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Jorge Real,convicted for the murder of Tony and Linda O’Malley, the British couple who died while house hunting on the Costa Blanca in 2002, has written a book based on his life and experiences in the turbulent years of South American history in the last century. Written from prison in Córdoba by Jorge Real Sierra, ‘Los Vuelos del Silencio’ is an autobiographical novel which tells the tale of David, a boy who left life on the streets of Venezuela to become a pilot for the drug cartels and the Contras of Central America.The author says he will leave it up to the reader to decide which is fact and which is fiction.On sale from Plaza y Janés next month, his publishers told El País they decided to go ahead in publishing the book as the quality of the content stands alone regardless of the author’s current situation. They also said the text has no connection with the crime for which he was sentenced.
Jorge Real was interviewed in prison by a journalist from El País, who he told writing the book during his time behind bars has helped him to face his internal demons, adding that any profit he gains from it will be for the family of the couple who died on the Costa Blanca. While still maintaining his innocence, he said he can’t find the way to ask for their forgiveness, nor for the hurt he has caused to others in his life.Jorge Real and his brother-in-law, José Antonio Velázquez González, were found guilty in 2006 of the murder of Tony and Linda O’Malley, a couple from Llangollen, North Wales, whose bodies were discovered buried in a cellar in Alcoy in March 2003. Real has another 28 years to serve of his sentence.

Police in Benidorm are trying to identify a badly burnt body found in the Serra Gelada this Sunday after firemen and police were called out to a blaze near the border with Alfaz del Pi. Diario Información said the man’s body was still burning when it was found beneath a pine tree at the side of a dirt road.The paper said the body was bound at the hands and had a wound to the head, possibly caused by a bullet. It’s believed he may have been killed where he was found.No arrests have yet been made in the case.

A 9.3 metre yacht which was heading for Britain has been intercepted by the Spanish authorities and found to be carrying 250 kilos of cocaine.Businesses on the Costa del Sol have been raided as part of the operationThe boat had set sail from the Dutch Antilles, and was escorted by the Spanish police into the port of Vigo after its interception.Eight arrests have been made in total, some of them on the Costa del Sol, and the nationalities of those detained are Spanish, Colombian, British, Dutch and Italian. 18 top of the range cars have also been impounded in the operation along with 300,000 € in cash, a jet ski, semi-automatic pistol, a revolver, 60 mobile phones, 20 computers and diverse documents.Investigations were carried out in a joint operation, codenamed ‘Candlelight’, between the Spanish Agencia Tributaria and the British Serious Organised Crime Agency after an organisation which introduced cocaine, heroin and hashish from South America to Britain and Spain was discovered.The bosses of the operation are thought to have been based on the Costa del Sol. Businesses on the coast are thought to have laundered money from the gang, in a second hand car showroom, and in two restaurants on the promenades in Fuengirola and Marbella.

Diario Información reports on an incident in recent days in the Castillo de San Juan area of Orihuela Costa, involving another British man, who allegedly stabbed his father-in-law with a 25 cm knife. The suspect’s wife and son are reported to have witnessed the assault.

British man was arrested after a police chase in the Dream Hills area of Orihuela last Saturday, for allegedly ripping off part of the ear of another man, a 44 year old also from Britain.The injured man was taken to hospital in Torrevieja by police, while other officers tried to capture his assailant. Las Provincias newspaper said he was finally captured in a wooded area next to the AP-7 toll motorway after narrowly escaping being hit by cars when falling down onto the carriageway from a height of 20 metres when jumping over the motorway barrier.The 23 year old is understood to have resisted arrest.

Gang boss ‘Fat’ Freddie Thompson spotted in Puerto Banus after moving his operation to Spain after a gun attack on his home .The Irish Gangster has set up home on the Costa del Sol with a nephew of the Monk, it’s revealed. Both men survived a gun attack in Spain last year which left their pal, Paddy Doyle, dead. Thompson (28) relocated to an apartment in Marbella four weeks ago, days after a shotgun blast was fired at the front window of his family home in the Coombe in Dublin. The gang boss is believed to have told his associates that he intends to remain in southern Spain for the summer with fellow criminal Gary Hutch. Freddie is currently staying in Marbella with Gary Hutch (27), a nephew of Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch. A former courier and robber from Summerhill, Gary Hutch is a longtime associate of Thompson and a number of his pals on the Costa del Sol. Thompson and Hutch were both in a car with their pal Paddy Doyle in Estepona, near Marbella, last year when he was assassinate by underworld rivals. A source told the Herald: "Thompson has kept his head very low of late. He departed the country after the shooting at his family home, which followed a bomb alert close to his girlfriend's home in Crumlin. Thompson has previously established a base in the Marbella area, living in Puerto Banus, a smaller town close to Marbella itself. The criminal narrowly avoided injury in February 2008 in Estepona, ten miles from Puerto Banus, when a gunman opened fire on a SUV in which he was travelling, killing his close friend Paddy Doyle. Gary Hutch was also in the BMW X5 when the shooting took place and also narrowly escaped injury.

Keith Abrahams, 40, of Hereford, has been arrested in Spain on suspicion of smuggling £5million of heroin into the UK.Spanish Police have broken up a group of Foreign Exchange Agencies who are said to have laundered funds worth around 180 million euros during the last four years.The group appeared to be offering their services to tourists but were in fact dealing with British customers linked to drug trafficking between 2005 and 2009.The Operation began five months ago when officials detected a group of exchange agencies, primarily in Fuengirola, accounting for a disproportionate amount of transfers from pounds to euros despite a lack of British tourists in the area at that time.Investigators have claimed that the agencies played an important role for networks who needed to convert currencies in order to fulfill drug payments.

Gary Well, 45, of London, was one of 10 people arrested in a series of swoops on a string of money-changing agencies in Fuengirola.Costa gang alleged to have laundered £155million for British drug dealers operating on the Costa del Sol has been smashed by Spanish police.The agencies were a cover for British drug gangs smuggling cannabis from Spain to the UK, police said.

German Health Minister’s official car, stolen by thieves last week while Minister Ulla Schmidt was holidaying in Dénia, has been found by the Civil Guard.The German newspaper ‘Rheinische Post’ reported on Wednesday that the armoured Mercedes S-Class limousine was found not far from where it was stolen, and is believed to have been dumped there by the thieves after all the media attention over the vehicle’s theft.
The car was driven the 2,400 kms from Germany by her chauffeur, while Mrs Schmidt made the journey by air. It was taken when thieves broke into her chauffeur’s accommodation while he was sleeping and made off with the vehicle.Just two months ahead of a general election in Germany, the Social Democrat Minister has come under harsh criticism for deciding to bring the vehicle to Spain, which she said was due to official engagements planned during her holiday in Dénia. A spokesperson for the German Health Ministry said Mrs Schmidt acted within the law, and has always reimbursed the government for any private journeys made in her official vehicle.
It was also claimed to be cheaper to drive the car to Spain rather than renting a similar vehicle on the Costa Blanca.

Police in Spain have broken up a network which is said to have brought an average of 50,000 in high-quality fake Euro notes into the country every month. The money came into Cataluña from Italy in 20 and 50 Euro notes, and from there, was distributed throughout the country, only being detected as fake once it reached the banks.The 21 arrests over the two-phase operation include the three network leaders and a courier who was detained at the Figueres bus station with more than 66,000 € in fake notes, of a total of 113,000 € seized over the entire operation. Some of the forged money was used to buy more than 16,000 € worth of jamones in Guijelo, Salamanca province, and five people resident in Sabadell, Barcelona province, were arrested in connection with the purchase.30 kilos of cannabis resin were found in one of the property searches carried out by police.Police say that, since the European currency was first adopted in Spain, they have seized more than 6 million € in fake notes.

joint operation by police in Spain and Portugal has broken up an international organisation which sold Portuguese driving licences obtained with fake documents, selling each for an average of 1,500 €. Their main clients were eastern Europeans who, the Interior Ministry said, often bought HGV licences in this way and then went on to obtain their licence to transport goods.It’s understood the network made weekly trips from their Torrevieja base to Portugal to apply for the driving licences, and is believed to have earned income of of up to 300,000 €.The network also obtained Portuguese residence permits for their clients through marriages of convenience, charging up to 5,000 € for this service. The marriage certificates were used, along with false employment contracts, in order to obtain legal residency in Portugal.

British driver on trial in Alicante for the death of a teenage moped rider has been sentenced to 13 years in prison in a ruling which, EFE reports, notes that David Walter Cook continued driving knowing that the youngster was trapped beneath his car.
17 year old José Antonio Caro Buendía from Alfaz del Pi died in March 2008 after he was thrown from his moped by a first vehicle, and was then hit by another which dragged him along the road for 2kms before fleeing the scene. The second car was traced to Mr Cook and his partner, Angela Green, a British couple resident in Polop.
The Alicante provincial court said in the ruling released this Wednesday that Mr Cook, originally from Stourbridge, continued driving with the teenager beneath the vehicle before stopping at an urbanisation to manoeuvre the car back and forth and managing to free the body.Mr Cook was also ordered to pay 300,000 € compensation to the victim’s family, while his partner, Angela Green, was given an 18-month sentence for failing to help the teenager.

man wanted by the authorities in Italy has been arrested at a routine traffic control in Murcia, EFE reports. He is accused of belonging to an international drugs organisation, and was wanted on an international warrant for his arrest and extradition back to Italy.The suspect, named as A.I., aged 47, was driving a moped when he was pulled over by officers and was found not to have a driving licence. It was after his arrest for that offence that further checks revealed he was wanted in Italy.

41 year old British man who is wanted on charges of falsification and fraud has been arrested by National Police in Rójales, Alicante.The arrest was made on a European Arrest Order and the man will now be appear in the National Court before being extradited back to France where he faces upto ten years in prison.Named with the initials R.A.B., the order for his arrest was issued by the judicial authorities in France only two days ago.

Italian man resident in Elche was undergoing emergency surgery on Sunday after being shot while sitting in a parked car near a beach between Elche and Santa Pola early that morning. The only information on the 38 year old’s condition was a ‘reserved prognosis’, EFE said.EFE said the victim was with his partner in an isolated area of Arenales del Sol, when it appears they were approached by a suspected peeping tom, believed to be the person who fired the shots. The suspect then fled the scene and is now being sought by National Police.A similar case is reported in the same area two years ago.

Two of five people arrested by the National Police in Benidorm in an operation against drug trafficking, managed to make their escape dressed as airline pilots, according to the police Commissioner in the town, Alfonso Cid.
All five arrested were Spanish and had several previous records for drug trafficking, and one of them for murder.They had been watched by the police since March, originally for the illegal sale and traffic of top of the range vehicles, and the police were waiting for the gang at Barajas airport in Madrid on Monday when they returned from Caracas, allegedly carrying drugs. However two escaped by leaving through the pilots entrance.A search in Benidorm meanwhile found 15 kilos of highly pure cocaine, 77 grams of heroin, and two kilos of hashish. 17,000 € and other items were found in a second search.

Spanish police are looking for informers among the foreign community on the Costa del Sol in a new policy which they hope will increase safety in the zone.
Police has offered an email address where people are invited to send any pertinent information and which they will be able to understand in eight different languages. The Police also promise complete confidentiality. The campaign is based around the slogan ‘Por una Costa del Sol segura – For a safe Costa del Sol’.

Police are looking for the owners of an electrical appliance shop in Baza, Granada, who are thought to have defrauded more than 600,000 € from more than 50 clients by asking for loans in the clients’ names from a bank using the clients DNI identity cards. They had told the clients that they had to carry out a solvency check before granting credit.Police say they have not ruled out the fraud being even bigger.
The owners of the Electro Baza shop, a man and a woman closed the shop several days ago and have not been seen since

Autopsy carried out on the body of José Antonio Caro Buendía, the 17 year old from Alfaz del Pi who died last year after being dragged beneath a car for 2 kms, shows that he died from the injuries received while being dragged along the road.
The doctors who examined the teenager’s body told the Alicante provincial court on Thursday that the youngster suffered damage to his femoral artery and went into shock from the extreme loss of blood. The experts ruled out that his injuries were sustained when he collided with a first vehicle, before being hit by the car occupied by the British couple who are on trial for his death.They noted injuries to his legs typical, they said, of being dragged.Further evidence was heard from an emergency doctor who attended the scene where the teenager was found dying, who said he was found face up, while the injuries found on his body were evidence that he had been dragged along face down. It would have been impossible, the doctor said, for José Antonio, to have been capable of moving, leading him to believe the teenager was turned over by another person. He added that medical services found a trail of the youngster’s blood along the length of the 2 kms, and pieces of soft tissue some 30 cms from where he was found. The victim would not, he said, have been able to reach the site where he was found by himself.The private prosecution from the victim’s family is requesting a 15 year sentence for the British man who was driving the vehicle, 57 year old David Walter Cook, and 10 years for his wife, 47 year old Angela Maureen Green. The public prosecutor is maintaining its original application for 13 years for Mr Cook, but has now, EFE reports, reduced the sentence requested for Angela Green down to 18 months in prison.The defence argued police failed to present independent evidence, in addition to testimony from their own officers, to prove the accuseds’ part in the youngster’s death.It’s understood that both defence and prosecution have presented their cases, and it’s now up to the court to give its decision on the verdict and sentencing.