Karim Pascal Reguig, also known as Karim el Grande, Pascal ‘le Turbulant’ or ‘The Turbulent’

Karim Pascal Reguig, also known as Karim el Grande, Pascal ‘le Turbulant’ or ‘The Turbulent’, is well-known to the police as a key French-Algerian organised crime member based on the Costa del Sol. He has allegedly been involved in a war between French-Algerian crime organizations that over the past 12 years has claimed the life of 20 people on both sides.A few months ago he almost died after someone threw a broken bottle at him, causing a deep gash in his neck during a massive brawl which broke out in a Marbella nightclub. Eleven years ago he dodged death after he was delayed leaving an Estepona sauna where two hitmen where waiting outside to kill him.
The short-tempered 44-year-old has a criminal record in France dating back to 1994 for being the alleged leader behind an armed robbery in Paris. In 1999 he was arrested for assaulting an officer, document forgery and drug trafficking. In 2003 he was again arrested in Italy in the New Palma police operation that effectively dismantled a drug trafficking network and resulted in the seizure of 100 kilograms of cocaine. However, he managed to walk free due to a legal technicality. The authorities confirm that they have known since January this year that the alleged criminal had returned to the Costa del Sol where he was linked to money laundering and the control of various late night venues in Marbella.The dispute between French crime organizations on the Costa del Sol dates back to October 5, 1996 in Marbella when an alleged mafia don, Jean Pierre Grangeon and his wife Catherine Isabelle Castagna were riddled with up to 40 AK-47 bullets by three masked gunmen dressed in black at the Las Lomas villa.During the three weeks following the double murder, the police arrested several people and searched a number of homes. One of these was the home of Nordine Benali, ‘The Flea’, a French-Algerian that had hid one of the bullet casings used in the murder. ‘The Flea’ managed to escape capture.On October 5, 1997, on the first anniversary of Grangeon and his wife’s murder, Kamel Berkani, Sumo and his friend Benallel Belkacem were critically injured in an ambush as they left the Cesar Palace located at El Paraiso Urbanization in Estepona. At the time, his friend Reguig was inside the sauna. Police think that this was what saved his life. The hit was believed to be a revenge attack for the double murder a year earlier. After the shooting, Reguig left Spain to spend time in Italy and France.On December 17, 1999 the 39-year-old Algerian, Djamel Benali, was gunned down in Fuengirola. The hit men called him on the intercom at his Avenida Romeria del Rocio apartment. When he went down one of the two men emptied the magazine of a pistol on Benali, killing him. Benali was the brother of Nordine Benali, ‘The Flea’.The Flea was killed on October 5, 2001, coinciding with the fifth anniversary of the Grangeon murders. He was shot as he walked down Calle Tortola accompanied by two family members in Los Pajaritos neighbourhood of Sevilla. Two men got out of a car, shot him and sped off. The 47-year-old victim sustained three bullet wounds that killed him. The authorities put the incident down to a simple revenge attack between criminals. He had been extradited to France the year before where at the time of his death; he was awaiting a trial for murder.The Grangeon murders triggered a tit-for-tat killing spree between French-Algerian gangs based in Spain that has so far claimed 20 lives in Spain and France. These French-Algerian mafia organizations are linked to large scale drug trade and high class prostitution on the Costa del Sol.