34; Danelle Lynn Jackson, 28; Omar Ross, 33; Tia Baker, 32; and Marjorie S. Dean, 29. Lakysha Bellamy, 22, of Conway, S.C., and Milan J. Dean, 25, of Norristown are at lar

"Spain is going to face the very direst of economic circumstances: a cycle of recession, deflation and widespread private sector default - a depression in fact. This stock market slide is not just a 'correction'. It has a very, very, long way to go."

Panic selling of shares in Spain's big five real estate companies has seen their value tumble over the past seven days. Meanwhile, after a decade in which prices rose by 270%, house prices in Spain have been sluggish since the end of 2007, with reports that developers are cutting prices in popular coastal areas.
General Electric has withdrawn its interest, for the time being, in the take over of the second largest real estate business in Spain, Colonial. Latest reports indicate that another offer for Colonial could come from the United Arab Emirates following reports that the Colonial books have been opened to an investment arm of the Dubai Government, the ICD, the Investment Corporation of Dubai.
Trading on Colonial was suspended in Madrid for a time, and the shares fell slightly when trading resumed just before noon.
It seems that General Electric dropped out of the take over race when they could not agree on the terms of a confidentiality agreement with Colonial ahead of inspecting its books. GE say they are keeping the door open to a ‘possible future interest’.
The President of the Junta de Andalucía, Manuel Chaves, has today revealed conversations on the possible merger of the Andalucian Savings Banks. ‘A grand Andalucian Savings Bank is on the way’ he said, confirming multilateral conversations intended to merge all the savings banks which are based in the region. Chaves gave the news as part of his election manifesto for re-election at the poll which will be held on the same day as the General Election on March 9. Chaves said that the important thing was that an Andalucian Savings Bank be competitive both inside and outside the region.
La Caixa savings bank has announced profits down 17.8% in 2007 at 2.488 billion. President of the company, Isidro Fainé, admitted that such a ‘tragic correction’ had not been seen for several years.
The fall in profits comes though after the exceptional year in 2006 when the bank sold off its interests in Colonial real estate.Spain could now find itself facing a monetary squeeze just as the economy swings from boom to bust, more or less the fate suffered by Britain in the ERM debacle of 1992, except that Spain has no way out.
Bernard Connolly, global strategist for Banque AIG and former head of economic research for the European Commission, said the country will face a brutal adjustment over the next two years - if it can remain in the euro a

The SIVE electronic surveillance system that operates along the Málaga and Cádiz coastlines has been credited with helping the Guardia Civil make three major hashish seizures in recent days. The network traces both the movements of drug and human traffickers and guides the authorities to the beaches where the narcotics or immigrants are landing.
The latest saw officers intercept over a ton of hashish in La Línea bringing the total haul from drug busts in the Guadiaro and Tarifa areas to over four tonnes.
In the latest capture three smugglers were arrested as they unloaded 40 bales of cannabis resin from a fast launch on a beach near La Atunara. They are aged between 20 and 31 years and are all from La Línea.

Armed robbery at Lidl supermarket in the Saladillo area of Algeciras . The lone robber held up the four staff at 22.00 as they closed up on Saturday night. He wore a mask, gloves and managed to evade the security cameras. He made off with the supermarket's takings from the day safe which are said to be around 10,000 euros.

The Guardia Civil in La Línea seized 2000 packets of Chesterfield cigarettes as they were landed at La Atunara. Officers monitored a launch as it approached the coastline in the early hours of Wednesday. The boat escaped out to sea but two men were arrested at the scene, one from Gibraltar the other from La Línea and their car plus the cigarettes were seized.

Officers from the Guardia Civil's Maritime Service detained a man from Cádiz on Wednesday morning after finding 530 kilos of hashish stashed away in a hidden compartment in his yacht. The boat, which was in Barbate port, has been confiscated.

Paul Raymond Burt admitted starting a fire that caused extensive damage to two boats undergoing repairs at Coaling Island last August when he was 18. He also admitted escaping from Moorish Castle prison while on remand. He will be sentenced on February 12.A teenage Briton living in Gibraltar has pleaded guilty to arson and escaping from prison

Member of Vélez-Málaga’s local police force has been suspended after being arrested by National Police investigating offences against the rights of workers and involving prostitution. In a simultaneous operation, a nightclub on the N340 near Torre del Mar was raided and seven other people detained. The officer has denied any connection with the club except enjoying a friendship with its owners

An appeal by Banderas to have the demolition order overturned by the court has been rejected. The part of the house that has been condemned sits on land classified in the 1986 PGOU as public property for sanitation use. The licence for the illegal works was issued in 1995 by the Marbella administration headed by the late Jesús Gil. Antonio Banderas. Málaga-born Banderas has a home on the beach at Los Monteros, and residents of the luxury urbanisation are furious that the town hall has not enforced a 2003 Regional Supreme Court (TSJA) order for part of the house to be demolished.
Marbella’s mayor, Ángeles Muñoz, stated last week that the town hall was asking the TSJA to hold off on the demolition order until the new local development plan (PGOU) has been approved. She stated that this was the same condition being sought for all illegal properties in the municipalities. But this argument has been angrily rejected by the residents of Los Monteros, who have pointed out that even when the new PGOU becomes law, the affected building on the Banderas property will still be illegal. The residents say that if the town hall will not enforce the teardown order, they will take the matter up directly with the court.

Alhaurín el Grande town hall stated that more than 100 robberies had been reported in the region in the last three months.
British couple attacked during a robbery at their rural Alhaurín de la Torre home. The thief made off with just a small amount of cash – around 100 euros – but beat the victims with the hilt of a knife, causing head injuries that left the husband in hospital for days.
The late-night robbery took place two Sundays ago in the Cortijo de Mestanza zone of Alhaurín, a small, usually quiet district on the outskirts of town along the Cártama road. It is understood that the masked intruder, armed with an air gun as well as the knife, may have entered the home through a door left partially open.

The owner of a Finestrat restaurant Sr Vallejo woke to the sounds of intruders in his home on Puerta de Hierro urbanisation in La Nucía.
Sukier Vallejo went to investigate and found an open door and that two bags were missing. One of the bags contained a camera and the other personal documents and cash.
Sr Vallejo gave chase to the burglars but was unable to catch them. After alerting the police and the Guardia Civil who carried out a search of the zone Sr Vallejo was resigned to having lost his belongings, however the next day a neighbour called to ask him what his bags were doing on his patio.
After explaining the situation it appears the burglars dumped the bags during the chase.
Despite losing the cash and some jewellery Sr Vallejo recovered the rest of his belongings.

expat resident of La Nucía was kidnapped from outside his home at gunpoint on Friday morning by three masked men and driven to a forest where his life was threatened if he didn’t reveal the whereabouts of a sum of money his attackers believed he had.
The victim, who has asked to remain unidentified, contacted the Costa Blanca News on Monday to relate his horrific ordeal.
He said that as he left his home at 09.30 on Friday morning to go to work at an auction house in Villajoyosa, three masked men pounced on him and bundled him into a car. They partially blindfolded him with tape then proceeded to beat him while they sped of.
During the ride one of the assailants placed a gun to the terrified victim’s head and demanded he told them where the money was.
After repeatedly telling his attackers that he didn’t have any money he was taken to wood near Polop de la Marina where the gang continued to beat him before he was made to kneel down and the gun placed against his head again in a gangland execution style.
At this point one of the gang told him it was his last chance to reveal where the money was or he would die.
In a last bid to save his life he again told the men that he had no money and that if they were going to kill him would they do it quickly. At this point the three men got into their car and drove off.
After managing to remove part of the blindfold the victim made his way to the Benidorm-Guadalest road where a passing motorist gave him help and called the police.
During the whole ordeal the victim had no idea what money his assailants were talking about and police believe they may have heard a rumour about the sale of a business and acted on it without checking first.
After receiving hospital treatment for serious wound to his head, the victim returned home to find that the gang had stolen his car