Ex Banco Popular bank manager, José Pérez Díaz, known as ‘Pepe el del Popular’, and who fled to Mexico after allegedly carrying out a six billion pesetas fraud in Santander 20 years ago, is coming back to Spain.The court here found him not guilty given the passage of time since the office was committed, and that verdict led to him being released from custody in Mexico.Reports indicate he has wanted to return to Spain for some time, and will board a flight today, arriving back here on Saturday. He has told reports that he is coming back to Spain to ‘clear up the case’

National Court judge, Baltasar Garzón, ordered Kiril Illine Yudasehev to prison on charges of illegal association and money laundering after questioning in Madrid on Friday.One of the three Marbella lawyers who were arrested on Thursday in a new stage of the ‘Troika’ operation against money laundering linked to the Russian mafia, has been sent to prison on remand.The other two lawyers, both Spaniards, Francisco Eloy Ocaña and Antonio de Fortuny, both still face money laundering charges but were released. Ocaña was given five days to find 10,000 € bail, while Fortuny had bail set at a million € and has to register in the court weekly. He is 76 years old and reported to be in a delicate state of health, hence the judge’s decision not to deprive him of his freedom at this stage.Garzón considers the Russian mafia has companies and accounts in financial havens as well as interests linked in the case to Spain, Panama, Lichtenstein and Russia.

“There’s nothing to indicate at this stage the body may be Amy Fitzpatrick’s and we’re not going to rule anything out until we’ve managed to establish an identity or at least the sex of the victim.
“But the area this body was discovered in was well searched when Amy went missing.”The remains were found inside a sewage pipe near Mijas football stadium where a massive search for Amy took place shortly after she went missing on New Year’s Day 2008.Amy’s mother Audrey said: “I am aware a body has been discovered and the search for Amy soon after she went missing was started from the football stadium

.“But I’ve spoken to the Guardia Civil and they’re telling me the body is that of a man.

“I’m confident it’s not Amy’s. For me nothing has changed. I’m still praying nothing bad’s happened to her and she’ll come home one day soon.”Amy Fitzpatrick disappeared aged 15 as she walked home from a friend’s house where she had been babysitting the night before. She is thought to have taken a short cut along an unlit path to reach her home.She vanished with just the clothes she was wearing and no passport or money.

Gypsy families who had been squatting in an embargoed urbanisation since Sunday have decided to leave and all of them had moved out by the early hours of Wednesday. Police remained at the scene to prevent any of them returning.Between 100 and 150 people spent two nights in the 34 apartments of the Golden Hills development, and moved in there from social housing in Molino de Viento. EFE reports that other families from Sevilla and Málaga arrived on Tuesday morning, but a visit from Mijas Town Hall’s social services department that day convinced the squatters that they should go. The Town Hall has no jurisdiction in the matter however, and the only possibility had the squatters not decided to leave would have been the owner applying for an eviction order to the courts.
The apartments on the development are almost complete, but no work has taken place there for the past two years after it was embargoed from the developer. The development’s current owner is the bank.

Police in Barcelona have arrested a 63 year old man who allegedly passed himself off as a cosmetic surgeon and carried out the surgery in filthy conditions in his home. Three dogs, a cat and a parrot lived with him in his flat in the El Raval area of the city.
He is said to have performed breast and buttock implants for between 250 and 500 €, and injected liquid silicone with a type of instrument which is normally used by vets on animals. The instrument uses reusable needles, but officers found no facilities for sterilising them on the premises. Another concern is that the liquid silicone used on patients is not of the type which can be injected.His patients came from all over Spain, and he was due to operate on a woman from Madrid on the day he was taken into custody, last Friday. He had another appointment booked for the Sunday.Juan P.L. does not have a licence to practice medicine and is understood to have a history of similar offences in the past. His arrest came about from a complaint from a doctor in the Basque Country regarding a breast implant performed on a patient.
The bogus doctor has been remanded to custody for a public health crime and another charge of the unauthorised practice of a profession.

Police on Wednesday arrested three lawyers suspected of laundering money for Russian mobsters in southern Spain, authorities said.The suspects _ who were not identified by name or nationality _ allegedly worked with a powerful Russian organized crime gang known as the Tambov/Tamboskaya group, Spanish police said in a statement.
Investigators found evidence of bogus financial transactions since the late 1990s that funneled proceeds from criminal activities in Russia into Spain and invested them in expensive houses, cars and other property in the Costa del Sol area through a complex network of companies, police said.Police made Wednesday's arrests and seized property and unspecified assets in Malaga and Marbella, where police said the suspects were found living in luxury.
The arrests were part of an ongoing operation ordered by Judge Baltasar Garzon. In the first phase of the operation in June, police arrested 20 suspects nationwide and seized

Police on Wednesday arrested three lawyers suspected of laundering money for Russian mobsters in southern Spain

, authorities said.

The suspects _ who were not identified by name or nationality _ allegedly worked with a powerful Russian organized crime gang known as the Tambov/Tamboskaya group, Spanish police said in a statement.
Investigators found evidence of bogus financial transactions since the late 1990s that funneled proceeds from criminal activities in Russia into Spain and invested them in expensive houses, cars and other property in the Costa del Sol area through a complex network of companies, police said.Police made Wednesday's arrests and seized property and unspecified assets in Malaga and Marbella, where police said the suspects were found living in luxury.
The arrests were part of an ongoing operation ordered by Judge Baltasar Garzon. In the first phase of the operation in June, police arrested 20 suspects nationwide and seized

64 year old British man has been arrested in the Horizonte urbanisation in Orihuela Costa for allegedly making threats at gunpoint.The man, who has not been named in reports, is alleged to have threatened other Britons, described as a young group, who are renting property from him, demanding that they pay their rent.
Police say the pistol used by the man was a replica which worked with compressed air.The man faces charges of making threats and housebreaking and entry.

65 year old man, reported as British, is in a coma after being attacked by a burglar at his home in Benalmádena on Friday, La Opinión de Málaga reports this Tuesday.The un-named victim is reported to be under treatment in the Intensive Care Unit of Carlos Haya Hospital in Málaga and his condition is serious.It happened in an apartment block on Calle Levante on the Alegranza Urbanisation when the pensioner returned home from a local bar. The paper says his attacker was tall with a shaved head and assaulted his victim after following him inside the flat.The assailant is understood to have set the property alight before he made his escape.

autopsy is to take place on a badly burnt body which was found in a waste pipe in La Cala de Mijas this Sunday.
The discovery was made by a passerby in the area of La Rosa on Sunday morning, a short distance away from La Cala’s football ground, Málaga Hoy newspaper reports.It’s understood the autopsy could take some days to complete, as only parts of the cranium and body had survived the blaze, which it’s believed may have been set only the night before. An initial examination was unable to determine either the sex or the age of the victim.

The newspaper notes the body was found close to the area where the British man, Tony King, killed the Mijas youngster, Rocío Wanninkof, in October 1999. He’s now serving 19 years in prison for her murder.

Gypsy families have started squatting in an embargoed urbanisation in Mijas where they have justified the abandonment of the flats, said to be in a very poor condition, for their occupation saying otherwise they would be on the streets.Some 150 people started to occupy the Golden Hills development of 34 apartments on Sunday. The building is owned by the bank after being embargoed from the developer, and there has been no work at the site for the past two years.Most of those now occupying the abandoned building are young couples with children who have moved from social housing in Molino de Viento.Local police and the Guardia Civil are now waiting for a decision from a judge regarding a possible eviction of the families.

Francisco Javier was ordered to remain in prison by the Seville provincial court earlier this month, as the court considered there to be sufficient evidence to show that he covered up the crime. That decision came after the instruction judge remanded him to prison in February because, as El Mundo quotes from the ruling, he allegedly remained in the flat where Marta was killed ‘cleaning up and getting rid of fingerprints’ while his brother and two friends got rid of Marta’s body.search continued in Seville’s main rubbish tip for the body of 17 year old Marta del Castillo, the judge instructing the case issued an order on Tuesday for the arrest of María García. She is the girlfriend of Francisco Javier D.M., the elder brother of the main suspect in the case, Miguel Carcaño.
She said in her first appearance before the judge that she was studying in the flat on Calle León XIII on the night Marta died and will now be called back for further questioning.The order came after María García’s boyfriend and two other witnesses were questioned by the judge on Tuesday morning. One of them was a work colleague, who said that Francisco Javier had been with him at the bar where they both work until around 1.30 – 2.00 am on the night in question.

Authorities are trying to identify a badly decomposed body which was found floating in waters off Estepona on Thursday morning. The discovery was made by a crew member of a passing yacht and the Coastguard were immediately informed.In Alhaurín de la Torre, the woman who was found dead in a parking area used by hire cars on Tuesday met a violent death, according to sources in the investigation quoted by the newspaper, La Opinión de Málaga. There is little detail on the case as it is governed by a secrecy order, but it is known that the autopsy was held on Wednesday and that the woman, said to be in her 30s, died some time ago. Her body was also badly decomposed.No information has been released on her identity, but she is believed to be a woman reported missing some three weeks ago who was renting a nearby house. She was found face down, with her body partially covered by plastic sheeting.

“The international nature of this operation outlines the fact that criminal groups causing harm in our communities have links in many countries.” Four people were arrested after cash, drugs and imitation guns were seized in police raids across England. Two 37-year-olds were arrested at an address in Missenden Road in Amersham. And a 36-year-old man was arrested at a property in Carrington Road in High Wycombe, with a 44-year-old being cautioned and released for possessing cocaine at a house in Highfield Avenue in the town.
A property in Dukes Valley, Gerrards Cross, was also searched.
Raids were also carried in Middlesex, which saw three arrests made, Amsterdam, where two people were arrested in the same operation, in Marbella. The warrants were carried out following a lengthy investigation from Thames Valley Police's Organised Crime Group, with the assistance of officers in Holland and Spain.
All the people arrested have been released on bail until various dates in late May and early June. Det Supt David Poole, head of Specialist Operations, said: “This successful operation was complex, but completed with the help of more than 100 officers from a variety of organisations. “I hope the action we have taken reassures people that we do act on intelligence and use the information given to us by the public to arrest and disrupt criminal gangs.

Two Britons and a German have been arrested by the police in Mallorca and charged with negligent homicide after a 32 year old British man died following a fight last Saturday night in the Puerto de Alcúdia in Mallorca.The Britons have been named as 23 year old Matthew James F. and 27 year old Graham Loye W.The German is 23 year old Benjamin J.The three of them were involved in the fight with the fourth man, the 32 year old Briton, as yet un-named in reports, who was helped by the police at the time but who told them he was fine and wanted to go home. Hours later he was found in his own vomit and taken to the Son Dureta Hospital where he later died.All three arrested are residents in the Puerto de Alcúdia. The investigation remains open as the results of the autopsy are awaited.

Details have emerged on the violent burglary gang arrested on the Costa del Sol in the Civil Guard operation ‘Ronin.’ Their nationalities have been given as 7 Spaniards, 2 Moroccans and one each from Belgium, Colombia, Argentina and Britain.The leader of the gang is Spanish.According to information from Diario Sur, officers in Operation Ronin carried out 17 property searches as part of their investigations: in Málaga city itself, and, in the province, in Fuengirola, Mijas and Marbella, as well as in Melilla.
The group is said to have operated in Fuengirola and Mijas, targeting fast food restaurants and private homes.

Monday was the team’s 15th day at the site, with the search centred on the area where newspapers found show it to be the spot where refuse was deposited after collection on the night Marta’s body was allegedly dumped.Marta’s family were meanwhile in Madrid this weekend, collecting signatures in support of ‘cadena perpetua’ – life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. They now have 100,000 signatures asking for a referendum on the matter.
It’s now been two weeks since the search began in Sevilla’s main rubbish tip in Alcalá de Guadaíra for the body of 17 year old Marta del Castillo, after the main suspect for her murder, her ex boyfriend Miguel Carcaño., admitted to dumping her body in a rubbish container in Sevilla City. He had originally said he had thrown the body into the Guadalquivir River.The search at the tip has only stopped in the past fortnight to allow the team to rest on Sundays.

Police in Granada are investigating the death of two men, whose bodies were found by a passerby on the right-hand bank of the río Genil on Thursday morning. They were lying in a ditch on the Camino de Perchil. Both were tied up and both had been shot in the head.
The men are believed to be from South America, in their thirties, but it’s understood that they have yet to be identified as neither of the two were carrying any documentation.

17 year old girl has died after being shot twice with a shotgun in the bedroom of her villa in Alfaz del Pi in Alicante.It happened in Saturday morning between 9am, when her mother went to open her local business, and 12 noon when the body of the victim was found by the cleaning lady at the house at 10, Camí de Coves. She called the girl’s mother who rushed home only to find the body of her shot daughter.It appears she was shot with her father’s shotgun which was kept in the house.As yet there have been no arrests in the case, as it is hoped the autopsy will bring some new evidence. It appears the shotgun is now missing and no motive has been ruled out as investigations continue. Both the victim’s parents have given statements to the Guardia Civil.The family is well known in Alfaz, given that they run the central ‘Avenida’ bar in Avenida País Valenciano.

The Spanish Interior Ministry says more than 30 crimes, most of them involving violence, have been solved with the arrest of 13 members of a gang which specialised in violent burglaries on the Costa del Sol. Dubbed ‘Operación Ronin’, it’s been described by the government representative for Málaga province, Hilario López Luna, as a ‘brilliant’ operation.Their set-up was highly organised with a hierarchical structure down from the leader to the chief of operations, with others responsible for logistical support and then those who carried out the assaults. The leader maintained a tight rein on the network and only handed out weapons before each assault, to be returned after the crime was committed.The weapons seized include a Kalashnikov-type submachine gun complete with silencer, two hunting rifles, seven side arms and two machetes.
Also seized were 5,000 € in cash and other items needed for carrying out the assaults: clothing including gloves and balaclavas, rope and defence sprays.The investigation began in January and is instructed by Court No. 1 in Fuengirola.