Spanish site crashes as lawmakers reveal worth

 

In a country with 21 percent unemployment, learning the net worth of lawmakers plugging austerity right and left is turning out to be irresistible. Spanish parliament released such numbers for the first time and its website immediately crashed. Hours later access was still spotty. Highlights of Thursday's revelations: Mariano Rajoy, the conservative likely to be the next prime minister, reports having nearly euro600,000 ($843,000) in bank accounts and shares, plus properties in Madrid, the Canary Islands and his native Galicia. His Socialist opponent Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba reports having about euro1 million ($1.4 million), a Madrid apartment, a parking place and no debts. This transparency stems from a reform approved July 10.

British man shot in Arona hold-up

 

British man, aged 58, was injured in an armed hold-up of a currency exchange shop in Arona, on the south of Tenerife, on Tuesday morning. It happened on the Paseo de Las Tosqueras in Playa de Las Américas, shortly before 9am. The injured man is named as Dennis in reports, and it’s understood that he works in the store and was shot in the right arm by the gunman. He is now under hospital treatment with an entry and exit wound in his arm from a 22 calibre weapon.

British couple arrested for holiday rentals scam on the Costa Blanca

 

British couple resident in Mojácar have been arrested by the Civil Guard for an alleged holiday rentals scam which is believed to have brought them profits of more than 150,000 €. Europa Press reports that the pair advertised properties available for short term let on the Costa Blanca which were not in fact available for rent but were occupied by their legitimate owners. The couple, who are named as John Anthony T., aged 41, and 37 year old Amanda Jane T., advertised online on several sites with photographs and descriptions of each of the properties. Their victims, which the Civil Guard said could number more than 60 in the UK, Portugal, France, Italy and Belgium, made the bookings online and were then contacted by email by the property management company. There was however no further contact once the deposit and then the remainder of the cost had been transferred into the couple’s account. Some of those affected then travelled out to the property they had rented in good faith, only to find them occupied by their owners. The Civil Guard investigation began in February after an official complaint was presented by a French woman to officers at the barracks in Pilar de la Horadada. It was followed by other denuncias from other foreign nationals with similar stories

Irishman stabbed on Ibiza

 

19 year old was attacked by two men, thought to be British, in what is thought to be a drug-related attackArchive Photo EFE A 19 year old Irish man, named as Jack McCarthy, was stabbed four times in the back and once below one of his eyes in an attack on Monday in Sant Antoni, Ibiza. It happened at 4pm in Calle Barcelona, and it’s thought that the man was ambushed by two others, thought to be British. One of the stab wounds perforated a lung, and the victim is now being treated in the Can Misses Hospital. The latest hospital statement says that he is making progress and is stable although serious. Tuesday morning the youngster wanted to discharge himself, but the doctors advised the duty Guardia and they have kept him under treatment. The Sant Antoni local police say that they found small quantities of drugs in the victim’s home, and materials indicating that he was dealing, and they presume the aggression was therefore drug-related.

Doctor serves six months in prison because of his grandmother's mothballs

 

mistaken positive in a drugs test carried out at Barajas Airport in Madrid has resulted in a Panamanian doctor, Juan Rodríguez Lizondro, to be imprisoned in Madrid for six months. The customs authorities and Guardia Civil declared that his 19 kilos of clothes had been impregnated with cocaine, while the doctor claimed they had detected his grandmother’s camphor. The reported conversation at the time was.... ‘It smells strange – what’s it got?’ ‘I don’t know. I live with my grandmother. She irons my clothes with starch, and then puts it in drawers with balls of camphor ro repel the moths – maybe it’s that’. ‘Let’s see’, said the Guardia Civil, who then sprayed the clothes with an aerosol which produced a distinctive blue colour, indicating as far as they were concerned that it was cocaine. The 34 year old doctor, who is a Seventh Day Adventist, had come to Madrid because of a three month scholarship he had won with the Carlos III Health Institute. He did not drink or smoke, much less take drugs. Despite that the prosecutor called for him to be charged with drug trafficking and the judge, who considered the aerosol test could not be wrong on 108 different items of clothing. A second test on the clothing at the Spanish Medicaments Agency took six months to come up with the correct result showing that there were no drugs. ‘I came to Spain with all my dreams and a grand project, and everything turned into the worst nightmare’.

Dave Courtney believes the killer of his murdered stepson attended his funeral.

After burying gunned-down Genson, 23, at a huge funeral in south-east London, the notorious underworld leader of 'The Firm' mob said he could not sleep in the knowledge that the killer remains at large.

Clad in white, the 53-year-old was surrounded by minders from the Outlaw gang as he paid his last respects with his devastated wife and mother of Genson, Jenny.

Mourning: Dave Courtney with Genson's mother Jenny at the funeral of the gunned-down cage fighter

Murdered: Genson Courtney, 23, was shot dead while he waited in his car outside of his girlfriend's home in Greenwich

Genson, nicknamed 'G-Man', was ambushed as he got into his VW Golf outside his girlfriend's home in Greenwich, south-east London in July.

The victim, whose stepfather has written books about gangland violence, was blasted by a lone gunman in the head and shoulder before his assailant fled on foot.

Police suspect a major drugs baron owed thousands of pounds by Genson ordered his execution just before 11pm on Sunday.

There is also a theory he could have been lured to the area after being caught up in an ongoing feud between gangs.

But the Daily Star on Sunday newspaper says some sources from Genson's gang claimed to them that the shooting had been ordered by the young man's own stepfather.

They claim Mr Courtney, from Plumstead, South London, had a grudge against his stepson after he was beaten by him in a fight following a family row.

But the former debt collector, who claims to have been shot, stabbed and had his nose bitten off, rubbished the accusations.

'this has nothing to do with me and I honestly don't think ,y past has had any influences on my kid.

'Whether I'm gonna get chastised for this or not, I was aware what he was and I just tried to make him do that as much as possible. I could not have stopped this and I definitely didn't make it happen.'

 

More...

• Two women stabbed to death and third in hospital with knife wounds to the neck after horrific incident in sleepy town

 

The Daily Star on Sunday said the gangster paid £2,500 for the coffin's plot in the send-off, which cost £4,00 and was held in Eltham.

Killer on the loose: 'Dodgy' Dave Courtney, with wife Jenny, says he cannot sleep knowing that the person responsible for Genson's death is still out there

 

Send-off: Hundreds turned out to pay their respects to the 23-year-old, whose execution police suspect was ordered by a drug baron

Courtney, who was jailed in the Eighties for attacking five men with a meat cleaver, also boasts that he has been involved in assault and murder.

He often focuses on his links with Reggie Kray and the infamous criminal Lenny McLean and is said to be a central figure in a loose collection of villains who refer to themselves as The Firm.

He refers to himself as Dave Courtney OBE – 'One Big Ego' - and has a painted depiction of himself as a knight on his house.

Nine Britons and three Irishmen are being held in Ibiza as part of a major police swoop against drug traffickers on the party island.

Huge batches of the type of ecstasy pill linked to the death of 20-year-old Briton Jodie Nieman were among substances seized in a string of raids.

Spanish officers were targeting a gang suspected of travelling from the UK to Ibiza in a bid to profit from the island's population of clubbers.

More than 69,000 euros, 4kg of cocaine, 3,600 ecstasy pills, 5kg of crystal MDMA and drug-making equipment were seized at properties in the resorts of Sant Josep de sa Talaia and five in San Antonio de Portmany.

Most of the pills found are known as Pink Rock Star, similar to those linked to the poisonings of several clubbers, Spanish police said.

Suspects from Liverpool, Manchester, Plymouth and Croydon, south London, were arrested with the three Irishmen.

The Serious Organised Crime Agency worked alongside the Spanish Guardia Civil to execute the arrests on Friday.

A total of 13 suspects, including one Pole, were arrested as eight properties were raided.

A Spanish police spokesman said: "The detainees are members of one of the most active gangs on the island which is the main supplier of cocaine and other designer drugs around the clubs and bars.

"Inquiries were carried out on the basis of intelligence obtained by the Guardia Civil after other gangs involved in drugs trafficking on the island were dismantled.

"The majority of these gangs were British and took advantage of the influx of young people during the summer.

"Inquiries found that the gang, which is now dismantled, only travelled to Ibiza in summer as to meet the large demand for drugs on the island during this period."

Ms Nieman, from Croydon, had been clubbing at the Space nightclub in the Playa d'en Bossa and was taken to the Can Misses hospital after suffering a heart attack in July

Libyan assets held in Spain to be released to the National Transition Council

The Spanish Prime Minister, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, has agreed to released 16 million € worth of Libyan assets ‘on account’ which will be taken away from the final total amount that the Spanish Government will return to the National Transition Council once the United Nations authorises the un-freezing of the assets held under Spanish jurisdiction.

In addition Spain is sending 18 tons of medicines to support the urgent humanitarian needs of the country.

Once the United Nations gives authorisation Spain will be able to release the estate which Gadaffi has in Málaga. It has an estimated value of 45 million € and is property of the Libyan state.

The 7,200 hectares is in the name of the Libyan Foreign Bank, and crosses five municipalities in Málaga province, Benahavis, Estepona, Igaleja, Júzcar and Pujerra. Most of the estate, an estimated 3,500 hectares in is Benahavis.

In 2007 a representative of the Libyan Foreign Bank which had by then owned the land known as ‘La Resiner’ for 20 years, asked for permission to build. Although development had never been promoted there is a partial plan for the construction of a hotel, a golf course and a total of 1,915 homes on the 480 hectares classified for building in Benahavis, but finally the local Town Hall denied the application.

 

Spanish police say they have broken up the largest gang of British drugs traffickers on Ibiza

Spanish police say they have broken up the largest gang of British drugs traffickers on Ibiza, involved in supply to the island during the summer.

Some 3,600 ecstasy pills were seized which officers say appear to be the type linked to the death of a British woman on Ibiza in July.

Thirteen people were arrested including 10 from the UK and two from the Republic of Ireland.

Also found were 69,000 euros (£60,000), cocaine and ecstasy crystals.

The UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) was also involved in the investigation.

A Soca spokesman said: "Those arrested are suspected members of an organised crime gang responsible for a significant amount of drugs being sold on the island."

Pill brand
Police said the trafficking group were supplied from the UK and went to Ibiza specifically for the summer season to supply the huge demand for drugs, a pattern which happened every year.

The Spanish Guardia Civil's central operational unit searched eight properties, three in Sant Josep de sa Talaia and five in San Antonio de Portmany.

The operation led to drugs and equipment, such as precision scales, being seized.

Police said the majority of the pills found were branded as Pink Rock Star, similar to those believed to have caused the death of a young British woman and the poisoning of eight other people in Ibiza in July.

Officers in Spain have said the death of Jodie Nieman, 20, from Croydon, south London, was "almost certainly" caused by drugs.

Miss Nieman suffered a heart attack after a night out at the Space club in the Playa d'en Bossa resort in the south-east of the island.

'Large demand'
A spokesman for the Guardia Civil said: "The detainees are members of one of the most active gangs on the island which is the main supplier of cocaine and other designer drugs around the clubs and bars.

"Inquiries were carried out on the basis of intelligence obtained by the Guardia Civil after other gangs involved in drugs trafficking on the island were dismantled. The majority of these gangs were British and took advantage of the influx of young people during the summer.

"Inquiries found that the gang, which is now dismantled, only travelled to Ibiza in summer as to meet the large demand for drugs on the island during this period."

Those from the UK who were arrested, all men, were from places including Plymouth, Croydon, Liverpool, Manchester and Antrim. The other person arrested was Polish.

In a simultaneous raid, 60 suspected drugs traffickers, most of them Italian and thought to be linked to the Camorra crime organisation, were arrested. Some 19,500 ecstasy pills and other drugs were seized as well as 21,000 euros (£18,500) in cash

Woman betrays mafia fugitive boyfriend by uploading holiday photos on Facebook

Italian and Spanish police swooped on Salvatore D'Avino, one of Italy's most wanted fugitives, as he was filling his car with petrol in a town on the Costa del Sol.
D'Avino, 39, alleged to be a member of the Naples-based Camorra mafia, had been on the run for four years.
Italian police said he had been living under an assumed identity in Morocco.
A few days ago he travelled to Spain by boat with his Moroccan girlfriend, who is pregnant.
The young woman, who has not been named, wanted to show off photographs from their holiday and uploaded a number of pictures to her Facebook page.

But the images enabled Italian police to pin-point the whereabouts of D'Avino, who was on a list of Italy's 100 most wanted alleged mafia gangsters, and they arrested him on Tuesday near Marbella.
D'Avino is alleged to be a member of one of the drug-dealing clans that make up the Camorra, the Neapolitan cousin of Sicily's better known Cosa Nostra.
He was wanted on charges of drug trafficking and mafia association and if convicted faces up to 20 years in prison.
Facebook proved to be the undoing of another alleged mafia mobster last year, when police located him by tracking the internet key he used to log onto the internet.
Pasquale Manfredi, 33, who called himself "Scarface" in tribute to the gangster film starring Al Pacino, was wanted for killing a rival godfather with a shoulder-fired rocket launcher in 2004.

 

SUSPECTED member of a terror group linked to Al-Qaeda has been detained by Spanish police in La Linea.

Abdellatif Aoulad Chiba, from Morocco, was arrested after it emerged he had been attempting to recruit members to carry out a terrorist attack involving the contamination of water supplies, according to the Spanish Interior Ministry.
The accused was operating a radical website which was used to spread propaganda and encouraged people to convert to Islam.
The Ministry alleges the website also provided training and guidance for new recruits, encouraged terrorist activity and provided links to media produced by Islamic terror groups.
Chiba is understood to have been involved in terrorist activity in the past, which had resulted in him being expelled from Jordan.
The Royal Gibraltar Police is keeping a close eye on developments and is being kept ‘in the loop’ by the Spanish authorities.

Man who survived jimson weed poisoning at Getafe rave discharged from hospital

20 year old who was admitted to hospital after attending a rave party in Getafe at the weekend, after which two others died after taking a cocktail of drugs, was discharged from hospital on Tuesday.

20 year old Álvaro L.G. was admitted to Intensive Care and analyses have shown that he took large amounts of drugs and stramonium, or jimson weed, a hallucinogenic plant which can be highly toxic.

Sources quoted by Europa Press indicate that it was a liquid preparation. He however tested negative for speed, which his friends said he had also taken. Europa Press reports that he has told the National Police that he suspects that someone slipped something into his drink.

The bodies of the two who died were both found near a local river on Sunday.

The rave was held in an abandoned building known as the Monastery of La Aldehuela. Getafe Town Hall is now studying steps to demolish the building.

 

José Ortega Cano to undergo more surgery

It means the ex bullfighter will not be questioned on the traffic accident will seriously injured him and killed another driver until the end of September


José Ortega Cano is to undergo two more operations next month, on his colon and his left leg, and will not now be questioned by the judge who is investigating the fatal traffic accident which seriously injured the retired bullfighter until the end of September.

His lawyer gave the news on Tuesday, after lawyers acting for the family of the man who died in the smash, Carlos Parra, said they would ask the instruction judge to call Ortega Cano in for questioning as a suspect. They said they would be making the request immediately, given the improvement in his health which the ex bullfighter has spoken of in the press.

It’s understood from Diario de Sevilla that Ortega Cano will undergo the surgery on September 14 at the Virgen Macarena Hospital in the Andalucía capital. He was in Intensive Care for more than a month after the accident at the end of May and has already had several operations. He still uses a wheelchair and has daily rehabilitation at his home in Madrid.

 

Woman killed by boat propeller on the Costa Blanca

37 year old woman from Elche died on Tuesday after a boating accident in Santa Pola where she fell into the water and was caught by the boat’s propeller, sustaining a massive wound across her body from her shoulder to her hip.

Ambulance crew, Cruz Roja personnel and local police worked at the scene for more than an hour to stabilise the injured woman before she was rushed to hospital in Alicante for emergency surgery. She however died on Tuesday night.

It’s understood that there were three other adults and three children on board when the tragedy happened, just as the boat was turning out to sea, when the woman is thought to have lost her balance. Diario Información indicates that the vessel is owned by the victim’s husband.

 

Four arrested in Spain for illegally distributing copyright films on the Net

A Civil Guard operation in Valencia and Zaragoza has arrested four people for illegally distributing copyrighted films and series on the Net without permission.

Their web pages offered some 1,500 films and series which were available, for either free download or through P2P file sharing, through a subnet which users had to be invited to join. In return, the users would contribute other audiovisual material.

The group would also replace original audio on foreign films with dubbed dialogue recorded when the films were shown in Spanish cinemas.

The Civil Guard said in a press release on Wednesday that the operation followed a complaint from the FAP Federation for the Protection of Intellectual Property and the movies portal, Comunidad Filmin.

Two Frenchmen face extradition to Spain over expat stabbing death

Andrew Milroy, a 15-year-old British expat, had been living with his parents in Spain for several years when he was stabbed during an altercation outside a club in the holiday resort of Lloret del Mar last month.
Two men aged 21 wanted for his murder were arrested a week later at their homes in the north and south east of France.
Both men admitted being involved in the fight which took place as they were leaving the club, but said they didn't know the youth had died. Both returned to France the following day.
During the Lyon court hearing today, the prosecution called for the two suspects, one a mechanic, the other a builder, to be extradited to Spain.
The suspects may still have the chance to take their fight against extradition to France's highest court of appeal, even if arrest warrants are issued.

 

British tourist has died on holiday in Ibiza, officials have said.

 

Christopher Barrington, 31, reportedly drowned in a hotel pool in San Antonio, on the Spanish island on Tuesday.

The circumstances surrounding his death are not yet clear, and police in Spain are investigating.

A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said: "We can confirm the death of a British national in San Antonio, Ibiza, on Tuesday August 9.

"We are offering consular assistance to the family."

Irishman’s welfare scam biggest ever, court hears

Paul Murray (63), who had not lived in Ireland for 37 years, was recently convicted of what has been termed the single largest social welfare fraud committed in the country in the past three decades.

The Irish Times reports that he claimed some 248,000 euro using nine different aliases, offering the simple excuse that the money was “easy to access.” He was jailed for 12 years for the crimes, which have been described as “audacious and breathtaking.”

Judge Anthony Kennedy imposed a six month sentence for each of the 25 sample theft charges Murray faced, with an additional concurrent sentence of three years imposed for possession of a fake passport.

Based in Thailand but returning to Ireland every three months to file for jobseeker’s allowance, Murray also claimed disability and supplementary welfare allowances to which he was not entitled.

His seven bank accounts now hold only 11,000 euro of the money, which he used to travel the world. A further 37,000 euro inheritance was also reportedly spent while Murray was lodging false claims between 2002 and 2010.

The scam unraveled when Murray’s brother Patrick innocently applied for a passport in Australia. It then came to light that his brother Paul had already made a passport application in that name, and officials brought this to the attention of the Department of Social Protection.

Murray then returned to Cavan on October 19 of last year and was immediately arrested by Detective Garda Peter Kelly. The Times reported that Murray told Kelly: “You’ve caught me red-handed”, then showed him 50 or so supporting documents which he kept hidden in his van, many of which were falsified.

Murray had previously been jailed in the UK for similar fraud totaling £30,000.

 

Michael Cherney is wanted in Spain on charges of organised crime and money laundering and there is an outstanding Interpol arrest warrant against him.

A man accused of being one of Russia's biggest gangsters is preparing to give evidence in a £2.3 billion High Court battle against a billionaire friend of Peter Mandelson.

Michael Cherney is using the English courts to sue oligarch Oleg Deripaska, claiming he did not pay him after agreeing to buy out his "alleged" share in Russian Aluminium.

Uzbekistan-born Cherney, 59, can now pursue his claim after a judge ruled he can give evidence via video link rather than be required to appear in person because he faces being arrested if he comes to Britain.

Cherney is wanted in Spain on charges of organised crime and money laundering and there is an outstanding Interpol arrest warrant against him.

He will be allowed to give evidence from his home in Israel after Mr Justice Flaux consented to the request and set a trial for next April.

The warring parties are two of the most colourful characters to come before the normally dusty world of the commercial courts.

Deripaska, 43, famously hosted a gathering on his yacht of Nathaniel Rothschild, George Osborne, then shadow chancellor, and the then European Commission trade commissioner Peter Mandelson in Corfu in the summer of 2008.

It caused a political uproar about alleged clashes of interests and business influence.
Deripaska lives in Moscow but has a home in Belgrave Square.

In 2008 his wealth was rated by Forbes magazine at £17.4 billion - making him Russia's richest man - but this has now declined to £10.2 billion.

At a High Court hearing in 2008, Mr Justice Christopher Clarke said "a considerable amount of evidence has been put forward in relation to Cherney's alleged criminality".

He went on: "He is reputed to be a gangster in some of the public press in Russia and there is heavy evidence that this view is taken by some security personnel."

The international arrest warrant on the Spanish charges was issued in May 2009 and Mr Cherney claims he has not left Israel since that time.
The High Court accepted jurisdiction of the case because Cherney claimed he could not get a fair trial in Russia.

Mr Cherney says that at a meeting in London in March 2001 Mr Deripaska agreed to buy out his (Cherney's) alleged stake in Mr Deripaska's company, Russian Aluminium, but the money was not paid.

Mr Deripaska, who strongly rejects this claim, says he was being forced to pay protection money to Mr Cherney.

Holidaymakers and ex-pats in Spain have been asked to look out for two fugitives who escaped from a prison van in Manchester.

Kirk Bradley and Tony Downes, both 25, were travelling from HMP Manchester to Liverpool Crown Court when the van was attacked by armed men on 18 July.

They were on their way to a trial where they were facing firearms charges.

The Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) believes the Liverpool men may be attempting to travel to Spain.

Mr Downes, known as Fat Tony, from Dovecot, and Mr Bradley, of no fixed address but formerly of Huyton, are accused of conspiracy to possess firearms with intent to endanger life and conspiracy to commit criminal damage with intent to endanger life.

'Dangerous men'
They were standing trial alongside four other men but the hearing has since collapsed.

Mr Downes is known to be an associate of Kevin Parle, another fugitive on the Crimestoppers most wanted list, who is thought to be in Spain and is wanted in connection with two murders in Liverpool.

A spokesman for SOCA said: "These are dangerous men and it is very important that nobody approaches them.

"We are asking people who think they may have seen them to call Crimestoppers, either in Spain or in the UK.

"You can do this free, and completely anonymously. Our priority is getting these two back into custody as soon as possible."

The van the men were travelling in was attacked in Trinity Way, Manchester, last Monday.

The gang fled with the prisoners in a Saab, which was found abandoned about a mile away in Barrow Street, Salford.