The Chinawhite Club in London has started legal action against the owners of Dreamers discotheque in Puerto Banús, Marbella

The Chinawhite Club in London has started legal action against the owners of Dreamers discotheque in Puerto Banús, Marbella, after the Spanish club opened a new business called ‘Chinawhite by Dreamers’ last Friday.

The trade name ‘Chinawhite’ is registered and protected in the European Union, and the London owners say that want the name removed immediately and they will be demanding compensation for damages. They are also considering legal action under article 274 of the Spanish Penal Code which envisages prison sentences of between six months and two years for trade mark infringement.

They consider that the Puerto Banús club is fooling its clients who think they are visiting a branch of the famous London establishment.

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Marbella constructor José Ávila Rojas, arrived at the prison in Albolote

Marbella constructor José Ávila Rojas, arrived at the prison in Albolote on Wednesday morning to complete an eight year sentence for four counts of tax fraud. His appeal against last year’s sentence from the Granada provincial court was turned down by the Supreme Court last month, and it left no other means open to try and avoid entering prison.The fraud relates to the purchase and sale of two properties in Marbella, Málaga province, at the beginning of this decade, calculated as amounting to 3.5 million € in unpaid IVA and income tax. The sentence from the Granada court last summer also ordered the businessman to pay a fine of 10 million €.
EFE reports he was due to spend Wednesday in the prison’s admissions department before being assigned to a cell at some stage on Thursday.

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cannabis on the beaches of Marbella in broad daylight

Civil Guard have released details of a bare-faced drug smuggling operation which brought cannabis onto the beaches of Marbella in broad daylight as sunbathers looked on, then sped their cargo away in vehicles waiting on the beach. The drugs were jet-skied onto the beach, as accomplices hiding out in nearby scrubland ran out to help unload and transfer the cannabis off the sand.Officers seized 2.5 tons of cannabis and arrested 10 of the drug runners, with property searches taking place in Benalmádena, Fuengirola and Mijas. 10,000 € in cash were also seized.Another 3 people are suspected in the case.

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Martin Hickman, 49, of Marbella, made £6m profit over four years selling fake and unlicensed Viagra-like prescription drugs.

Martin Hickman, 49, of Marbella, made £6m profit over four years selling fake and unlicensed Viagra-like prescription drugs. He was jailed for three months in 2007 for failing to close the websites, but just weeks later the M.E.N revealed how he was continuing to trade from behind bars.

The cash funded a lavish lifestyle including a £500,000 country home, a £2.4m Chelsea flat and a home in Marbella.
His Range Rover had a personalised number plate with his initials on and his Bentley had the number plate 'L13 RGE'.

Between 2003 and 2007 Hickman, a former businessman who was made bankrupt in 1998 after being jailed for 10 months for conspiracy to trade in steroids, pocketed £3.4m himself running the enterprise from his farmhouse in Lily Lanes, Ashton under Lyne. He later moved his factory to a nearby office above a shop in Market Avenue. But experts say he was playing 'Russian roulette' with his customers' health. He was caught out selling the fake and unlicensed drugs on his MSH World Traders website after a tip-off triggered a four-year probe by the government department Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
Hickman was sentenced to three months in jail and fined £20,000 for contempt of court in April 2007 after he became the first retailer in Britain to be convicted of failing to abide by a High Court injunction to close the illegal websites.
But within days of going to jail, the M.E.N ordered Kamagra tablets - a generic and cheaper version of Viagra - from his company's website. investigator was sent a batch of 'Lovegra' tablets, which is another name for Kamagra. We bought eight tablets and were given another eight 'free' at a total cost of £32 plus £5 postage and packaging. Hickman's website offered a wide range of 'erectile dysfunction' medication and boasted there were no prescription, consultation or administration charges. It is believed that most of the medicines he sold were produced in India.
The website offered to supply a maximum of three months' medication in one order.Experts say that if the drugs are taken without an initial assessment by a GP, users run the risk of suffering serious side effects - including a heart attack.
Hickman is due to be sentenced today (Monday June 8th) at Southwark Crown Court in London after pleading guilty to six charges of selling and supplying counterfeit and unlicensed medicines and money laundering the sum of £1.4m. The M.E.N test purchase was one of the offences Hickman pleaded guilty to. He has already paid about £1m in an out of court settlement after civil action against him by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. A MHRA spokesman said: "There is a risk to public health because when you buy these products via the internet you do not know where they have been manufactured, how they have been stored and what the true content of the medicines are. "Tablets could have the correct basic ingredient but also be contaminated with other substances. "Prescription drugs have significant risks and possible adverse affects if used improperly - without patient's first having a consultation with their GP." Mick Deats, MHRA Head of Enforcement, said: "We have people with no medical qualification whatsoever running websites and running multi-million pounds businesses. "It is a really risky practice to turn to the internet for your medicines. People often use the internet to buy these drugs because they are too embarrassed to go to their doctor or because they wouldn't be prescribed them. And if something goes wrong that could mean they are more reluctant to seek treatment."
MHRA officers did a test purchase from his MSH website and officers raided his home.
They found various erectile dysfunction drugs plus orders, cash, cheques and customer lists. Hickman was interviewed in August and December 2005 but said he was just running a call centre and doing nothing illegal. His website at the time was registered in Germany with an internet service provider - outside the MHRA jurisdiction. But in March 2006 the agency did another test purchase and bought a multi-pack of drugs which included counterfeit Viagra - which is made under licence by Pfizer. A High Court injunction was issued in September 2006 ordering him to shut down the websites but he failed to do so and was jailed in April 2007.
The following month the M.E.N investigated Hickman and made the test purchase.
In August 2007 Hickman's assets were restrained under the Proceeds of Crime Act - including bank accounts, his house, and cars. And the MHRA continued to pursue him because he continued to trade. In January 2008 he appeared in court at the City of London Magistrates Court and was committed to Crown Court in April. 2008. He pleaded guilty to six charges in March this year.

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Contacted 27 owners of properties in Marbella requesting documentation proving their entitlement to enclosures of land

Coasts authority has contacted 27 owners of properties in Marbella requesting documentation proving their entitlement to enclosures of land which has been legally part of the public domain since boundaries were determined in the 60s and 70s. Owners have been given until next week to provide documentary proof of the legality of walls, fences, pools, sheds and gardens, otherwise they will be required to draw back their boundaries. One of the homes affected is in the name of Cayetan Fitz-James Stuart, Duchess of Alba, whose garden wall appears to enclose 32 square metres of public land. Others include part of the Hotel Marbella Club gardens, and a wall on the Cortijo Blanco beach belonging to Marbella Town Hall.
‘Costas’ will be moving its attention next to more recent buildings which may infringe the rules of the 1988 Coasts Law, which imposed new zoning rules and gave greater protection, for example, to sand dunes. By the time compliance with all the more recent regulations is enforced, it is estimated that 68,341 square metres of seafront land may be restored to public ownership.Spain’s Socialist government, keen to clean up the ugly concrete jungle along its costas, has taken a dim view of the duchess’s turreted summer residence on the Costa del Sol and wants parts of it bulldozed. A wall and a lawn leading to Casablanca beach in Marbella may contravene the so-called Coastal Law which states that all land within 100m (328ft) of a shoreline is public property and bans building within that area. Any private building falling within this zone can be knocked down depending on a local authority’s interpretation and enforcement of the legislation. The law has ramifications for thousands of British expatriates who bought villas next to the Mediterranean and now face the prospect that their properties could be reduced to rubble. Homes owned by Spaniards have already been knocked down in Tenerife and Cantabria in northern Spain. Francisco Javier Hermoso, head of the regional Coastal Authority, said that the Duchess had eight days to prove that her property was built with legal permission. If it is deemed to have broken the law part of the sumptuous residence could be knocked down. If the bulldozers roll up, it will be the latest humiliation for the fiery-tempered aristocrat. A regular face in Spain’s prensa rosa — or gossip press — her love life has recently provided succulent reading after it emerged that her children opposed her planned marriage to a family friend 24 years her junior. “They don’t want me to marry, but they change partners more often than I do,” she told the Spanish media. The waxen-faced duchess, whose full name is Maria del Rosario Cayetana Alfonsa Victoria Eugenia Francisca Fitz-James Stuart y de Silva — she counts the Stuart king James II of England among her ancestors — is often photographed at society gatherings and bullfights, where her former son-in-law, Francisco Rivera Ordóñez, a popular matador, is the star attraction. As well as not having to kneel before the Pope, her other ancient rights include the unique privilege of being able to ride into the immense Seville Cathedral on horseback. A previous Duchess of Alba was the model — and supposed lover — of Francisco de Goya. Two of Goya’s most famous portraits, The Clothed Maja and The Naked Maja, hang in the Madrid palace where the present Duchess was born. She was a dazzling beauty in her youth and her wedding in 1947 to Luis Martinez de Irujo y Artacoz was described as “the most expensive in the world”. After her first husband’s death, she stunned public opinion by marrying Jesús Aguirre y Ortiz de Zárate, a free-thinking former Jesuit priest, in 1978. Today the duchess cuts a strange figure with her high-pitched voice and frail health. She was recently photographed in a wheelchair at a society wedding and nearly choked to death on orange juice. About 500,000 British and other property owners fear that the Government is not content with enforcing the Coastal Law but wants to make it retroactive. After condemnation of the law by the European Parliament and pressure from the British and German Governments Spain has agreed to allow owners to sell affected properties.

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Marbella proceedings started against properties owned by Marbella Town Hall and the Hotel Marbella Club.

Demarcación General de Costas is reported to have started proceedings to recover the land, declared to be public shoreline, on which nearly 30 homes and other buildings have been constructed in Marbella.Among those affected is the Duchess of Alba, Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart, who faces losing 32 square metres of her property on the Casa Blanca beach. A wall with gated access to her land has to go, according to the latest official provincial bulletin.The coastal authority has also started proceedings against properties owned by Marbella Town Hall and the Hotel Marbella Club. Owners have an eight day period to present their complaints against the orders. Then, if no complaints are made, or if the complaints are considered non-applicable, ‘the necessary measures will be taken to recover the occupied public land’, and that can include what is described as ‘administrative eviction’ as outlined in the Ley de Costas.Similar inspections are expected to result more cases in Fuengirola, Benalmádena and Torremolinos later this month and in June as the coastal authority moves East.

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Lee Ward, 28, was killed instantly in a car crash close to Marbella, on the Costa del Sol.

Lee Ward, 28, was killed instantly in a car crash close to Marbella, on the Costa del Sol. His grieving father, entrepreneur and executive Charles, 48, told of his devastation last night.
Writing on a Facebook tribute page set up in his son’s memory, he said: “God, how I miss you. You will never leave my thoughts or my heart forever my first born.” Amazingly a passenger, believed to be a male friend, is thought to have survived the horror by leaping clear of the car as it fell. He is believed to be fighting for life in hospital. Locals told yesterday how they saw the white £150,000 Gallardo convertible skidding as it crested a hill overlooking the exclusive Los Flamingos golf course. One said: “It careered over the edge and fell more than 250ft over the cliff, landing on its roof by the side of one of the greens. Lee had no chance but his passenger managed to leap clear of the car and survived with very serious injuries. “Lee was a very popular person locally and it’s a real tragedy.” Pals said his wife Kati had decided not to go with him just minutes before the crash. Yesterday more than 200 mourners attended Lee’s funeral at a church in Marbella as friends continued to pay tribute on the web. One said of Lee: “A guy that lived life to the full and was full of desire. Wherever you are, they’re lucky to have you — I know we were.” On Lee’s Facebook site a pal wrote: “I will say a prayer and dance to good house music — Lee Richard Ward keep dancing — RIP.” 29 year old British man has died and two other people, possibly also British have been injured in a traffic accident in Benahavís near Marbella.The vehicle in which the three were travelling left the road, fell down a drop and burst into flames. One of the occupants was trapped inside and had to be rescued by the fire service.There are reports that one of the injured is 38 years old and one was taken to the Costa del Sol hospital in Marbella for urgent treatment.It happened on the road between Benahavís and Cancelada, the CV-11, and happened at about 10pm on Saturday night. La Opinión de Málaga reports that the vehicle had Swiss number plates. Another said: “Thinking back on your antics leaves me wishing there could be just one last time. Now I know why they say the good die young.”

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Giususeppe U arrested Camorra bosses refer to the Spain's Mediterranean coast as "Costa Nostra" or "our coast"

The latest Italian mafia leader to be arrested was once a security guard for an Italian government minister, say Spanish police. Police in Spain said Monday they had detained a leader of the Italian mafia who was once a security guard for an Italian government minister, in the latest in a string of arrests of top mafia figures.The man, identified as 48-year-old Giususeppe U, is wanted in Italy for drug trafficking and is suspected of involvement in a 1997 murder in Rome, police said in a statement. He was arrested in the southern port of Marbella."The fugitive, an ex-state policeman in Italy and a former bodyguard to an Italian minister, is considered to be one of the main leaders of a Calabrese mafia organisation by the authorities in his country," the statement said.Police suspect he ran an international drugs trafficking operation from Morocco where he lived and where he is thought to have held meetings with other members of the mafia clan, the statement added.Since 2006 more than a dozen leaders of the Camorra and other Italian mafia groups have been arrested in Spain, the main entryway into Europe for cocaine from Latin America and hashish from North Africa.In January Spanish police arrested two Camorra bosses, Antonio Caiazzo, 50, and Francesco Simeoli, 40, as they left a restaurant at an upscale Madrid neighbourhood.The arrests have highlighted the growing menace posed by the Italian mafia in Spain.Italian journalist Roberto Saviano, the author of "Gomorra," a best-selling expose of the criminal underworld in Naples, has said several mafia clans have transferred what he termed "their most risky activities," such as drug-running, to Spain, particularly to Barcelona.
Speaking in Barcelona earlier this month, he said Camorra bosses refer to the Spain's Mediterranean coast as "Costa Nostra" or "our coast", alluding to the Sicilian mafia's "Cosa Nostra".Giususeppe U., is wanted in Italy for drug trafficking and is suspected of involvement in a 1997 murder in Rome, police said in a statement. * * * "The fugutive, an ex state policeman in Italy and a former bodyguard to an Italian minister, is considered to be one of the main leaders of a Calabrese mafia organization by the authorities in his country," the statement said. Police suspect he ran an international drugs trafficking operation from Morocco where he lived and where he is thought to have held meetings with other members of the mafia clan, the statement added.

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Juan Antonio Roca “The Boss,” Roca has become Spain’s national symbol of municipal corruption

Juan Antonio Roca was arrested for corruption in March 2006, police seized assets worth 2.4 billion euros ($3.4 billion), including a century-old palace in Madrid, a country estate equipped with a helipad overlooking the Rock of Gibraltar and a stud farm guarded by a tiger. According to a 451-page July 2007 indictment by Marbella prosecutor Miguel Angel Torres, Roca also owned a ranch to raise fighting bulls, a private jet, a helicopter and a painting by Spanish master Joan Miro.

Known in Marbella as “The Boss,” Roca has become Spain’s national symbol of municipal corruption amid the boom and bust of the country’s real estate industry.

“Marbella is a special case, but the conditions which allowed it to occur exist across the country,” says Jesus Sanchez-Lambas, a law professor and general secretary of Madrid’s Ortega y Gasset University Institute. “Corruption in town planning is institutionalized.” Roca, 55, who was convicted of bribing a judge in August by the High Court of Andalusia in Granada, is currently standing trial at Spain’s National Court in Madrid where, along with five other defendants, he’s charged with embezzling 36 million euros of public funds. Prosecutors are preparing to go to trial in connection with the 2007 indictment, dubbed Operation Malaya, against Roca and 85 others in Marbella, Madrid, Barcelona and San Sebastian. The charges include embezzlement, money laundering, dereliction of duty and bribery.

Roca’s lawyer, Jose Anibal Alvarez, said in December that none of the evidence proves that Roca took bribes, embezzled from city hall or laundered money. Spanish officials are making him a scapegoat for the corruption that’s widespread in city halls across Spain, he says. In December, Roca was in prison in Alhaurin de la Torre, a village outside Marbella.

Graft and bribery thrived along the Costa del Sol as the country rode a 15-year real estate boom, fueled by a plunge in interest rates, rising incomes and strong demand for second homes by sun-starved Northern Europeans. In 2006 -- the peak of Spain’s real estate surge -- municipalities issued 911,000 building permits, more than the U.K. and Germany combined. “They are swallowing up the coastline and the countryside,” Sanchez-Lambas says. “This is the legacy we will leave for our children.” Many of these homes have come onto the market in the past year after the global credit crunch curbed the supply of loans. R.R. de Acuna & Asociados, a Madrid-based real estate research firm, estimates that there are more than 1.6 million unsold homes in Spain, while annual demand for housing fell to 220,000 units in 2008 from a peak of 590,000 in 2004. Spain’s economy contracted for the first time in 15 years in the third quarter of 2008, after growing 3.9 percent in 2006. This year, it faces its worst recession since 1959, according to Dominic Bryant, an economist at BNP Paribas SA in London. Unemployment soared to 12.8 percent in October from 8.5 percent a year earlier. Spanish bank loans in arrears as a proportion of total lending climbed in October to 2.9 percent, or 54.2 billion euros from 0.9 percent a year earlier, according to the Bank of Spain. “We are seeing an intense increase in the ratio of bad loans,” Bank of Spain Governor Miguel Angel Fernandez Ordonez said on Oct. 30. “This has been particularly notable in the construction and real estate sectors.” Spain sowed the seeds of its real estate boom when it agreed to swap its currency for the euro. Before joining Europe’s monetary union in 1999, Spain had to impose economic discipline and bring down its inflation rate to European Union standards. After it did, the cost of home loans tumbled as the central bank slashed its benchmark rate to less than 3 percent at the end of 1998 from 13 percent in 1993. Household incomes rose as Spanish women began to enter the workforce, and foreign investment jumped more than 10-fold at its peak in 2007 as the euro brought financial stability. The newfound wealth and borrowing power created a potential bonanza for Spain’s 8,111 town halls, which have limited powers to raise taxes yet have to pay for local police, garbage collection and sports facilities. Spanish law does give the municipalities power to grant all permits for new homes, shopping centers and factories. “All they’ve got is land,” says Lorenzo Fernandez Fau, a former mayor of El Escorial, near Madrid. “So they’ve sold it.” Even many legal projects involve the mayor’s cutting a deal with developers, who may agree to build fire stations or put up street lamps in addition to paying for building permits.
Some officials also demand bribes. “Local administrators have the power to decide who gets rich and who stays poor,” says Victor Torre de Silva, a professor of law at Madrid’s Instituto de Empresa business school. “There’s a great temptation to share in the wealth that you can create.” That temptation may have ensnared Roca, who began his career as anything but wealthy. A native of Cartagena in the region of Murcia, which neighbors Andalusia, Roca trained as a mining engineer and then set up a property development company called Comarsa that was declared bankrupt in 1990. The following year, he moved to Marbella. At the time, the town was known for its celebrity residents, including King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, who built a palace modeled after the White House in Washington, except that the bathroom fittings were made of gold, according to Gorka Zamarreno, communications director of real estate company Aifos SA, who attended a party there.

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GANGWAR has broken out between Britain's most powerful cocaine gangs on the Spanish Costas.

GANGWAR has broken out between Britain's most powerful cocaine gangs in the Spanish Costas.A club security boss was shot five times in a bungled hit in the millionaires' paradise of Marbella this week as coke barons wrestle for control of the UK's £2billion-a-year trade.Last month a known contract killer was murdered in Spain while an Irish hitman was stabbed in the shoulder.In the latest attack, the security boss from Liverpool was blasted in the face, arms and pelvis by a man who is also thought to be from Merseyside.He remains in a serious condition in intensive care. The bloodbath follows the murder of Britain's top drugs trafficker, Colin "Smigger" Smith in Liverpool last November. Underworld sources say he was shot on the orders of two former associates, one known as the Bird of Prey. The pair are now trying to take control of his empire, which he ran out of the resort of Puerto Banus in Marbella.In the past month, gangsters loyal to Smith have sought revenge.
They include a shadowy group of former IRA hitmen known as The Cleaners.But before they could strike one of their gunmen was killed said to be by the Bird of Prey.

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Marbella resident in his 30's from Liverpool shot in Puerto Banus

Police and forensic experts inspect the scene of the shooting in Puerto Banús last night The man was shot as he left a cafeteria in Calle Ramón Areces, to walk to his car, a dark blue British registered BMW which he had left illegally parked with the windows open.

The victim was said by witnesses to be a man in his 30's from Liverpool who has been resident in Marbella for some years. A man in his 30’s, first reported to be Eastern European by some sources, but now considered to be British by most media, has been injured in a shooting incident in a cafeteria in Puerto Banús, Marbella. At least five shots were fired in the port at 7,30pm last night, according to emergency service sources, with four of the shots hitting the man in the face after a first shot to the knee. He is reported to be seriously injured. Witnesses described the victim as a tall and athletic blonde man, and say he is British, from Liverpool, and has been living in Marbella for several years. They say the shooter, who is also thought to be British, talked to him for some time before opening fire.
Police think that what was the third shooting in the town in less than a month, was a possible settling of criminal scores.

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woman is in a serious condition after jumping from the interior balcony of her home in Las Chapas, Marbella

A woman is in a serious condition after jumping from the interior balcony of her home in Las Chapas, Marbella to avoid an attack from her 41 year old Colombian partner who was wielding a knife.Police say that the alleged attacked, named with the initials J.L.S.L. has no legal residence in Spain and was about to be deported last June.The 37 year old victim, also from Colombia, is now in the Costa del Sol Hospital in Marbella where she reported to be serious but stable.

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Spanish police were waiting yesterday to interview 39-year-old Peter Mitchell

Spanish police were waiting yesterday to interview 39-year-old Peter Mitchell, who is expected to make a full recovery from his injuries. Mitchell, who fled to Spain in 1996, had been one of a number of gangsters targeted in a major state operation against the Gilligan gang.Security sources in the Republic last night linked the murder bid on the Spanish coast to a new campaign by rival Irish criminals against Gilligan and his associates. Earlier this month it was revealed that Gilligan was receiving 24-hour protection inside Portlaoise to safeguard him from other prisoners.
Rival criminals are angry over his recent interview in Irish pop magazine Hot Press, via a mobile phone. This contributed to a security crackdown, which has affected the operations of other gang leaders inside. A Gardai source said: 'Up until then, a number of jailed criminals were still able to run their empires from inside. Now they can't communicate with their teams and they blame Gilligan for that.'Gilligan was badly beaten up by a young Dublin criminal in front of other inmates. And these rivals are not just prepared to go after him it seems; they have the team and the firepower to hunt down the remaining members of his old gang, most of whom are now in Spain.'

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overnight shooting in Marbella is linked to a gun attack on 39-year-old Peter Mitchell on the Costa del Sol this week.

Police in Spain are investigating if an overnight shooting in Marbella is linked to a gun attack on an Irishman in the Costa del Sol this week.
A 42-year-old man and one other person were shot in the early hours of this morning, outside a disco bar.On Thursday night 39-year-old Peter Mitchell, a former associate of convicted drugs dealer John Gilligan, was shot in a bar in Puerto Banus by a masked gunman.He remains under guard in hospital in Spain after narrowly surviving the assassination attempt, while two other men caught up in the shooting received minor injuries.

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ex Mayor of Marbella, Marisol Yagüe home auctioned

First Instance Court number 5 in Marbella has placed for auction the home of the ex Mayor of Marbella, Marisol Yagüe. The sale comes as part of the sentence which condemned her to pay more than 722,000 € for building reform work carried out to the property.According to the auction documents the property is worth more than 1.9 million €, although there is a mortgage in place with the Banco Español de Crédito and has another embargo in place on it.Those who are interested in the property have to go to the courts and supply a bank guarantee for a 30% deposit to take part in the auction which is set for September 23. Bids will be made in closed envelopes and the highest bid will win provided that it is at least 70% of the estimated value.

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Mark Thatcher faces eviction from his Costa del Sol hideaway

Mark Thatcher faces eviction from his Costa del Sol hideaway after his landlord branded him the tenant from hell.The disgraced son of former Tory Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is being taken to court to get him out of the £1.5million villa he has rented for two years.Exasperated landlord Stephen Humberstone claimed that Thatcher, 54, has broken antiques, messed up the garden and is months in arrears with his rent. The fellow Old Harrovian said: "If you see him, punch him on the nose for me, would you?"The news comes after a week in which Thatcher was accused of being a key player in a plot to overthrow the ruler of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea in West Africa.Mr Humberstone said: "I'm issuing court proceedings. I want to evict him. He doesn't pay the rent, he alters the garden - he does what he bloody well wants."I don't want to go round there because I'll lose my temper.
He's deeply unpleasant."He put all my furniture into my gardener's van and sent it down to some office so I didn't know where it was. It wasn't even wrapped and it was smashed, but he didn't care. He just wanted it out of the house.
"He went to the same school as me and was in the same house, and this is how he treats people."Thatcher has been paying £5,500 a month rent for Casa Flores, where he lives with his new wife Sarah Russell.The £1.5million four-bed villa with a secluded outdoor pool is surrounded by closed-circuit TV.Visitors to the development in the hills above the resort of Marbella need permission to enter.The area is nicknamed the Costa del Crime, because of the number of ex-pat British crooks there.
Thatcher's lawyer has now been sent a fax demanding rent due since March. Thatcher - nicknamed "Thickie Mork" at Harrow - must pay up or face eviction.But Thatcher, who has a hereditary baronetcy from father Denis, is thought to be looking for a property in Gibraltar where he can dodge paying tax.Despite having £64million, he would pay only £20,000 tax a year if he had an address there.Thatcher last night refused to comment on his landlord's claims.

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Monzer al-Kassar lived an openly lavish lifestyle as the so-called "Prince of Marbella" like a villain out of a James Bond movie.

Monzer al-Kassar has played a key role in some of the worst atrocities committed against Israeli and Jewish civilians, and his links to one Arab regime in particular - that of his native country, Syria - deserve special scrutiny at a moment when Jerusalem is just about to begin potentially historic negotiations with its government. Kassar, 63, is an international arms dealer, and, by some accounts, has spent much of his lifetime as a key supplier of weapons to many of the worst enemies of Israel, America and the West.
Earlier this year, he was arrested by Spanish authorities after allegedly offering to sell weapons, including surface-to-air missiles, to agents of the US Drug Enforcement Agency posing as representatives of Colombia's FARC guerrilla group. On Friday he was extradited from Madrid to New York City, where he is scheduled to face trial on charges that also include conspiracy and money-laundering.
The list of Kassar's alleged clients is a long one, ranging from Somali warlords to Bosnian militias, Brazilian rebels to Iranian agents. He is also rumored to have worked at times with Western governments - for example, as a middleman in the arms deals of the Iran-Contra scandal of the 1980s. This has led to claims that such ties have helped him remain relatively unmolested by authorities, for years living an openly lavish lifestyle as the so-called "Prince of Marbella" like a villain out of a James Bond movie. Kassar is also alleged to be a major supplier of weaponry to Palestinian terror organizations. His major legal entanglement prior to the current case against him came in 1995, when he was charged by Spanish authorities with providing the guns and explosives used by the Abu Abbas terror cell in their hijacking of the ship Achille Lauro, and the subsequent brutal murder of American Jew Leon Klinghoffer. Kassar denied the charges, but not the fact that he was a friend and supporter of Abu Abbas, telling the The Guardian two years ago: "No, you cannot call him a terrorist. He's a hero. He's a hero in the eyes of the Arabs ... I don't allow you to call him terrorist!" Kassar's acquittal in that case has led to allegations that Madrid allowed him to operate as long as he kept his business off Spanish soil and away from Spain's enemies. But Washington has in recent years stepped up its pursuit of Kassar and the pressure for his extradition, no doubt because he has been fingered as a key arms supplier for the Iraqi insurgents killing US troops. Among his reputed governmental links, there is no doubt that his closest one through the years has been to the rulers of his homeland.
Kassar's father was a significant early backer of Hafez Assad, and later served him in various senior diplomatic positions. Kassar himself is considered to be a personal protege of longtime Syrian defense minister Mustafa Tlas, one of the top figures in the Ba'athist oligarchy that has maintained an iron grip on the country for over four decades. Among the many unsavory services Kassar is alleged to have provided for Damascus is facilitating its role in the international narcotics business. Having himself been arrested in his younger days for hashish smuggling, he is believed to have played a major role in the export and distribution of the bountiful harvest of the Lebanese Bekaa Valley opium fields that long operated under Syrian protection.
Perhaps Kassar's most nefarious role is one that won't get mentioned in the New York courthouse where he will soon stand trial - the part some informed sources believe he played in the bombings of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992 and the Argentinean capital's AMIA Jewish Center in Buenos Aires in 1994. Kasser was among a number of businessmen of Syrian origin or roots believed to have close ties with Carlos Menem, himself the child of Syrian immigrants, providing the Argentinean president with funds and contacts used to help further his political career, and in return protecting them from prosecution for their links to terrorist groups. In 2000, Kassar was indicted by an Argentinean court for using fraudulent documents in order to obtain citizenship there eight years earlier, possibly with Menem's assistance.
Another Argentinean judicial investigation into Kassar's activities uncovered a source claiming that the sophisticated Centex (C-4) explosive used in the Buenos Aires bombings had originated in a Spanish factory owned by Kassar, and been smuggled into Argentina via his contacts with Syrian intelligence. Just last month, an Argentinean prosecutor asked a local court for permission to arrest Menem, on charges he covered up the involvement of Syrian-Argentinean individuals connected with the bombings.
Although focus on foreign involvement in these atrocities usually emphasizes the alleged Iranian role in their execution, Kassar serves as a useful reminder of the part Damascus is believed to have played in them.
Given the shadowy and Byzantine nature of Syrian politics, it is difficult to know the nature of Kassar's current standing with the government of Basher Assad. But as Israel sits down to negotiate with Damascus over issues that decisively touch on this country's most sensitive security concerns, this shady super-criminal is an all-too-fitting exemplar of the dark side of Damascus, one that goes far beyond simply the shelter and aid it openly provides to such groups as Hamas and Hizbullah.

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Holidaymakers have been warned that fresh food supplies are running low in Spanish shops Supermarket shelves in Marbella were almost empty yesterday

Holidaymakers have been warned that fresh food supplies are running low in Spanish shops and restaurants after the third day of a truckers' strike.Supermarkets, bars and eateries have been unable to restock essentials such as meat, fish, fruit and vegetables. Some restaurants in the Costa del Sol were yesterday offering reduced menus and many feared they will be forced to shut within days.The striking drivers have blocked off wholesale food markets and brought ports, including Alicante, Malaga, Valencia and Barcelona, to a virtual standstill.
Irish holidaymakers in Alicante and Malaga encountered queues at supermarkets and petrol stations yesterday. Xavier Martin, director of Majorca's food market Mercapalma, said stocks of fruit and vegetables will run out unless the dispute is resolved. The strike by 90,000 self-employed drivers has sparked panic buying of food and fuel. Supermarket shelves in Marbella were almost empty yesterday.

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400 Ravers turn Costa del Sol home in Marbella’s exclusive El Pariaso development into a wreck.

trashed a £5million house after a girl advertised her 16th birthday party on the internet.Drunken revellers hurled a television and tables and chairs into the swimming pool, smashed doors, destroyed carpets, damaged walls and stole £6,000 of jewellery and designer clothes.Someone had spread a rumour that the owners did not mind if the seven-bedroom mansion was damaged because they were "getting divorced".British expat Amanda Hudson agreed to let schoolgirl Jodie hold the party at their holiday villa in Marbella, Spain.But Jodie posted details including the address on social networking internet sites Facebook and Bebo.She called it "party of the year" and said: "Theres gone be a lot of alcohol an amazing DJ."Hundreds of youngsters from all over the Costa del Sol turned up on motorbikes and quad bikes.Even though Amanda was present she was powerless to stop the hooligans from ransacking her home.
Eventually she called police with the party still in full swing.Two police cars arrived just after midnight.One partygoer said: "People scarpered in all directions.
"The police managed to pull people over and search their bags and pockets but it was already too late and a lot was gone."There were kids behaving like gangstas from a rap video, throwing stuff around and smashing things."There were chairs, tables, even a television in the pool."Somebody said that we were allowed to wreck the house because the birthday girl's parents were getting divorced."
The villa, which Amanda rents out for £4,000 a week in the summer, was completely wrecked and will not be suitable to let again until it is repaired.Amanda told a friend: "The place looked like a war zone."All the banisters have been broken, the walls are ruined, the carpets are destroyed, furniture is broken and it is going to take months to sort out."A friend said: "Amanda is still furious with her daughter. She hasn't spoken to her since that night."Jodie, who goes to an expensive private school in Sotogrande, sent a message to a friend from her Bebo site last week saying: "There's so much damage and clothes stolen and a lot of broken doors. People were caught having sex."I got punched by my mum for it and grounded until the summer. What a BITCH!"Estate agent Amanda, originally from Liverpool, refused to discuss the party yesterday.She said: "I am not saying anything about that."


400 revellers to turn her Costa del Sol home – in Marbella’s exclusive Paradise development – into a wreck

There were kids behaving like rap video gangsters.
.Unknown to Mrs Hudson, Jodie, who attends one of southern Spain’s most upmarket private schools, had announced the party on social networking sites Bebo and Facebook.Officers frisked everyone they could catch fleeing the house.
One partygoer said: “It was already too late and a lot was gone.“There were kids behaving like gangsters from a rap video, throwing stuff around and smashing things.”
The villa, which costs £4,000 a week to rent or is offered for sale at £4.4million, was completely trashed and will be unavailable for rent this summer.Mrs Hudson has told a friend: “All the banisters have been broken.“The walls are ruined, the carpets are destroyed, furniture is broken and it is going to take months to sort out.”The friend said Mrs Hudson was “still furious” with her daughter.Jodie, who attends the Sotogrande International School near Marbella, gives an update on her web pages.On one she signs herself “Hudson-is-a-rebel” and writes: “There’s so much damage. People caught having sex. I got grounded until the summer. What a bitch!”
When contacted at the villa yesterday, Mrs Hudson, who is originally from Liverpool, refused to discuss the party. “I am not saying anything about that,” she said.
Describing it as the “party of the year”, she posted her home address on the sites and invited dozens of friends, saying: “There’s going to be a lot of alcohol and an amazing DJ.”To add to the chaos, an unfounded rumour was circulating among the uninvited “guests” that the owners did not mind the seven-bedroom mansion being trashed – because they were “getting divorced”.Despite the presence of Jodie’s horrified mother, hundreds of Costa del Sol teens arrived at the house on motorbikes and quad bikes.The rampaging youngsters left a trail of misery for Mrs Hudson – and a sizeable bill for the damage.Dozens of items – including a TV set – were thrown into the swimming pool and half Mrs Hudson’s wardrobe was stolen. Jewellery worth more £6,000 was also taken.The distraught mother eventually called police and two patrol cars arrived just after midnight when the party, earlier this month, was still in full swing.

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six of the ex GIL councillors, in Marbella Town Hall between 1995 and 1999, have finally accepted the deal offered to them by the Prosecutors’ Office

The Málaga environmental prosecutors office has reach a pact with the ex Mayor, Julián Muñoz and five others, Marisa Alcalá, Dolores Zurdo, Rafael González, Manuel Calle and Mario Jiménez, who have each accepted a 12 month prison term on each charge. As there are dozens of charges in each case, the law establishes a maximum of triple the term imposed in each case, so the six are to serve a total three years each in prison.

Only six of the ex GIL councillors, in Marbella Town Hall between 1995 and 1999, have finally accepted the deal offered to them by the Prosecutors’ Office under which their cases will not have to go to court, but they will serve shorter prison terms.The defence lawyer Ernesto Osuna, who was acting for several of the ex councillors, commented that time already served by his clients in the Proinsa and Moansa real estate cases would de deducted from the three year total. He described the deal as ‘very positive’ and thought the ex councillors would start serving their time in September.In the case of Julián Muñoz, it means the ex Mayor will avoid nearly 100 additional cases for serving just one additional year in jail.The situation is more complicated for those councillors who were in the Marbella Town Hall between 1999 and 2003 who used the PGOU dating from 1998 in a fraudulent way – that’s to say they based their decisions on the PGOU despite it not having been approved by the Junta de Andalucía. This is the case for the ex-councillors, Tomás Reñones or Francisco Lendínez, who say they will only accept a fine and not a prison sentence. Defence sources say the Prosecutors’ Office is not prepared to change the deal for that group as yet, but that talks on these councillors are set to restart in June.

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