Spanish national police detained a police officer and 37 other people having ties to a drug trafficking and illegal immigration network, authorities said Wednesday. The involved police sub-inspector and his wife used to sell drugs and launder money in discotheques owned by themselves, according to the General Directorate of the Police and Civil Guard. Nineteen ground staff members at Barajas airport and a worker of one low-cost airline were arrested on suspicion of transporting suitcases and packages full of drugs from Venezuela and Colombia. Nine undocumented immigrants were also arrested. All those arrested except for the police officer are of Colombian origin, authorities said. Information indicating possible illegal activities involving the police officer reached the authorities at the end of October 2007. Investigations were carried out confirming the existence of an organized group dedicated to drug trafficking, money laundering, falsification and clandestine immigration through a marriage of convenience

Teams of officers, working with Spanish police and insurance investigators, travelled to Benidorm to search two large sites last week. Of the 120 caravans they inspected, 30 were found to have been stolen from the north of England, police said.
Arrangements are now being made to return the vehicles to England while inquiries continue. A spokesman for the stolen vehicle squad said: "The recovery of the holiday homes in Benidorm is part of an ongoing investigation into caravan thefts.
"We are continuing to make enquiries both here and in Spain to find out who is responsible for the thefts and bring them to justice. "The occupiers of the caravans which we have recovered in Spain are often innocent parties in all this and it is unfortunate for them that they have bought what has turned out to be a stolen caravan." Officers have urged potential buyers to conduct HPI checks before purchasing caravans or mobile homes and avoid cash transactions.
Police are set to return to Benidorm later in the year as part of the ongoing investigation.

A British national, wanted in Spain for trafficking in more than 200kg of cocaine and against whom an Interpol warrant has been issued, was arrested by the Dubai PoliceRobert Dawes, believed to have masterminded trafficking of huge quantities of drugs in several countries, including the UK and Spain, was arrested when he arrived at the Dubai International Airport.A police source told Khaleej Times, "We arrested Robert Dawes 10 days ago in coordination with the British and Spanish authorities. He is believed to be involved in trafficking of 200kg of cocaine and is wanted by Interpol and Spanish authorities."The source added since he was wanted by international authorities, Dawes had been blacklisted and was arrested when he flew into Dubai International Airport. He would soon be handed over to Spanish authorities after the completion of due legal procedures.
Dawes is living in Marbella in Spain and is believed to have business interests in Dubai. British mission in the emirate also confirmed his arrest.

In a dramatic swoop, Scott Macaree, 34, of Sunset Drive, Havering-atte-Bower, was arrested in front of his children as he collected them from their new Spanish school.
Drug dealer who fled the country after being caught running a drugs factory from his kitchen was jailed for 20 months, but could be free in six.
Ten months before he had been caught with £1,750-worth of the class-A drug, weighing scales, and lottery tickets to wrap the deals, Snaresbrook Crown Court heard.
Acting on intelligence, police raided the home he then shared with his wife and children in Ilford, in March last year but found no one home.
Macaree quietly returned two days later to collect his things and make a dash for the sunshine with his family.But he was caught in January in Spain and brought back to England, where he admitted possessing 29.2g of cocaine, on March 9 last year, with intent to supply.On Friday, he was jailed for 20 months. He sighed with relief and grinned broadly as he was told he would serve half his sentence, less four months he has spent in custody on remand.

Russian man was arrested at the El Altet airport in Alicante on Sunday after customs officers detected a strange bulge in the man’s trousers.On investigation they found 971 grams of cocaine had been taped to the man’s legs below the knees.The man, named with the intials A.Z. will appear in court locally shortly

A total of 21 arrests of Spaniards, Colombians, Peruvians and Romanians have been made on the Canaries, in Madrid and in Barcelona.joint operation between the National Police, Guardia Civil and the Agencia Tributaria, has completely broken up an International group of drug runners which had introduced large amounts of cocaine into Spain.568 kilos of cocaine, with a street value of more than 30 million €, has been recovered in Las Palmas with 850,000 € in cash, with the group believed to have been expert in laundering the money from their dealing. A series of luxury cars were impounded including Ferrari, Maserati, Lambourghini and Hummer.Investigators think the group were especially active in bringing the drug from Latin America in general, and Venezuela in particular, into Spain and Africa by sea and air.

Audrey Fitzpatrick (40) and her partner Dave Mahon met with former BBC reporter Clarence Mitchell at the Westbury Hotel to seek new ways of raising awareness about the search for Amy.Clarence Mitchell works full-time as spokesman for Kate and Gerry McCann whose little daughter Madeleine was abducted from their holiday apartment in Spain.Dubliner Amy Fitzpatrick disappeared in Spain on the night of January 1 last while walking to her home in Calahonda from a friend's house on the Costa del Sol.
"We had a very encouraging meeting with Clarence. He flew into Dublin just to meet us and flew back to England a few hours later," Audrey told the Herald today.
"When Clarence appeared on the Late Late Show a while ago, a lot of people were telling him about Amy so he left his number for us to contact him," said Audrey.
"He offered to come over to meet us. It was very good meeting him. He has offered us real help in getting Amy into the British media," she said."He was confident he will be able to get Amy's story on the BBC and on Sky and on GMTV too," she said.
"He is doing this just because he wants to help find Amy. We're very grateful to him. We have been trying for a long time to get the British media interested in the search for Amy," she added.Audrey and her family have been anxious to alert the 200,000 British people living on the Costa del Sol about Amy's disappearance. The British ex-pats mainly use British television channels and British newspapers.
Audrey and her partner are in Dublin for a few days before they return to their home in Spain.

Francis Smith had denied conspiring with van driver Roy Selby and others to distribute the 1.2 tonnes of cannabis in February 2006 near Rugby.Selby, now 43, from Stockton, was jailed for two-and-a-half years in August that year after he admitted possessing the cannabis with intent to supply it.It was alleged that evidence was found linking Smith (56) who lives in Alhaurin, Malaga, on Spain's Costa del Sol, to the packages of cannabis seized from Selby's van.
His case had been adjourned for trial after he entered his not guilty plea at a hearing at Warwick Crown Court in May.On that occasion prosecutor Adrian Keeling said: "This case relates to the stopping of a vehicle back in 2006 when 1.2 tonnes of cannabis worth £2.6 million was found."He said it was alleged that wrappings around the cannabis revealed Smith's fingerprints, but a report had to be prepared on exactly where the prints were, and on which layer of wrapping – which he commented 'could help one side or the other' in the trial.But at a resumed hearing Mr Keeling told the court that the prosecution was offering no evidence against Smith.He explained that when Selby's van was stopped for a routine check and shocked police officers discovered the consignment of cannabis in the back, Smith was living outside the jurisdiction of the courts.He was arrested earlier this year when he returned to the UK to attend Cheltenham races."The evidence against him rested in no small part on three of his fingerprints on the packaging which wrapped the cannabis in the back of the van."The packaging was to be further examined to establish on what part of the packaging the fingerprints fell, and the alignment of them on the packaging."But when that was put in train the unfortunate discovery was made that all the exhibits had been destroyed."When the case against Selby was completed, two entries were made on the police system – one that the matter was still outstanding against another potential defendant (Smith) and another saying it was a closed case."Of those, it is unfortunate but perhaps inevitable that the one saying the exhibits could be destroyed was the one which was followed; the cannabis, the wrapping, everything has been destroyed."So we have come to the reluctant view that there could not be a fair trial of this defendant. The only course open is to offer no evidence against this man."
So Judge Trevor Faber formally entered a not guilty verdict on Smith, who had been in custody since his arrest.

Scotish detectives believes there may be between 50 and 100 criminal gangs this remains an estimate until the final figures are compiled.One area of concern is the attempts by organised criminals to buy up foreign property and use retired "advisers" to try to hide their assets."We know for a fact that there are a number of people using consultants abroad," he said. "Dubai is a growing area and we see a lot of traffic between Dubai and Scotland from the individuals we are interested in. There is a lot of money being pumped into Dubai and an incredible amount of property development. That is making it attractive to organised crime.
"Historically, the links were with Holland, Belgium and the Costas in Spain and we retain an active interest in these areas."There is increasing moves from organised criminals to buy assets all over the world because of some misguided view that buying assets in other countries gives them some immunity from the Proceeds of Crime Act (Poca) but that is not the case."The director-general said he also wants to introduce a more visible means of showing the public what happens to the assets of those involved in organised crime."I would like us to be more public in terms of the seizure of assets," he said. "I would be delighted to put a big sticker across the front of the car or house seized saying this was seized under Poca.
"If you're living in the community you just want someone to give you some relief and we want to give them the comfort of seeing whose assets have been seized.
"It helps people to get the message. There is a perception of organised crime as something with mystique that is somehow removed from the real life like the Sopranos but that is not the case."There is no disconnection between drug deaths and organised crime. The organised criminals brought those drugs into the country in the first place. That is not glamorous."

The Malaga College of Doctors has asked the Prosecutors Office to investigate the case of a man who is working as a plastic surgeon in Marbella despite having no qualifications as a doctor.
They say he has a ‘high volume’ of clients, comes from another European country, and somehow managed to get a qualification recognised before a notary here.
President of the Málaga college, Juan José Sánchez Luque, said that he did not want to give any more personal details of the man concerned or how long he had been in practice, as investigations were continuing.
It seems the case came to light some three months ago on information provided by a patient.

A 20 year old local man, named with the initials, M.O.C.W. has been arrested in Marbella in connection with the theft of items from several vehicles in the town.
The thefts generally took place in car parks and the man used an electronic device which was capable of catching the frequencies used by remote opening keys. The police noted a spate of thefts at the start of the year, all carried out without any damage to the cars, and finally managed to catch the thief in the act

British man has been arrested after hitting five pedestrians with his car and then driving off.La Opinion de Málaga reports that the man was finally arrested on Sunday after allegedly hitting two women, a two year old baby boy and two babies aged five and thirteen months, as they were all crossing a zebra crossing at the junction of Avenida de los Reales and Avenida Andalucía. It happened at 1030am on Sunday morning with the driver accused of not respecting a red light.One of the two babies was trapped in its pram by the impact, and none of the adults hit are reported to be seriously hurt, but the five month old baby and two year old boy continue in the Costa del Sol Hospital in Marbella with diverse injuries. The two adults and the other baby were allowed home on Sunday.After the accident several witnesses made off in pursuit of the driver who was finally detained.A British man has been arrested in connection with a road traffic accident in Estepona that occurred during the early hours of yesterday morning, and which left five people injured, including two babies. Eye-witnesses described how, after jumping a red light on the Avenida de Los Reales, the driver ploughed into two women, a two year old boy and two babies (aged 13 and 5 months). The two women and the elder baby were released yesterday though the younger baby and the two year old boy, who suffered a variety of cuts and bruises, are still being kept under observation at the Costa del Sol Hospital in Málaga. The British man was arrested when he called in to the police station to recover the vehicle - which was found abandoned near the accident scene and impounded - and after he eventually owned up to having been behind the wheel.
The accused man, named only with the initials D.A.J. will appear in court shortly.

Italian man with alleged links to the Calabrian Mafia, the ‘Ndrangheta, was arrested in Spain on Thursday carrying four kilogrammes of cocaine worth an estimated 600,000 euros. Citing police sources, Spanish media reports said the man, identified only as Giuseppe F. was arrested by police in the city of Collado-Villalba, northwest of the capital, Madrid.During the arrest, authorities seized two cars and 35,000 euros in cash, hidden inside one of the vehicles.Police said the cocaine was being transported to Italy and it could have been broken down for 40,000 individual “fixes”.Spanish police said the man belonged to a family from the southern Italian region of Calabria, with direct links to ‘Ndrangheta.His partner, Gloria E.C.A. , a 47-year-old Colombian woman allegedly served as an intermediary and was in charge of making contacts in Colombia to bring the drugs to Spain.Both were caught with the cocaine, hidden in a plastic bag inside a car they were driving.
Giuseppe F. reportedly transported the drugs to Italy, using different vehicles with hidden compartments to hide the cocaine packages.
Italy’s four main criminal organisations are the Sicilian Mafia, the Camorra in Naples and the surrounding Campania region, the ‘Ndrangheta in the southern region of Calabria, and the Sacra Corona Unita in the southern Puglia region.

Twenty Russian citizens arrested in Spain today are accused of leading the Tambovskaya-Malyshevskaya Russian mafia gang, and face charges ranging from ordering assassinations, and drugs, arms and influence trafficking.
The arrests were made at a number of addresses in Mallorca, Málaga, Alicante and Madrid as part of a nationwide operation ordered by High Court investigating judge, Baltasar Garzón, involving around 400 National Police and Guardia Civil officers.
Among the detained is the alleged boss of the mafia operation, 'Petrov', who was arrested at a luxury mansion in Calviá on Mallorca.
He and the rest of the gang are accused of using Spain to launder millions of euros annually obtained from criminal activities elsewhere before chanelling it to secret bank accounts in Panama and Switzerland. Police forces from Germany, Switzerland and the USA have been collaborating in the investigation that led to today's arrests, which started back in 2006.

El Mundo reports that the police operation remains open and that at least 39 searches have been carried out across 21 provinces of Spain. Arrests and searches have been seen in Alicante, Barcelona, Cádiz, Girona, Guipúzcoa, Murcia, Vizcaya, Sevilla, Granada, Huesca, Las Palmas, Logroño, Madrid, Málaga, Pontevedra, Tenerife, Valencia Valladolid and Zaragoza.
14 people have been arrested by the Guardia Civil from Córdoba in a new national operation against child pornography in Spain. A computer teacher and a television cameraman are among those arrested, and the Guardia Civil say that on the computers seized from the 14 people arrested and 20 more thought to be implicated in the case, more than a million images have been recovered.The operation started last February when a person from Baena ran across paedophile videos featuring a four year old when using a file-sharing program.

Provincial Court in Málaga has granted 18,000 € bail to the driver, Jesús G.R., of the four wheel drive vehicle which was in collision with a coach on the A7 motorway in Benalmádena in April which saw the death of nine Finnish tourists.
The court considered that the time the man has already served in prison on remand, and the amount of the bail demanded would reduce any risk of flight.He faces charges of dangerous driving, driving under the effects of alcohol, nine counts of serious negligence leading to death, and 41 counts of serious negligence leading to injury.

26 year old Panamanian woman was arrested at Barajas airport after customs officers discovered 4,900g cocaine concealed inside three rum bottles. The woman, who has been identified as Wendysnana QV, arrived on a flight from Panama. Earlier this week, a 21 year old Dutch man, was arrested after he was found to be concealing nearly a kilo of cocaine hidden in his digestive tract. The suspect, who arrived on a flight from Santo Domingo, was taken to hospital to have the drugs removed.

57 year old British man has been arrested accused of sexually abusing his 14 year old daughter. The suspect was detained at 4am yesterday morning at an address on the Los Altos residential estate in Orihuela Costa (Alicante) shortly after a complaint made by the girl's mother.

The United States accuses Monzer al-Kassar, 62, a long-time Spanish resident known as the "Prince of Marbella" for his extravagant lifestyle, of planning to sell arms to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to protect a cocaine-trafficking business and to attack U.S. interests.Kassar appeared in U.S. District Court in Manhattan and pleaded not guilty to charges including conspiring to kill American nationals and officers, conspiring to acquire anti-aircraft missiles and providing support to a terrorist organization.

Spanish government extradited a suspected Syrian arms dealer to the United States on Friday to answer charges of planning to supply weapons to Colombian rebels.
The Spanish government agreed to hand over Kassar after it received assurances from U.S. authorities he would face neither the death penalty nor a life sentence with no chance of parole.The U.S. Embassy in Madrid said Kassar has been selling weapons since the 1970s to the Palestinian Liberation Front and clients in Nicaragua, Bosnia, Croatia, Iran, Iraq and Somalia.A year ago, U.S. officials announced that Kassar had been arrested at Madrid airport in Spain and unsealed his indictment. It said he knew the FARC kidnapped U.S. citizens to dissuade American efforts to disrupt the cocaine trade.The U.S. government has designated the FARC as a foreign terrorist organization. The rebels have been fighting for socialist revolution since 1964 and have at times run large swathes of Colombia.At the time of his arrest, prosecutors said Kassar had met with two confidential sources working with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration at his home in Marbella and discussed the sale of weapons, including assault and sniper rifles and rocket propelled grenade launchers, to the FARC.Prosecutors say Kassar told the sources the weapons would cost between 6 million and 8 million euros ($8 million to $10.6 million) and offered to send 1,000 men to fight with the FARC against U.S. military officers.Kassar later met again with the sources at his home and agreed to provide prices for "surface-to-air missile systems for the FARC to use to attack United States helicopters in Colombia," prosecutors said.Two other men charged in the same case, Tareq Mousa al Ghazi, 61, of Lebanon and Luis Felipe Moreno Godoy, 59, of Marbella, Spain, pleaded innocent last October to terrorism charges in the same case.They were arrested in Bucharest, Romania and are in U.S. custody awaiting a trial due to begin Aug. 4.

Spanish police launched a nationwide operation Friday against a Russian mafia gang and detained 20 suspects, according to police sources.The "Operation Troika," ordered by Judge Baltasar Garzon, took place on Baleares Islands, Andalucia, Valencian Community and Madrid.The police found more than 500 bank accounts and hundreds of bogus companies which are supposedly used by mafia members to launder money in countries such as Switzerland and Panama.The detainees are accused of murdering, weapon and drug trafficking, extortion and other crimes, police said.
The gang, which is called Tambovskaya-Malyshevkaya, is considered one of the major Russian mafia groups.