Nine people were injured when an apparently mentally unstable driver deliberately drove into a pedestrian zone in the southern Spanish city of Malaga, police said Saturday.They said the 50-year-old kept driving through the Costa del Sol city's busy precinct until officers stopped him. The injured included two Italian and two German tourists.Nine people were injured and two German and Italian women tourists, aged 62 and 42, are in a critical condition in hospital after a driver, a 42 year old man from Alhaurín el Grande, named with the initials A.B.M., took his black Rover car down the pedestrianised central Calle Larios in Málaga on Saturday just before noon, it seems by error. All the other injured are recovering well. Witnesses say the driver went down the street and then reversed back. He has been arrested by the National Police after his way was blocked by a refuse lorry and public pounced on the car to get him to come out. He is being attended to by a psychologist after giving a statement to police which reports indicate ‘lacked sense’.

refusal of people to demolish their illegal homes in Mijas is leading some of them to see their assets embargoed. El País reports that at least 20 people have been affected so far out of the estimated 8,000 irregular homes in the municipality. Some 2,000 owners have been served with demolition orders, and if they do not comply they face a fine of 10% of the value of the property.Most of the demolition orders have been issued against rural properties, often handed down in inheritance.
The socialist Mayor of Mijas, Antonio Sánchez, called an extraordinary meeting at the end of July to discuss the problem, with those affected demanding that the fines be suspended until the new PGOU Urban Plan is drawn up for the municipality.
Last Wednesday the Mayor agreed that working groups be set up to investigate the problem, but PP spokesman in the town, Angel Nozal, described that as a smoke screen.

A judge has charged the Grupo Mirador construction group after the company held on to deposits paid for properties which have not been constructed. Under Spanish law such monies should have been kept in a separate bank account. El País reports that the judge was responding to a new denuncia placed by a group of six clients of the company, each of whom paid between 32,805 € and 48,600 € as first payments for properties at the Mirador de la Fortaleza in Vélez-Málaga, which according to the contracts signed in 2004 and 2005, should have already have been completed but where in fact no construction has started. They are claiming fraud. The company has other promotions in Benalmádena, Rincón de la Victoria, Villanueva del Rosario, Fuente de Piedra and Loja in Granada.

Judge Francisco Javier de Urquía, who had presided over Marbella's second court, was found guilty of bribery and dereliction of duty in a case stemming from Operation Malaya, a far-reaching police investigation that led to the arrest of former mayors, councillors and businessmen in the Costa del Sol resort in 2006.The Andalusian High Court concluded that Urquía had accepted EUR 73,800 from Juan Antonio Roca, an urban planning aide at Marbella City Hall, in exchange for legal favours, including assisting Roca in preventing a local television station from airing a report about his vast - and illicitly earned - wealth.In the same trial, Roca, who confessed to paying the bribe money "in two envelopes," received a one-year prison sentence and was ordered to pay a fine of EUR 73,800 - the same amount as the bribe. Prosecutors had originally sought a three-year sentence but lowered their demands to one year in the wake of Roca's surprise confession in July. Arnaud Fabrice Albouhair, a French associate of the two men who apparently acted as an intermediary in their illicit dealings, was acquitted.Urquía, who had been struggling financially, accepted the money from Roca as payment toward a house in Marbella. After Roca was taken into custody in March 2006, the judge enlarged his mortgage, changed the payment conditions and reversed his decision to stop the TV documentary from being broadcast in a bid to cover his tracks.

2,500 Kilos hashish have been seized from a launch in Torrevieja.
The hashish traffic international network used the Torrevieja marina as a entrance point for the drugs into the country. The operation finalised with the arrest of eight alleged drug dealers and the seizure of 2,500 kilos hashish.
Among the people arrested, there are people from different nationalities, i.e. Spanish, Lithuanian, Italian and Moroccan. After several investigations and wire taps, the operation was started after it was known a several tones drug cargo was coming this week. The agents stopped the boat when it docked in the Torrevieja marina. This way, 2,500 kilos hashish were seized and eight suspects were arrested on board and another five in solid ground, where they were providing the other ones with coverage.

French cosmetic surgeon accused of having mutilated or endangered the lives of dozens of patients has been arrested in Spain.
Michel Maure had gone missing after standing trial in Marseille in June, accused of false advertising, deception and causing involuntary injury.He was arrested in Rosas, north-eastern Spain, on Tuesday. An international arrest warrant had been issued for him.Prosecutors called for four years' jail and a 75,000-euro (�59,000) fine.
He was struck off the French medical register in January 2007 after numerous complaints about his procedures. He had practised illegally since 1995, investigators say.There were 96 complaints from former patients against Dr Maure, 59, including allegations that he had carried out painful procedures under local anaesthetic, in a dirty clinic.He had claimed to be "one of the best plastic surgeons in the world".
The verdict was planned for September and he was subject to a French court order restricting his movements. He had been told to report to police every week. He now faces extradition from Spain.

27-year-old German man was arrested at Barajas airport in Madrid yesterday after 13.8kg of cocaine was discovered concealed beneath a false suitcase bottom. The man arrived on a flight from Lisbon. A Guardia Civil spokesman explained that the drugs were found using a hand-held scanning device.

Revealed a camera could have recorded Amy on the track she is thought to have taken on New Year's Day, the day she disappeared.
Amy Fitzpatrick disappeared on the evening of New Year's Day 1st January 2008 at approximately 10pm when she left her friends house in the tourist resort of Riviera Del Sol on the Costa Del Sol, Spain to take the 10 minute walk to her house.
Amy was 15 at the time of her disappearance; on 7th February Amy turned 16, Amy has black/Brown hair, blue eyes and has a pale complexion. She is 1.65m tall and was wearing brown crushed velvet tracksuit bottoms and a black T-shirt with the word "DIESEL" in various different colours when she was last seen. She had no money, phone or passport. Amy is originally from Clarehall Dublin but was living in Spain the last few years. Tuesday 26th August 2008 Amy will be 34 weeks missing. We have discovered a sighting that was reported to Christine Kenny Amy's Aunt of Amy in Portugal was never followed up that Christine reported to both the Spanish and Irish police. Christopher Fitzpatrick Amy's father needs to raise funds to hire a private detective to help with the search for Amy. To be honest not for one second did he ever think he would need to trouble anybody for help with funds but Spain is so far from Ireland and the costs to get anything done is crazy. Please note this is the first time Christopher has asked for help with funds and it will only be used to hire a private detective and any funds left over will go to the missing organisation in Ireland Miss.ie to help other families going through this situation.

Nikki Beach in Marbella in the early hours of Saturday morning. Two people were injured in the incident which happened at 0205, with one of them, a 42 year old man, being shot twice in the legs. There are no details as to the extent of the other victim’s injuries.

Peter Mitchell (39), who is originally from Summerhill in Dublin's north inner city, was wounded when a masked gunman opened fire outside a bar on Thursday night. News of the shooting reached gardaí in Ireland yesterday. Mitchell was shot outside a bar at the Aloha apartment complex in Puerta Banus near Marbella. A masked gunman fired at least five shots at Mitchell wounding him twice in the arm and shoulder.
Two other men, one in his 40s and a pensioner, also sustained minor injuries in the shooting. It was unclear last night if the two injured men were with Mitchell or if they were shot in the crossfire during the suspected gangland attack.
However, the Garda's inquiries with Spanish police indicate Mitchell was the target of the shooting and the incident is being treated as an attempted murder. The Irishman was taken to hospital after the attack and he was still undergoing medical treatment last night. His injuries are not life threatening and he is expected to make a full recovery. The nationalities of the other two injured men had not been established by gardaí last night. It is understood Spanish police have already spoken to Mitchell about what happened. Mitchell had been running a bar in southern Spain until it closed recently. In 2004 he was questioned by police in Holland in connection with the discovery of heroin and ammunition in an apartment in the city. Mitchell was one of a number of young criminals who worked for John Gilligan before their gang was targeted by gardaí following the murder in 1996 of crime journalist Veronica Guerin. Mitchell left Ireland shortly after the murder of Ms Guerin and the inception of the Criminal Assets Bureau. However, he had bought a number of modest properties which were targeted by the bureau in its early days. He has until recent months kept a relatively low profile in Spain and seldom returns to Ireland. Mitchell was named in court as a member of Gilligan's gang during Gilligan's original drugs trial and his subsequent appeal. The Supreme Court in a judgment in 2005 held there was evidence before Gilligan's Special Criminal Court drugs trial to justify its conclusions that Gilligan, Charles Bowden, Paul Ward, Brian Meehan, Shay Ward and Peter Mitchell were "a gang" engaged in drug trafficking; that Gilligan was the "prime mover" in the importation of cannabis resin into the country; and that he was the "supreme authority" among the gang members and "the largest beneficiary" of the proceeds of the sale of cannabis resin. Once known as a playground for the rich and famous, Puerto Banus still attracts plenty of wealthy tourists, but these days it is also home to Russian oligarchs, Arab royalty and a number of west Dublin drug barons. Billed as Europe's answer to Las Vegas, the port complex, which is located some 6km outside of Marbella on the Costa del Sol, was built by local developer Jose Banus in 1970 as a luxury marina and shopping haven for the jet-set and super-rich. Over four million people are estimated to visit the resort of Puerto Banus every year. But while it once attracted the likes of King Juan Carlos of Spain, Hugh Hefner and Julio Iglesias, it has now lost much of its glamour and with it many of the celebrities who used to flock to the port. In recent years, Irish, British and Russian gangs have vied with local Spanish criminals for command of the lucrative drugs trade which has flourished in the Costa del Sol, with much of it based in or around Puerto Banus.

37-year-old man involved in a cocaine trafficking case was killed in a shootout Wednesday at dawn in Voula, Athens while attempting to avoid arrest. The victim, who was the recipient of 4.5 kilos of cocaine, was fatally wounded by police while trying to get away. The case came to the attention of the Greek Police when a 40-year-old Bulgarian national, who arrived in Athens from Romania, declared his luggage lost in Athens' "Eleftherios Venizelos" International Airport. His suitcase was later found in the airport in Romania and Romanian police discovered 4.5 kilos of cocaine hidden inside. The Bulgarian was arrested in Athens and confessed that he had undertaken to deliver the cocaine, which came from Spain via Romania, to a Greek. The shootout happened when the man arrived in a prearranged place in Voula to supposedly pick up the drugs and realized that he was being trapped by police. He was fatally injured by police gunfire while trying to speed away in his car.

National police have arrested a man in the Vega Baja who was selling cannabis which he had grown himself. The man had tried to hide his small plantation of 119 plants by placing palm trees in the same area where he had also installed a sophisticated automatic watering system. He is also said to have improved the quality of his crop by using specialist fertilisers and fungicides.The 37 year old Spaniard has been named with the initials S.V.R. and will appear shortly in court in Orihuela.

Peugeot 405 SRD Turbo was burnt out at around 7.30am in the quiet secluded streets of the urbanisation – just metres from an occupied home. The owner was visibly shocked and upset by the events as she awoke to find thick dark smoke billowing outside her bedroom window. She was one of many residents who quickly contacted the fire department whose prompt response undoubtedly prevented further disaster.
The car was parked between two others – one received some damage whilst the other, thanks to the quick thinking action of two African gentleman who managed to move it and locate the owner, remained intact.
One resident told us, “They are saying the fire was down to an electrical fault, but the car was parked there just after midnight and an electrical fault does not take seven hours to ignite in to flames – it was a deliberate attack – you can see the accelerant used on the bonnet.”It is not the first time cars have been targeted on this pretty, yet divided, urbanisation and residents are coming together to make a stand against the vandalism. “It is simply a thoughtless act of violence by someone with a very sick mind.” Another resident added, “If that car had exploded the results could have been so much worse. Why do they do it and what do they hope to prove?
Residents in Lago Jardin I are now being asked to be on the look out for suspicious activity in the area and to be aware of the spate of attacks.

Daniel Whelan died at the weekend while in Benalmadena on the Costa del Sol.
Early reports suggested that the 18-year-old, who was celebrating the end of his A-level exams, had been struck down by meningitis. But the Health Protection Agency has now said it was unlikely his death was caused by the infection. Hugh Lamont, a regional spokesman for the agency, said: “We understand there is currently no evidence the illness was caused by an infection of any sort. We are awaiting the results of further tests." It is understood Daniel was taken ill while on a night out with friends on Saturday. They took him back to where they were staying in the resort and called an ambulance when his condition deteriorated. He died later in hospital. His friends, all pupils at Bolton School, flew home on Monday.
His parents, Mike and Catherine Whelan, who live in Culcheth, have flown out to Spain. Daniel was due to beginning studying at Loughborough University in the autumn.

The World Championship leader was leaving the Malaga Palacio on the Costa del Sol with girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger, of music group Pussycat Dolls, when two men snatched a pair of bags from their car."Lewis's driver was cleaning the wing mirrors when two men ran up to the open boot and pinched a rucksack and leather holdall," an onlooker told the English media."The one carrying the rucksack dropped it but the other guy kept hold of his."Hamilton, 23, had attended an MTV concert in Malaga at which Scherzinger, 30, performed.The Formula One season resumes after a break this weekend with the European GP in Valencia. Hamilton is five points clear of Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen in the drivers' standings.

The boat was intercepted in the mid-Atlantic off the Canaries and there were eleven arrests. The total weight of the cocaine was 2,500 kilograms or 5,506 pounds.
The investigation was part of Operation Hurricane, said the head of the police’s organised-crime unit, Eloy Quiros.
“We’re talking about an organised group that already has much experience; about communications in code, via Internet; about continual changes in telephones and use of foreign telephones to make the police work harder,” said Quiros. In all, authorities seized 80 bundles of cocaine on board the fishing boat RÍo Manzanares, registered in Venezuela but flying no flag, making the vessel a so-called “pirate boat,” and on which were five crew members, who were arrested.
The shipment was unloaded at the Las Palmas Military Arsenal..
Quiros said that the seizure of the drug was the first phase of the operation and that the second phase ended in the north-western Spanish region of Galicia, where another six people were arrested, including both high-level traffickers and people involved with transporting the cocaine.
The “narco-transporters” who were arrested include four Galician businessmen and shipowners linked with the fishing industry.
“They own companies and boats whose ultimate aim was the importation of fish and they used them (for drug smuggling) because they’re going through serious economic difficulties. That means that they were tempted ... with quick and enormous profits” in exchange for supporting the drug operation with their infrastructure, “ Quiros said.
Among the drug traffickers who were arrested were representatives of South American cartels, the police official said.
Quiros did not rule out more arrests in South America as the operation continues.

Two small bombs blamed on Basque separatist group ETA exploded at tourist resorts in southern Spain yesterday. No injuries were reported, but more than 10,000 people were evacuated from a harbour area. It is the height of the summer tourist season in Spain. The first blast occurred on a beach in Guadalmar and a second device exploded at a tourist marina parking lot in Benalmadena Costa. Both towns are around 550km south of Madrid in the Costa del Sol resort area on a stretch of coastline popular with foreign tourists, especially the British.A caller who said he spoke in the name of ETA warned the fire department in the beach resort of Benalmadena that three bombs would explode, the ministry said. He said bombs had been placed in Guadalmar, Benalmadena and on a highway linking Malaga to its international airport.

Guardia Civil in Huercal Overa have arrested two local residents for dealing cocaine. The attention of the Guardia Civil was drawn to the unusual number of people from outside the area coming and going from the home of the two suspects. Agents watching the dwelling observed the transit of various people to and from the house, where they stayed only brief periods of time. They also observed the suspects frequently leaving the house for brief periods and deduced from the behviour that the dwelling could be a distribution point for drugs, using a method commonly known in Spain as ‘Tele-coca’, that is, ordering cocaine by means of telephone calls between the dealers and trusted customers.As a result of investigations, one of the two suspects, identified by the Guardia Civil as Pierre Pablo H.V., was stopped in the street and, when he was found to be in possession of seven wraps of cocaine, with a total weight of 5.2 grams, he was arrested on suspicion of drug dealing. His partner, identified as Francy E.D., was arrested while waiting for him outside their home. As a result of their arrests a search warrant was granted and, in the couple’s home, agents found wraps of cocaine ready for sale with a total weight of 20.1 grams, together with precision scales and 1,800 euros in cash.

Portuguese businessman was detained in Spain accused of being the “main supplier of super-boats” to organized drug trafficking rings following a joint effort between Spanish and Portuguese police.An investigation carried out by the Guardia Civil de Pontevedra (Galiza, Spain) and the GNR of Valença (Portugal) resulted in the detention of the man who is believed to have supplied powerful boats which were used to ferry drugs between the Iberian Peninsula and Northern Africa.Four Spanish citizens were also arrested in connection with the investigation.
Identified as Carlos A.P., the Portuguese businessman has a factory in Cerdal, Valença, and is also believed to be involved with supplying vigilance transportation used during the trafficking and its respective distribution.During the year-long investigation the individual, who has no previous criminal convictions, was responsible for producing and supplying 25 vessels.Equipped with four or five engines, the speedboats were designed to travel between Morocco and Barcelona, at high speed, generally carrying up to three tones of hashish.

Judiciary Police arrested three men suspected of drug trafficking in Silves last week, in connection with two tonnes of hashish seized, in the ‘Dom Rodrigo’ operation.According to Judiciary Police, the men, caught ‘red handed’ with 73 packages of hashish, almost 5 million individual doses, that were to be delivered to Spain.Three cars were also seized from the three foreign individuals in their thirties. The men had connections with Seville and were responsible for bringing the hashish into Portugal for distribution throughout Europe.
The three detained were still in custody after their first interrogation in Lagos.

Spanish police have arrested five people suspected of hacking into or outright disabling thousands of Internet pages, some of them run by government agencies in the U.S., Latin America and Asia, authorities said Saturday.The National Police said the suspects belonged to one of the most active hacker groups on the Internet and said two of the suspects are 16 years old. The others are 19 or 20.
On the Internet, the group calls itself D.O.M Team, police said.One of the group's techniques was to infiltrate Web sites and insert a page of its own, police said.
The group attacked some 21,000 Web pages over the last two years, police said in a statement. The five were arrested this week in Barcelona, Burgos, Malaga and Valencia.The statement did not identify which government Web sites the suspects are accused of tampering with.The Spanish newspaper El Mundo reported in March that the group had infiltrated NASA's Web page. A police official said Saturday she could not confirm this, and she refused to specify which sites had been hit. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with department rules.The newspaper said the group also hacked the Venezuelan national telephone company's page and that of the Spanish telephone operator Jazztel, among others.El Mundo said it had contacted the group in March and that members described themselves not as delinquents, but as computer-lovers who raided Web sites to show system administrators the pages' vulnerabilities.The Spanish investigation began in March after the Web page of a Spanish political party, Izquierda Unida, was disabled shortly after Spain's general election March 9.The five suspects did not know one another personally, but rather just over the Internet, police said. They were in contact with other members of the hacking group, mainly in Latin America, police said.

"Fat" Freddie Thompson has been disguising himself against assassination.
Thompson has been wearing a wig based on Oasis star Liam Gallagher’s distinctive mop, sources said. Separately, gardai said today they seized four Glock handguns when they stopped two cars in Dublin. The automatic pistols, which are becoming increasingly popular among city gangs, were found in a search by officers in Clondalkin. Officers said the find was unconnected with recent feuding in the city.
Meanwhile, sources today told how Freddie Thompson, whose associates have been involved in the murderous feud in the capital, has also been wearing the wig around his Spanish hideaway. The unusual Oasis-style wig has caused much bemusement in Garda ranks. “He has been keeping what’s left of his hair completely cropped so it’s easier to wear the wig and look anonymous,”said a source today. “He can wear what he wants on his head, but there is no mistaking his face,” the source added.
Gardai were first alerted to the strange dress up routine when they stopped Thompson and one of his hoods in March 2005. Officers noticed a passenger and his driver wearing bullet proof vests while travelling close to the Dail on Dublin's Kildare Street. On closer inspection, gardai realised that the passenger was in fact Freddie Thompson.
Gardai described Freddie as a "Noel Gallagher look-alike" with a heavy wig and dark glasses.
Since then he has been spotted on further occasions donning the Oasis-style look.
Thompson is living in constant fear of his life from other crime rivals in the Crumlin/Drimnagh feud which has so far claimed 13 lives. Thompson left Ireland following a flurry of gangland tit for tat style incidents. Garda intelligence shows that a number of attempts had been made on his life. His name was also regularly appearing on 'hit lists' of rival gangs.
Thompson was travelling with his associate Patrick Doyle when he was murdered in Marbella on February 4 this year.
Since that date Thompson has remained in Spain where he is surrounded by friends and fellow criminals.
Recent gun and grenade attacks on the home of his grandparents in the Coombe and on the homes of a number of his partners-in-crime have contributed to his decision to remain in Spain. Rumours of his death last month were quashed and described as an "elaborate ploy". The gang boss was later pictured alive and well in his Spanish retreat.

According to the police, cocaine was found in a van near a Barcelona. shopping center. It's the third major cocaine bust of the summer in Spain. and the biggest carried out in the country on land in all of 2008.
Authorities say the drugs would have fetched up to $120 million if peddled by street dealers, or $68 million if sold wholesale.
Spanish authorities said last week they seized 2.5 tons of cocaine in a high-seas raid in international waters of the Atlantic on July 26th and arrested 11 people. Spanish police acting on a tip-off from U.S. authorities have seized 1.4 tons of cocaine and arrested eight South American suspects, officials said Tuesday.
The drugs were found in a van near a Barcelona shopping center, in the third major cocaine bust of the summer in Spain and the biggest carried out in the country on land in all of 2008, the National Police said in a statement.
The investigation began in June when the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration told Spanish authorities about a drug trafficking gang that wanted to smuggle cocaine from South America to Spain, police said.
Spanish agents tracked two members of the ring that traveled from Venezuela to oversee delivery of the drugs.Earlier this month, authorities seized the cocaine and arrested four people as they tried to collect it. The other four suspects were arrested in a Barcelona hotel, the police statement said without giving any dates.
Six of them are Colombian and the other two are from Venezuela, it added.The drugs would have fetched up to euro80 million ($120 million) if peddled by street dealers, or euro45 million ($68 million) if sold wholesale, the statement said.
In another big drug bust, Spanish authorities said last week they had seized 2.5 tons of cocaine in a high-seas raid in international waters of the Atlantic on July 26 and arrested 11 people.

Spanish police said they had discovered a major factory producing illegal drugs near Barcelona, and arrested six people from three countries.It said the lab, in the northeastern town of Hospitalet de Llobregat "had a major production capacity since, in one single day" for example, "they had sent 24 000 euros" (about R276 000) in profits to Colombia, police said in a statement,It said the six people arrested were from Colombia, Morocco and Bolivia.Officers seized 4,2 kilogrammes of cocaine, 120 kilogrammes of hashish pollen and a "lot of equipment for producing the drugs," the statement said.

Spanish police have freed around 600 Russian sex slaves during a series of raids on brothels across the countryThe women had been lured to Spain by human traffickers promising lucrative work as fruit pickers, but instead had been forced to work in the sex industry, police sources said.“They were fooled into believing they were coming to work in the greenhouses or to pick strawberries,” Jose Nieto, chief inspector of the specialized immigration and criminal networks unit of the national police, told the Spanish newspaper El Pais.But once in Spain, the girls were put to work in the brothels. “The girls were told that the ring would go after their families in Russia, and also put the false notion in their heads that the Spanish police had been bought off and would laugh if they filed a complaint,” said Mr Nieto.
Under Operation Zarpa, the biggest police operation against prostitution to date, 26 establishments were raided, the majority in the Almeria region of southern Spain, and 99 people were arrested.But sources told local media that the busts were the “tip of the iceberg” and that the crime ring possibly had as many as 10,000 women working against their will.

Three Spanish men have been arrested on suspicion of burglary in Guardamar del Segura .The Guardia Civil have been on their trail for some time . Jewellery , audio equipment , money were all taken on July 4.During a search of the premises in which they lived , many stolen items were discovered , including a plasma screen TV.
They also discovered some quantities of hash and cocaine as well as equipment for preparing the drugs .The police believe that the thefts and the drug business were inter linked .

A 50 year old man died after suffering indigestion when swimming at Cabopino near Marbella, and a 75 year old drowned on a beach in Mojácar, Almería. In this last case the efforts of his son who was with him on the beach and of the Protección Civil could do nothing to save his life.A body, thought to be of a four to six year old was found on Saturday floating off the Carchuna beach in Calahonda Granada, but decomposition was such that the child’s sex could not be confirmed.An 11 year old boy drowned after rescuing his younger brother who had fallen into a irrigation pond in Orihuela, Alicante, and a seven year old boy drowned in a swimming pool in a summer camp at San Martín de Valdeiglesias in Madrid.

A British man has been charged with the murder of his wife, 58 year old Patricia Heard, who was reported missing in Olivia, Valencia in July 2006.63 year old Allen Heard appeared before magistrates in Nuneaton today charged with perverting the course of justice and was remanded to appear in Crown Court in Warwick on August 15.
British and Spanish police have been working together on the investigation. The couple had moved to Spain at the start of 2006.Allen Heard is accused of murdering his wife Pat, who disappeared two years ago.Heard, who used to live in The Raywoods, Nuneaton and also in Leicester Street, Bedworth, before emigrating with his wife to Spain, is also charged with perverting the course of justice. He appeared before magistrates in Nuneaton for the first time yesterday. The couple emigrated to Oliva, near Valencia, in 2004 and Mrs Heard was reported missing two years later. A massive public appeal was launched to find her but no trace was found.Now detectives in England and in Spain, who are working together on the case, believe her body may be buried in a shallow grave near Valencia.Allen Heard made a brief appearance at the Nuneaton Justice Centre yesterday afternoon.Heard, who returned to England from Spain recently, was arrested after voluntarily walking into a police station in Warwickshire.He faces charges of the murder of his 58-year-old wife Patricia on or before July 30, 2006, and perverting the course of justice by reporting her missing and concealing her body in a grave.He was remanded in custody to Blakenhurst Prison to appear again at Warwick Crown Court for a plea and direction hearing on August 15.
Heard, wearing a suit, spoke only to confirm his address in Spain and his date of birth.Neil Bannister, prosecuting, said he would oppose any application for bail.
He said: "The police still have a number of inquiries to make in England and Spain and now, of course, the most important one is to recover the body and repatriate it for a post-mortem examination. The police have a delicate and sensitive task to recover the body."No application for bail was made.Mrs Heard's disappearance in 2006 shocked her family and friends in the Coventry and Bedworth area.Before they moved abroad Mrs Heard had been popular at the Black Horse pub in Exhall where she was a member of the ladies' darts team.At the time of her disappearance in 2006, an appeal for information was posted on a website run by the UK charity Missing People. It read: "Her family and friends are extreme-ly worried for Patricia's welfare as her disappearance is completely out of character. They just want to know that Patricia is okay and urge her to make contact with someone to reassure them of her well-being."In a desperate attempt to find out what had happened, Mrs Heard's daughter Linda Jones, of Nuneaton, also spoke to the Telegraph. She described her mother as "confident and sociable". She said: "We just want to know she is safe. This is completely out of character... She has missed two grandchildren's birthdays - that's the bit I can't get over, I just can't see why she's done that.
"We've got in touch with everyone we know but there might be other friends we're not aware of. Someone may be talking to her not knowing she is missing - it's our last chance. We don't know what else to do."Today, murder squad detectives in Nuneaton were liaising with police in Valencia as a grim search for a body was continuing.

Guardia Civil Organized Crime and Drugs Squad (EDOA) agents from Algeciras discovered the 137 kilograms of very pure cocaine at a luxury house in Sotogrande’s Rivera del Emperador zone. It was part of an ongoing EDOA operation based on a long-held suspicion that recreational boats were being used to smuggle cocaine into Spain via Sotogrande’s port. Investigators believed the drugs were then stored in luxury properties close to the port’s moorings.
The theory would seem to have been borne out by the raid, in which the cocaine haul was discovered inside the house in numerous bags. Officers also seized a Gibraltar-registered yacht, the ‘Esprite’, in the belief that it was used to transport the drugs. No arrests were made and the Guardia Civil have stated that the people involved are believed to be on the run. Officers have not ruled out the possibility that arrests will be made in the coming days.
These drugs raids have again brought unwelcome attention to the luxury urbanizations that make up the Sotogrande area of San Roque. Last summer there was much alarm amongst residents, many of whom are British, after homes in the area were targeted by Eastern European gangs who carried out numerous robberies.
In December of last year the Spanish government set up a special police squad, Greco, to tackle the mafias operating on the Costa del Sol. At that time the Socialist Deputy, Salvador de la Encina, confirmed that the spotlight would also fall on both Sotogrande and La Alcaidesa in La Línea, where it was believed many of the gangs were laundering money through real estate

A 54-year-old British woman was detained in Torrox Park on Sunday, accused of stabbing her 61-year-old husband. The victim, also British, was taken to hospital in Vélez-Málaga where he was treated for 11 stab wounds. Police were called to the El Pino camp site by a security guard at 21.50 on Sunday night and arrested the woman who, they reported, was carrying a blood-covered kitchen knife and showed signs of intoxication. She was immediately transferred to the Guardia Civil headquarters in Torrox where she was detained. The couple, who live in a bungalow on the camp site, are well known in the neighbouring bar where a local Portuguese resident said that it was, "an unusual day which didn't end with them drunk". They are also said to have had frequent arguments and a loud discussion between them was reported to have been heard prior to the stabbing on Sunday evening.
This episode of domestic violence is another blow in a quiet area where recent thefts of a DVD player and around 100,000 euros worth of jewellery have disturbed residents. Some expressed concerns about the lack of security, while others demanded more frequent patrols by local police and Guardia Civil officers. The injured man was reported to be in a serious state in hospital following the attack.

Rumours that Dublin crime kingpin Freddie Thompson had been murdered in his Spanish hideout have been found to be false after he was spotted leaving a gym on the Costa del Sol.'Fat' Freddie had been told by gardai that his life is in danger and he fled the country after it is believed several criminal gangs and individuals got together to plan to have him murdered.Several plans have been made in recent weeks to shoot and bomb Thompson and his leading associates, and his grandparent's home in the Coombe has even been targeted by gunmen in one of many attacks and shootings.Thompson is known to be at war with a rival criminal drugs gang in the ongoing Crumlin/ Drimnagh feud, as well as with a suspected INLA member.
The Thompson/INLA feud developed out of the Crumlin/ Drimnagh feud which began in 2001 and has now claimed 10 lives in tit-for-tat killings.
Others believed to be out for blood in a €100,000 contract include Martin 'The Viper' Foley, after Thompson's associates were believed to be behind the fourth attempt on his life when he was gunned down outside a gym in January.
Thompson was tracked to a gym near Puerto Banus in Marbella, an area that has become a haven for drug gangs."There are some days you could go into that gym and meet every major player operating in the Costa region. Criminals from different gangs are all training together and discussing business while pumping iron," said one source.
But while Thompson may be far away from the Irish hitmen who want him dead, he also knows the dangers that face him in Spain and is said to be paranoid about his security.Last February his trusted hitman Paddy Doyle was murdered in what many believe was an attempt on Thompson's own life.Thompson fled Ireland after massive tensions between his own gang and the gang controlled by a suspected INLA member in recent months.
Both mobs have been using bombs, bullets and fragmentation grenades to try and wipe each other out on Dublin streets. The heat was taken out of the feud when the INLA suspect was arrested recently and is in custody on charges of being a member of an illegal organisation.

National Police have broken up a gang of medium-scale drug traffickers whose modus operandi was to rob other drug gangs. Nine arrests, most of them Spaniards, have been made with the group acting mainly in Madrid, although also in Málaga, Torremolinos and Marbella.The specialist and violent crime UDYCO police unit took part in the operation which also saw the search of five premises resulting in the recovery of some firearms and drug related equipment.The group sold the drugs they stole in Málaga, Marbella and in Morocco.

Spain police have made their biggest heroin seizure when drugs with a street value of more than 54 million euros ($89.6 million) were found in the Mediterranean port of Sitges.The 316.5kg of heroin were taken from a US-flagged ship and loaded on a van with a Dutch licence plate, police said in a statement. Five men, four of Turkish origin and a Romanian were detained.The drugs were in 633 packages.It is one of the biggest heroin busts in Europe and it is the first time that smugglers have been caught by Spanish police trying to bring the drug into the country by ship, the police statement said.
"We have managed to discover and dismantle a method of introducing heroin, by sea, which was unknown to date, even at the European level, which is especially dangerous," the statement said.Police said they began their investigation in February by monitoring a Dutch national of Turkish origin who was arrested in 1994 for being the leader of a group that smuggled 118kg of heroin into Spain.
He was one of the five men detained on Thursday.Spain, with its extensive southern coastline, is Europe's main point of entry for Moroccan cannabis and for cocaine from South America, mostly from Colombia, the world's top producer of the drug.

BRITISH national wanted in connection with the fatal shooting of two boys in a Manchester pub has been caught in Alfaz del Pî. National Police say they have arrested a man who fits the description of the killer, who is said to be armed and dangerous. Robert Andrew Spiers., 40, fled to Spain in March 2006 after a shoot-out in a pub in the northern city in which two youths aged 19 and 20 were killed outright.The victims had allegedly been hired by their killer to murder the ringleader of a known crime racket. But their target, although injured, survived the attempt on his life, a fact that police suspect could be the motive for the boys’ death.
After killing the youths, the murderer is said to have gone to watch a football match, police reveal.Two other men arrested in Alfaz del Pi with links to the crime have been sentenced to life imprisonment. If found guilty, the accused will be extradited to the United Kingdom