Socialist Mayor of the village of Alcaucín in Málaga is among 13 people arrested in Spain’s latest corruption scandal.

latest corruption case in Spain has broken in the Axarquía area of Málaga province

Socialist Mayor of the village of Alcaucín in Málaga is among 13 people arrested in Spain’s latest corruption scandal.José Manuel Martín Alba, a labourer by trade, has been detained as investigations continue into the building and sale of homes on non-buildable land. Searches were carried out on Friday in the homes of the Mayor and members of his family.The PSOE Socialist party says they will expel all those indicted from the party.The 13 arrests occurred in Málaga and Huelva and also include the Mayor’s two daughters, and José Mora, chief of municipal architecture in the Dipitación de Málaga, the provincial government.Also detained are two architects and other constructors and alleged intermediaries.El Mundo says that the investigation could move to neighbouring La Viñuela, where the Socialist Mayor already faces different investigations on town planning irregularities.Many of the properties sold in the area, have been purchased by foreigners.

Read More

Special anti-drug unit set up by the Spanish tax administration agency has intercepted a vessel carrying 5 tons of cocaine in the Atlantic,

Special anti-drug unit set up by the Spanish tax administration agency has intercepted a vessel carrying 5 tons of cocaine in the Atlantic, the agency said Friday. The five Venezuelan crew of the 16-metre-long Dona Fortuna were detained in the operation, which took place some 1,500 kilometres off the Canary Islands on Thursday. The cocaine, which was believed to come from Colombia, would have been worth about 250 million euros (300 million dollars) on the black market. The traffickers were believed to have intended to take the drug to Spain's north-western region of Galicia, which would have acted as its gateway into the European market.
The operation followed the seizure of four tons of cocaine off Galicia six weeks ago.

Read More

Robert Orchard, 65,had lived on the ‘Costa Del Crime’ for 13 years but had not been tempted to join the drugs culture until he had a cancer scare.

Cynical Robert Orchard, 65, had not seen daughter Cheyrl and grandson Robert, nine, for five years when he invited her on an all-expenses-paid sunshine trip to Marbella.
He planned to drive her back to her home in Stirling aboard a new camper-van he had bought for the trip.What she didn’t know was that Orchard had stashed cannabis resin valued at more than £800,000 underneath the bunk-bed in which her
son was sleeping.The van was stopped at Dover Docks in April last year and customs officers found the drugs by drilling through to them.As a result, Cheyrl stood trial at Canterbury Crown Court in December but was acquitted because she did not know anything about the drugs haul.Today (Monday, Feb 23) at the same court Orchard admitted his guilt. Chris Geeson, his counsel, said Orchard had lived on the ‘Costa Del Crime’ for 13 years but had not been tempted to join the drugs culture until he had a cancer scare.He said: “He was losing weight alarmingly and decided to come back to England for treatment.”Previously he had been an entertainments manager and had run holiday estates.Mr Geeson said: “He was told payment for the camper-van would be waived if he took a ‘package’ to England.“After he was caught he realised he’d been involved in significant drug-smuggling.”Passing sentence, Judge Michael O’Sullivan said: “An aggravating feature is that you placed your daughter in danger of arrest. "She was accused of being involved, which placed your grandson with the real prospect he wouldn’t have the care of his mother for some considerable time.
“But for you she wouldn’t have been put through the ordeal of being on trial. "There is no doubt you played a significant part in this importation – but for your previous good character you would be facing a longer sentence.”

Read More

Monzer al-Kassar, 63, described by prosecutors as one of the world's most prolific arms dealers, was convicted in November

Monzer al-Kassar, 63, described by prosecutors as one of the world's most prolific arms dealers, was convicted in November of agreeing to sell weapons to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, to protect a cocaine-trafficking business and attack U.S. interests.U.S. prosecutors asked a judge on Monday to sentence a Syrian arms dealer convicted of conspiring to sell weapons worth $1 million to Colombian rebels to decades in prison.Kassar, a longtime resident of Spain known as the "Prince of Marbella" for his lifestyle in the glitzy seaside town, will be sentenced in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday, along with Felipe Moreno Godoy, a Chilean, 59.Kassar was extradited after Spain received assurances from U.S. authorities he would face neither the death penalty nor a life sentence without chance of parole.In a sentencing memo on Monday, prosecutors asked for Kassar to serve a prison sentence "substantially in excess" of the 25-year minimum he faces, but "less than life.""From his palatial estate along Spain's Costa del Sol, Al Kassar commanded an arms trafficking network of criminal associates and front bank accounts that spanned the globe," the memo said.In this case, the memo said, he agreed to supply 12,000 weapons to the FARC, which "he believed intended to use the arms to kill Americans."Kassar's defense lawyers, who argued during the trial he was a legitimate arms dealer, asked in separate court papers for a sentence of 25 years, the minimum he can receive."There were crimes of greed, not crimes of terrorism," said the lawyers. "All this for a crime -- really, a DEA sting operation -- in which nobody was harmed," they said, referring to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.Kassar "will likely die in prison in a foreign country ... thousands of miles from his wife and children," the lawyers said.The prosecution case was based largely on evidence gathered by two undercover operatives who posed as FARC arms buyers and videotaped negotiations in Spain with Kassar and Moreno.Both were convicted on a host of charges including arms sales, conspiracy to kill U.S. officials, conspiracy to aid a terrorist organization and money-laundering.
The U.S. embassy in Madrid said Kassar had been selling weapons since the 1970s to the Palestinian Liberation Front and clients in Nicaragua, Bosnia, Croatia, Iran, Iraq and Somalia.

Read More

Removal companies in Malaga on the Costa del Sol are saying that the number of Brits who are returning to the UK is on the increase

Removal companies in Malaga on the Costa del Sol are saying that the number of Brits who are returning to the UK is on the increase and the number who are booking them to move out here is decreasing .A trend of the credit crunch .There are many reasons for doing this and some of them involve walking away from financial committments which they cannot meet .Rents , mortgages , business taxes to name but a few .

Pensioners are more pragmatic as most do not have mortgages and their needs are less so they are prepared to weather the storm .Most have experienced some form of hardship in their lives before , this is nothing new

.
Many who are returning are doing so with heavy hearts as they have loved the life here but when the money isn’t coming in then other avenues have to be explored and at the end of the day there is no place like home .Most of those spoken to about their returns to the UK have had to think about jobs , children , benefits that they would never have in Spain that they will be able to access in the UK, education , health care , the reasons go on and on .

Read More

Urban warfare erupted on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe

Britons are among thousands of tourists fleeing Guadeloupe after full scale urban warfare erupted on the French Caribbean island.Trouble broke out on the island earlier last month after protesters began rioting over high prices and low wages.
But the situation escalated this week after protesters began turning on rich white families as they demanded an end to colonial control of the economy.The troubles come at the height of the holiday season, with thousands of mainly British, French and American tourists on the paradise tropical island.Guadeloupe descends into full-scale urban warfare after demonstrators riot over low wages and white control of the island's economyViolence has escalated on the Caribbean island as protesters turn their attention to rich white families who they blame for their poor standard of livingProtesters were now targeting 'all white people', with the media in mainland France describing the situation as virtual civil war'.Guadeloupe is a French overseas department ruled directly from Paris, and authorities in France have sent 300 extra riot police to the island in a bid to quell the violence.Meanwhile, hundreds of protesters are roaming the streets of the capital Point-a-Pitre, looting shops and restaurants, burning cars and vandalising public buildings.Holiday resorts along the coast have hired extra security to protect tourists, while the airport is jammed with visitors now trying to get out of the country.Union leader Jacques Bino was the first man to die in the violence when he was caught in crossfire on Tuesday while driving a car near a roadblock manned by armed youths who had opened fire at police.Six members of the security forces were injured during shoot-outs with the armed youths as they tried to help emergency teams who were trying to save Mr Bino's life.Dozens more police and demonstrators have also been hurt in frequent clashes on the capital's streets - which one newspaper describing it as looking like a battlefield'.Protesters ransacked shops and torched cars as the island descends into full-scale urban warfareMost shops, banks, schools and government offices are now shut in Guadeloupe and the neighbouring French tourist island of Martinique - where protests are also mounting.Guadeloupe's socialist opposition leader Malikh Boutih said: 'It is shocking to watch a police force which is almost 100 per cent white confront a population which is 100 per cent black.'All the same elements of the riots on mainland France in 2005 are present here.'We don't have the same concrete buildings, there are palm trees instead, but it's the same dead-end, the same "no future" for young people, with joblessness and a feeling of isolation.' The first protests began a month ago when the left-wing union coalition, the Collective Against Exploitation, demanded a £180 a month pay increase for low-wage earners. President Nicolas Sarkozy sent his minster for overseas departments to the island to meet with union leaders on response to the demands. But the racial tensions which have been simmering for decades exploded into full-scale rioting, with colonial descendants who own 90 per cent of the wealth becoming the focus of the violence.The unrest was further aggravated last week when wealthy white landowner Alain Huyghues-Despointes publicly criticised mixed-race marriages and said he preferred to 'preserve his race'.In Paris, the violence has provoked divisions in Mr Sarkozy's cabinet with black minister Rachida Data acknowledging that Guadeloupe suffered from 'a problem with the distribution of wealth'.Laetitia Delaprade, spokeswoman at Voyages Antillais, a Paris-based travel agency that specialises in French Caribbean, said: 'People are scared. No one wants to go there and those that are there want to get out.' Tourism Authority chief Madeleine de Grandmaison said: 'Tourism is fragile. People are not only cancelling this week, but also for all the months of February, March and April.'We have a huge deficit of tourists ahead of us. At least 10,000 tourists have cancelled vacations in Martinique and Guadeloupe.'

Read More

Around 70% of Santander’s retail clients affected by the Madoff scandal have accepted a settlement offered to them by the Spanish bank

Around 70% of Santander’s retail clients affected by the Madoff scandal have accepted a settlement offered to them by the Spanish bank, lawyers told a US court in Miami on Thursday as part of a class action lawsuit. Meanwhile

between 7% to 9% have refused the offer and prefer to continue with their legal proceedings.

Santander’s retail clients were exposed to the Madoff alleged Ponzi scheme via the Optimal Strategy US Equity fund run by Santander’s hedge fund arm Optimal. Santander’s total exposure to Madoff’s funds amounts to €2.3 billion. Despite the negotiated solution to Santander's Madoff exposure, problems have been arising elsewhere for the Spanish bank as

unit-holders of the real estate fund Santander Banif Inmobiliario are also planning to file a lawsuit for the way it has handled requested redemptions

, German newspaper Handelsblatt reports in its printed edition.

Read More

John Fitzgerald Kennedy committed multiple murders for financial gain, special circumstances that qualify him for a potential death penalty.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy sat with his hands folded on the counsel table when he learned that the six-man, six-woman jury also determined that he committed multiple murders for financial gain, special circumstances that qualify him for a potential death penalty.Reputed Long Beach street gang member showed no emotion Thursday when an Orange County jury – after less than three hours of deliberations – convicted him of two counts of first-degree murder for his role in the murders at sea of yacht owners Thomas and Jackie Hawks.Jurors will return to Superior Court Judge Frank F. Fasel's 9th floor courtroom on Monday to hear additional testimony to help them decide if Kennedy should get death, or life without the possibility of parole.Senior Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy said he will see to introduce evidence about Kennedy's prior criminal record, including a 1988 attempted gang murder. The prosecutor said he will also call to the witness stand some of Thomas and Jackie Hawks' family to show the impact that their deaths have had on others. "We're looking forward to Monday," Murphy said.Defense attorney Winston Keith McKesson said he was disappointed with the outcome of the guilt/innocence phase, especially the speed of the deliberations. "Deliberating for three hours is really not deliberating at all," McKesson said. "I don't believe they carefully considered the evidence from both sides."
Kennedy is the third defendant to be convicted in connection with the Nov. 15, 2004 murders of the Hawkses, who were forced to sign sales documents for their yacht, the Well Deserved, before they were tied to an anchor and thrown overboard somewhere near Santa Catalina Island.Murphy argued that Kennedy was hired at the last minute by mastermind Skylar Deleon to help subdue Thomas Hawks, a 57-year-old former probation officer who was a serious weight lifter.
Deleon, 29, of Long Beach, was convicted last year and is awaiting a likely death sentence on March 20.His former wife, Jennifer Henderson Deleon, 28, was convicted in 2006 and has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for her role in putting the Hawks at ease so they would agree to go on the final cruise with her husband and the menacing-looking Kennedy.Kennedy testified on his own behalf last week and claimed he was not on the yacht, had never actually been to Newport Beach, and had never met Skylar Deleon until both were charged with the murders.But Murphy countered with key witness and co-conspirator Alonso Machain, one of five people charged in the case. Machain, 25, of Pico Rivera, who is cooperating with authorities in hopes of getting leniency later, positively identified Kennedy as the bulky man who agreed to go along on the murderous mission on Nov. 15, 2004, after another gang member backed out at the last minute.Murphy also called Myron Sandora Gardner, Sr., another alleged co-conspirator hoping for leniency later, to the witness stand. Gardner, 45, of Long Beach, said he introduced Kennedy to Deleon on the day of the murders.
The Hawkses retired in 2002 to cruise the seas around California and Mexico aboard the aptly named Well Deserved, a 55-foot trawler. But they decided to sell the yacht in the fall of 2004 to return to Prescott, Ariz., so they could spend more time with a new grandchild.They were surprised when they quickly found what they believed was a serious buyer: Skylar Deleon, a young man with a pregnant wife and infant daughter who claimed he was a successful former child actor who could buy the yacht for cash.But Deleon, who only appeared in two nonspeaking roles in the television show Power Rangers, and his wife were deeply in debt and had no cash or assets to buy the Well Deserved. Instead, Murphy contended during the three trials, Deleon intended to steal the boat, killing the Hawkses in the process.Deleon needed a big guy like Kennedy, Murphy contended, after seeing Thomas Hawks for the first time and realizing that Hawks was a physically fit weightlifter who could put up a fight if cornered.Machain testified during the three trials that Kennedy and Deleon caught Thomas Hawks by surprise below deck. Kennedy, Machain said, got Hawks in a headlock and Deleon used a Taser gun to subdue him. Hawks was then placed in handcuffs.When Thomas Hawks retaliated later after he and his wife were tied to the anchor, delivering a swift back kick into Deleon's groin, Kennedy decked Hawks with a powerful punch to the face, Machain testified.Then Deleon threw the 60-pound anchor overboard, yanking Thomas and Jackie Hawks to their deaths, Machain testified.
Their bodies have never been recovered.

Read More

Banco Santander has suspended payments in its largest real estate fund

Banco Santander has suspended payments in its largest real estate fund in a decision which has left 43,200 clients with their investment frozen.The fund, Santander Banif Inmoboliario, has assets of 3.2 billion, but those who now ask for their original investment will be paid ten per cent.It comes as the bank finds the fund unable to meet recent requests for withdrawals amounting to 2.617 billion, some 80% of the total.The decision to freeze the fund is a first in Spain, although it is contemplated in law, with the bank asking the regulator CNMV for a two year frozen period. It comes despite the bank’s announcement last month of profits of more than 8 billion €.Those who have investments in the fund can find a serious of recommendations in the National Commission for Market Values website

Read More

Self-confessed killer of 17 year old Marta del Castillo from Sevilla, 20 year old Miguel Carcaño, and his friend Samuel Benítez

self-confessed killer of 17 year old Marta del Castillo from Sevilla, 20 year old Miguel Carcaño, and his friend Samuel Benítez who helped to throw the body of Marta into the Guadalquivir River, have been ordered to prison in Sevilla today without bail.
Dozens of people waited outside the courts before and after the appearance of the two youngsters, shouting ‘asesinos’ and other insults, as the emergency services spent their third day searching the river for the body of Marta.It’s now known the two used a wheelchair belonging to the late mother of the main accused, and a moped to take Marta’s body to the river from Miguel’s house in the Macarena area of the city.
The two spent some four hours giving their statements to the judge in Instruction Court 4 in Sevilla which heard how the two got rid of the body in the early hours of Sunday January 25, just a few hours after Miguel had killed Marta by hitting her with an ashtray during an argument.

There has been a fourth arrest in connection with the death of the missing Sevilla 17 year old, Marta del Castillo.The latest arrest came this morning and is understood to be Javier Carcaño, the brother of the man, Miguel Carcaño, who has confessed to the killing the girl after getting into an argument with her three weeks ago.
Javier, along with an unidentified 15 year old boy, faces charges of covering up the crime, while a friend of Miguel, Samuel, could face other charges after helping to dispose of the body.There were shouts from the public of ‘asesinos’ as Miguel and Samuel arrived in court in Sevilla today. The prosecutor has called for prison on remand for the two.For the third day the search is continuing along the length of the Guadalquivir river for Marta’s body. The two used a wheelchair belonging to the mother of the main accused, and a moped to take her body to the river from Miguel’s house in the Macarena area of the city.

Read More

Miguel Carcaño, the 20 year old who has confessed to the killing of missing 17 year old Marta del Castillo in Sevilla

Miguel Carcaño, the 20 year old who has confessed to the killing of missing 17 year old Marta del Castillo in Sevilla, has been currently going out with a 14 year old girl, Rocio. Miguel Carcaño will appear in court in Sevilla on Monday charged with the murder of 17 year old Marta del Castillo.She has told the press that although she knows that he is the killer, she cannot believe it. She said she knew that he was quite a jealous man, and when she had asked him if he had anything to do with the crime, he had simply hung his head in silence.

Read More

Amer Hady Saed British property developer had suffered a severe blow to the head and cuts as if he had been defending himself against a knife attack

The victim, named in reports as Amer Hady Saed, 68, had suffered a severe blow to the head and cuts as if he had been defending himself against a knife attack, the Spanish newspaper El Pais said. Body of a British property developer has been found at a luxury villa in southern Spain.His body was discovered by workmen renovating a £4.3 million mansion in Marbella, on the Costa del Sol, on Tuesday morning. It is understood Iraqi-born Saed held a British passport and had moved to Spain from London five years ago. He was married to a Moroccan woman, the newspaper said.details on the death of the Iraqi man whose body was found beaten to death in Marbella on Tuesday. The victim was 68 year old, Amer Hady Saed, whose body was found by some building workers in a luxury villa which is still under construction in Calle Margarita, La Carolina. A jacket had been thrown over his head and his hands were bloody, and cut as if he had been defending himself.The man, who had a British passport, had been in Marbella for some five years, but his domestic employees did not know his business activities, describing him as a quiet man. He was married to a Moroccan woman, and spent time both in Morocco and London. The Daily Telegraph reports he was a Property Developer.There are no reports of any police record, but police have established that he was in debt. The villa where his body was found is on the market for 4.8 million €.His death is the fourth violent killing on the Costa del Sol this year, after the kidnapping and death of a San Pedro builder, the shooting of an Irish drug trafficker in Benalmádena, and the discovery of a 28 year old woman found stabbed in her home in Málaga.

Read More

Hundreds of Marbella residents affected tens of millions of euros disappeared. A court in San Roque (Cádiz) investigating an alleged scam Lansbanski

Hundreds Marbellas British residents wiped out tens of millions of euros disappeared. A court in San Roque (Cádiz) is investigating an alleged scam perpetrated against foreign residents in Marbella, in an amount that could exceed 40 million euros.
In the spotlight is the Icelandic capital Lansbanski bank recently nationalized due to the international financial crisis, and its subsidiary Luxembourg Luxembourg SA Lansbanski, now in liquidation after entering into receivership. Both the mother and its subsidiary entity and the insurer Lex Life and Pension Luxembourg SA, also belonging to the same group, is shown as reported for alleged misleading advertising and fraud in a complaint filed by the office Martínez-Echevarría, Pérez y Ferrero representing 28 concerned, all foreign residents in Spain. The total number of victims, according to sources in the firm exceeds a hundred. Among those reported are also three agencies with investment activity in the Costa del Sol and dedicated to the British market, the majority nationality of the alleged victims, all pensioners and properties of high value.
According to the complaint, from 2004 players began to market investment in the UK market on the Costa del Sol a financial product from an insurance company owned by the Icelandic bank's subsidiary in Luxembourg which provided a policy of capital secured with the mortgage of their property.Laoperación consisted of mortgage housing, amounts to around half a million euros each, and the investment of that money in a financial product that allowed for a return that not only covered the interest on the capital borrowed, but also supposedly generated additional income. Guests were taken on the grounds that it was a product that is self. Zero risk and return safely. Nothing could be further from what would happen next.
In product advertising, disseminated in different ways in English on the Costa del Sol, also ensures that the system would result in a reduction of the tax base by reducing inheritance tax, when the death of the owner, the amount of the loan value of the property tax with a clear benefit in favor of heirs of the dwellings. This, according to Spanish law, it is not possible, explain the law firm has filed the lawsuit, which has led to including in it a possible crime of misleading advertising.
Given the success of the product, in 2006 the bank opened an information office in New Andalusia, which grew from the acquisition of customers. The concerted lending institution and the amounts financed channeled through his office in Luxembourg to Lex Life insurance which means insurance capital would allegedly promised returns.
However, the financial capital was not insured as promised, let alone self, which led to customers being unable to meet interest on the loan and the amount that entered the insurance capital lost value. After the entry into receivership and the parent bank's liquidation of the luxembuguesa subsidiary, the alleged victims are not contracted quantities of capital in the insurance and the threat of power lose their homes.
Dramatic spiral Customers, as assured in the lawsuit have entered into the next spiral: they are in breach of the obligation to pay interest on the loan and because they earn interest on late payment will not be able to share the following interests by rioja that default interest will increase, with Lex Life insurance is not going to generate the necessary profit to cover the interest due or to meet to be due in the future because if this was not possible when the amount had not been entered yet depreciated , much less what is now the majority has no additional safeguards that provide; despatrimonializado have and their creditworthiness, which could achieve its greatest asset, its building, is completely exhausted, and if all this were not enough 'weight all about the imminent threat of enforcement of security, and especially the mortgage, which would inevitably lead to its downfall, with the loss of their home. The situation worsened after the last October, the Icelandic State was forced to nationalize the bank as part of measures to prevent the collapse of the financial system. This means that creditors of the bank, others in good faith throughout this process, they will hold mortgage collateral and may proceed with its liquidation.
The bank has closed its office in Marbella and has cut all communication with customers.

Read More

Arrested Camorra boss Ciro Mazzarella in the Caribbean country of the Dominican Republic

Arrested Camorra boss Ciro Mazzarella in the Caribbean country of the Dominican Republic. He was listed among the Italian government's 100 most dangerous fugitives.Mazzarella fled to Columbia from Italy in 2006, before moving to Costa Rica and then to the city of Santo Domingo, where he allegedly continued to coordinate various Camorra activities.Money raked in by Italy's Mafia surged to 130 billion euros last year, a 40 percent increase on 2007, Italian research institute Eurispes reported last month.
Drug trafficking remains the primary source of revenue, bringing in about 59 billion euros, while arms sales earned the Mafia 5.8 billion euros. Organised crime groups draw off 92 billion euros of untaxed revenue or about 6 percent of Italy's GDP each year from Italian businesses, through protection payments, usury and other forms of extortion, Eurispes said.Italian authorities confiscated 5.2 billion euros in assets from the Mafia in 2008 - including 2.9 billion euros from the Camorra, 231 million euros from 'Ndrangheta and 1.4 billion euros from the Sicilian Mafia.

Read More

Arrested a tattooist suspected of killing a German woman found dead on a beach

Thiwat: Accused of strangling German
Arrested a tattooist suspected of killing a German woman found dead on a beach on Koh Phangan in Surat Thani province.The half-naked body of Astrid Al Assaad-Schachner, 45, was found on Sunday morning on Ban Wok Nai beach. She was wearing only a pair of jeans.Police assumed she might have been strangled. There was no trace of sexual assault. A wallet with 690 baht cash and a passport were left near the body, which was about 300 metres from a pier.Pol Col Charoon Uchupap, a superintendent at Koh Phangan police station, said Mrs Assaad-Schachner arrived in Koh Phangan on Dec 10 last year and rented a house.It was her second visit to Koh Phangan. Her first visit was in 2007 when she spent four months on the island.
On Saturday night witnesses saw the woman drinking beer at a bar about a kilometre from where her body was found. She left the bar at 10pm. Witnesses told a joint investigation team of Koh Phangan and CSD police that Mrs Assaad-Schachner was last seen with tattooist Thiwat Kasempok, 29.After he was arrested, Mr Thiwat admitted to strangling the woman as he had been outraged that she had told other tourists he was attracted to her and had tried to rape her.Mr Thiwat said it was her who had approached him, but he was not interested in her. Mr Thiwat insisted he had not raped the woman, said Pol Lt-Col Jom Singnoi of the CSD.Koh Phangan is famous among international tourists for its full moon parties.

Read More

Drugbust on Prague underground scene

Drugbust on Prague underground scene, and it is a third cocaine bust in about 40 days. Police officers from the national anti-drug central (NPC) have seized three members of an organized gang who were producing and selling cocaine in Prague. One of them was caught when he was selling 300g right in front of a MC Donald’s premise. According to the recently published report of Prague criminality cocaine became a common drug, but we somehow didn’t realize how common until we read almost every two weeks about dealers being busted. According to a doctor from Prague centre Drop-In Jiri Presl the increasing popularity of this deadly substance returns Prague to its First-Republic reputation – “Prague used to be famous for cocaine.”

Read More

Drug traffickers brought cocaine in by air in suitcases handcrafted for that purpose and with a special system of concealment and transportation.

Thirteen people, mostly of South American origin, have been arrested in the dismantling of a drug-trafficking organization that had been operating in several Spanish provinces.In the so-called Operation Alvagar, the Civil Guard seized almost 10 kilos (22 pounds) of high-purity cocaine that on the black market could have provided 400,000 doses, the Spanish Interior Ministry said.The group basically operated in Madrid and Catalonia, although it moved easily throughout all of Spain and used as its center of operations a house in the central city of Toledo.The organization's kingpin, according to the ministry, is also accused of conspiring to murder, since he was planning to call on hired killers to settle a number of scores.
Thanks to the cooperation of Ecuador's National Police, it was discovered that the gang leader lived in Spain under a false identity and that he had a long record in his country for holdups, illicit bearing of arms and four murders, three of them attempted murders.Through the use of hired gunmen he was planning the deaths of three people of the same family, one of them his previous partner.
The agents charged with dismantling the group spoke of the "complications, compartmentalization and complexity" of the operations the criminal organization carried out.The drug traffickers brought cocaine in by air in suitcases handcrafted for that purpose and with a special system of concealment and transportation.

Read More

Brett Stevens arrested in a major drug bust

“A year-long operation targeting trafficking, manufacturing and large-scale distribution of illicit drugs culminated today with police storming 15 properties in South-East Queensland.Five people, including a 44-year-old Narangba man believed to be a prominent member of the Gold Coast drag-racing fraternity, were arrested.
The man was charged with producing the drug MDMA, growing cannabis and supplying amphetamines.Police also seized an estimated $6.1 million worth of cash and property, including six high-performance cars and five motorcycles. All the vehicles were seized from a property near Yatala, south of Brisbane.The raids were the third stage of Operation Golf Brazen, a joint investigation of the Queensland Police Service, Australian Crime Commission and the Queensland Crime and Misconduct Commission.Today, police seized four pill presses worth about $40,000 on the black market and capable of procuding 1000 pills per minute.They also found three hydroponic set-ups, 1825 MDMA (ecstasy) tablets, 80 grams of cocaine and $1 million in cash.Search warrants were executed on the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Brisbane and one in NSW.Since the operation began 12 months ago, 45 people have been arrested on 150 charges.ACC chief executive Alastair Milroy said the operation had made a dent in a crime syndicate operating across three states, which also included Western Australia.“We believe the drugs were predominantly distributed on the eastern seaboard of Australia,” he said. “We are very pleased to have dismantled this network.”The CMC used its star chamber powers to elicit information from persons of interest, said acting Chief Superintendent Ian Parsons.“Our investigators have provided crucial expertise in identifying assets bought with the proceeds of crime.”
The 44-year-old man was due to face Brisbane Magistrates Court today.”

Read More

Spanish law firm three million people were affected by the Madoff affair

There are up to three million "direct and indirect" victims worldwide of the alleged fraud by US broker Bernard Madoff, a Spanish law firm that has filed a US lawsuit in the name of some of the victims said Tuesday.
"Our calculations are that at least three million people were affected by the Madoff affair, three million people who could be directly or indirectly affected by the case," Javier Cremades, the president of law firm Cremades Calvo-Sotelo, told a news conference.The estimate is based on information collected from over 30 law firms around the world that are representing the victims of the alleged pyramid scheme in 25 countries, he said.Cremades said the total amount involved could turn out to be higher than the 50 billion dollars (39 billion euros) that has been widely estimated so far.Last week the law firm, which has offices in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Portugal in addition to Spain, filed a class action lawsuit in Florida in the name of people who invested in Madoff through a fund run by Santander, Spain's largest bank.Shortly after the lawsuit was filed, Santander offered to reimburse the 1.38 billion euros which its private banking clients lost by investing in its Optimal fund -- the first offer of its kind by a bank involved in the case.Santander, the largest bank in the eurozone by market capitalization, said in December that it had a total of 2.33 billion in client funds exposed to Madoff. It has so far not offered to reimburse its institutional investors.The law firm said Madoff had victimized people in many countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Switzerland, South Africa, Mexico and Israel.Madoff, a 70-year-old former chairman of the Nasdaq stock market, was arrested in December and charged with using billions of dollars from new investors to pay off older ones in a Ponzi or pyramid scheme.

Read More

Ley de Costas, Coastal Law.property can now be bought and sold, and indeed passed in inheritance, provided the building was built legally before 1988.

Spanish Government has added a last minute amendment to the Ley de Costas, Coastal Law. The change comes as an attempt to lessen the barrage of criticism the law has received from Europe, following complaints from the British and German embassies.

The law is in fact not a new one, but is now 20 years old, but only recently has the current Minister for the Environment, Carmen Narbona, started to enforce it.

The 1988 law declares that the beach is public land, up to the point where the sea reaches in the worst of storms. Any homes built in that area before 1988 were taken into ownership by the state ahead of demolition, but the owners were granted up to 60 years grace, but they were told that they could not sell or reform their properties. The decision on whether a particular property lies in the public area was allowed to take five years. The reform has now come via an amendment to the Maritime Navigation law, taking the legislation change directly via the Justice department and away from the Environment Ministry, needing only additional approval in Congress.
It states that such property can now be bought and sold, and indeed passed in inheritance, provided the building was built legally before 1988. An estimated 45,000 homes are estimated to be affected all along the coasts of Spain.

Read More

Emeliano Venenoso, 33, who may have escaped arrest but was ambushed by still unidentified men who shot him and his common law wife Cristy several time

Following two separate police operations, the suspects in the robbery of an Australian national, shooting of businessman Ernesto Dy, and other previous hold ups in Bacong, Dauin and Dumaguete were arrested, Tuesday. They are believed to be members of the so-called Martisan gang which victimizes beach goers and dating couples. But one of their alleged accomplices was severely injured after he was ambushed on Wednesday night by still unidentified gun men near his house in Banilad, Bacong which also resulted to the death of his common law wife. Two of their remaining cohorts are still being pursued by authorities.First to fall was Mario Dindo Tabanag, 34, a resident of Sitio Lawigan, Brgy. Sacsac, Bacong after Vanessa Vidgen the wife of the Australian National, Douglas Vidgen positively identified him as one of those who robbed them a few days earlier.Seized from Tabanag were one .22 caliber hand gun and several pieces of jewelry. He implicated Danilo Celestial, alias Enteng, 27, as the mastermind and was later arrested by joint PNP elements from Bacong, Dauin and Dumaguete inside his residence in Purok Santan, Brgy. Taclobo, Dumaguete City Celestial yielded one caliber 38 revolver snubnose with four live ammunitions, one white plastic container with marijuana leaves, 3 cellular phones, 2 chargers, one pair pearl earrings, hairclip, ring, Australian coins and one coin purse. The two have been charged appropriately before the prosecutor’s office.Not so lucky was alleged gang member Emeliano Venenoso, 33, who may have escaped arrest but was ambushed by still unidentified men who shot him and his common law wife Cristy several times before fleeing. Venenoso who was hit in different parts of his body survived but Cristy was declared dead on arrival at the Negros Oriental Provincial Hospital.

Read More

Craig Johnson, assets in Dubai may be even more valuable than those already seized in the UK, which totalled more than £6 million (Dh31.5m).

Craig Johnson, 35, was sentenced in 2006 to 12 and a half years in prison, although British reporting restrictions prevented details of his case from being made public until now. After accomplices of Johnson were imprisoned in September, the true picture emerged of the outwardly respectable businessman.Investigators say they believe Johnson’s assets in Dubai may be even more valuable than those already seized in the UK, which totalled more than £6 million (Dh31.5m).Customs officials in the UK seized Johnson’s helicopter, yacht, luxury cars and mansion, all of which were found to have been purchased with the proceeds of crime. At one point, Johnson owned several properties across Dubai, as well as a luxury car dealership and a professional racing team.“It is fair to say that, as extravagant a lifestyle as Johnson lived in the UK, we firmly believe the lifestyle he lived out here in Dubai was as extravagant, if not more so,” said Euan Stewart, criminal investigations director with Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) in the UK.Investigations into other assets are continuing, with officers keen to establish whether any of his properties in the UAE were, in fact, bought legitimately. Although there is an extradition treaty in place between the UAE and the UK, there is no formal process for recovering the proceeds of crime. Investigators are hopeful, however, of recovering millions of pounds that Johnson has been ordered to repay the British government.

The court records show that Johnson was part of a gang that imported and exported mobile phones between companies owned by gang members, with value added tax (VAT) being kept illegally at every stage of the proceedings. The profits of the VAT fraud were then filtered through a series of bank accounts and business transactions.

The phones were imported – at least on paper – VAT-free from various EU countries. In many instances the phones did not even exist. The paperwork showed they had been sold on more cheaply, but with VAT added, through a chain of companies known as “buffers”. Sham invoices were issued.Once the goods had been sold a number of times they would be re-exported via a corrupt freight forwarding company. The exporter would then claim a credit from the British customs department for the VAT paid on the purchase of the phones, and the company that “imported” them would disappear when its VAT bill was due to be paid.While the fraud was being carried out, Johnson boasted of owning a major car dealership in Dubai. Company records show that Johnson still owns a 12-per-cent share in the dealership, and an employee said he believed Johnson was still owner. No one else at the company would respond to questions about Johnson.In 2002, Johnson spent £1.75m to establish a Dubai rallying team, Protrak World Motorsport Management, and competed twice in the Middle East Rally Championship. But when he was detained in the UK in 2003 and his string of investments unravelled around him, his workers, mostly from the UK, found themselves abandoned in Dubai. The team disbanded soon afterward, and most of the staff have left Dubai.Drivers, staff and management who worked for Protrak all declined to be interviewed for this article.An associate of Johnson’s in Dubai said: “He had private jets and helicopters and whatnot and there are not many expats who have that. Back then, four or five years ago, it was a smaller community, and the big fish seemed even bigger back then.” He said most people in Dubai had “no idea” about the extent of Johnson’s fraud, and that rumours of Johnson’s imprisonment emanating from the UK had reached only a few people Johnson knew in Dubai.In June 2006, Johnson was one of seven men imprisoned in the VAT scam after an eight-month case at Birmingham Crown Court. The scam cost the UK government £68 million (Dh359m) and led to a five-year inquiry by British customs officials. Details of the case emerged only after another VAT fraud case in which Johnson was implicated ended in September.
In November, Wolverhampton Crown Court, which was hearing the HMRC claim for reimbursement, ordered Johnson to pay a further £26m he was found to have made through money laundering, or face another 10 years in prison. He was ordered to pay £8m of that sum within the next year. Mr Stewart said: “This result is down to the excellent co-operation we had from the UAE on a federal level and, in particular, from the Central Bank.”He also paid tribute to the “landmark work” carried out by diplomatic staff in the UAE on creating an extradition treaty between the UAE and the UK, which will facilitate the investigation of money laundering in the country.
Cameron Walker, a law enforcement co-operation counsellor with the British embassy in Abu Dhabi, welcomed the more general efforts to catch British VAT offenders living in the UAE.“There are elements in the UAE – the ministries, banks and police – who are now working very closely with us and realise the extent of the problem,” he said. “The co-operation of the Central Bank, the police and the Government has been tremendous when you consider it is not a UAE problem.”

Read More

Recent report from Economic Analysts in Andalucía paints a pretty bleak picture for Andalucía

Recent report from Economic Analysts in Andalucía paints a bleak picture for Andalucía but the province of Malaga the home of Costa del Sol has a much more rosy future than the rest of Andalucía. Malaga with a growth rate of 1.5% last year is the leading province for economic growth whose average growth rate is 1.1%. The gross regional product of Andalucía is expected to fall by 1.1% in 2009 however the least effect of the decline will be felt in Malaga and Sevilla.

One very interesting statistic was that the number of building licenses issued in the province of Malaga was more than 13000 less up to September of last year than the year before. The report not surprisingly states that the crisis in the building industry has been mainly due to the overpricing of housing in the region and the only way out of trouble is for prices to be adjusted downwards. The report suggest prices need to fall 17% nationally and 27% in Andalucía but according to Spanish property experts Spanish Hot Properties some Costa del Sol Property has already been reduced by up to 30% from last years price by developers keen to liquidate there stock and in some cases as much as 45%. According to the report such a price drop would stimulate the property market especially when you consider that the average Malaga family spend 56% of there salary on mortgage this is set against an Andalucian average of 45% and a national average of 40%. However house price falls alone won’t restore the confidence of the local property buyers market with the Andalucian unemployment rate likely to reach 23% in 2009 set against a national average of 17% but price readjustment would be a very good starting point.

So how does the latest report and statistics impact on Spanish property sales in Costa del Sol and when is the right time to buy . Some time in 2009 is the right time to buy according to Susana Suspenda the Marketing and Operations manager for Spanish Hot Properties. “Costa del Sol tourism is holding up very well with Andalucian tourism down 2.3 % but Malaga actually having a 2.4% increase which indicates this is still the place where overseas property buyers want to buy and from our recent survey we can see people are very keen to snap up the bargains that are available and they obviously want to buy as close to the bottom of the market as possible. What the report clearly states is that 27% falls is what is needed for the market to readjust so if you can buy at 40% below value then your 13% ahead of the game so to speak.

Read More