Costa del Sol is a shooting gallery for rival gangsters

British criminal gangs have always been involved in turf wars or acts of revenge but these used to take place in their own backyards. In recent years Nueva Andalucía has become the preserve of Britons with criminal connections. There have been a number of shootings, some deadly, in what the National Police call the “settling of accounts” largely amongst drug traffickers.

The latest of these cases was the Thursday of last week just before 15.15 when the 091 emergency room of the local police in Marbella received a call to say there had been a shooting in the calle del Califa. A number of shots were discharged and a person injured.

When officers arrived there was no injured man to be found but eyewitnesses informed them the shooting had indeed taken place with the victim shot in the leg. It is understood the gunman arrived on the back of a motorbike; had got off and shot the victim as he talked with another man in the street. The gunman was then driven off at speed whilst the injured man was taken away in a four wheel drive vehicle.

Police searched the scene and found two spent cartridges which corresponded with the number of shots heard. However there was no sign of blood and no hospital or health centre had treated anybody for gunshot wounds.

From speaking to witnesses police say they are sure those involved were British. Tragically this is nothing new for Nueva Andalucía where one of the more serious shootings was in December 2009 when a Briton was shot three times, with one bullet entering his head.

However the worst case was back in December 2004 when gunmen shot and killed a 7-year-old boy and a 36-year-old hairdresser outside the Andalucía Plaza Hotel. Also injured in the hail of bullets were three other people. This case probably did not involve Britons although one of the gunmen spoke in English.

The tragic events took place at 17.30 on a Saturday afternoon when three heavily armed men got out of an Audi car parked outside the hotel leaving a fourth man at the wheel. They walked to a BMW parked outside the Cosmo hairdressers, which is part of the hotel building, and fired at a man sitting in the passenger seat. Eyewitnesses then say that the trio ran to the entrance of the hotel and one of the men fired a hail of bullets inside. The men were armed with automatic rifles and reports state that police found over 100 spent shells at the scene of the shooting.

Killed in the outrage was the 36-year-old Italian male owner of the hairdressers. Slain too was a seven-year-old boy from Sevilla who was on a short holiday to Marbella. He was waiting in the interior of the hotel for members of his family when around 6 bullets hit him in the abdomen. His aunt and another family member were amongst those injured.

After the shooting, an Algerian-born French businessman, without any known previous convictions, went to Marbella National Police station and told officers that he believed that he was the target of the killers. The businessman is involved in the exclusive fashions industry and commutes between Paris and Marbella. He was in the hairdressers at the time of the shooting.

He claims that he did not know the identity of the four men but they appeared to be looking for a second man after shooting his colleague sitting in the BMW. The injured man, who also has no previous convictions, has been described as the Frenchman’s friend and bodyguard. A pistol was found beneath the BMW car and officers have arrested him in his hospital bed on charges of alleged possession of an illicit firearm.

Today the Costa del Sol is a shooting gallery for rival gangsters. British criminals there are a plenty plus various Italian mafias, Russians, Eastern Europeans and bad guys and girls from other nations. The only difference is now the Spanish police work closely with their counterparts in these countries. Hence if you turn a corner and face a man or woman with a gun they are just as likely to be from the police as a gang member.Text may be subject to copyright.This blog does not claim copyright to any such text. Copyright remains with the original copyright holder.

Spanish bar owner was ‘kneecapped’ before being robbed by a dangerous Midland fugitive.

 Spanish bar owner was ‘kneecapped’ before being robbed by a dangerous Midland fugitive.
The Dutch victim was running the drinking hole in the holiday town of La Cala, on the Costa Del Sol, when he was brutally beaten up by three men.
One of the thugs – who left the Dutchman needing screws in a shattered kneecap – was said to have been Jonathon Lejman.

The 29 year-old, from Stoke-on-Trent, is being hunted by British cops for slashing a man’s face during a burglary.
The Spanish bar owner, 54, had run the bar with his Birmingham-born wife.
But in January he was alone at the venue when he was attacked by the gang, who escaped with £700.
The shocked victim was hospitalised and he and his partner later sold the bar.
But they claim they later recognised their attacker after a UK police appeal about the 10 most wanted British criminals hiding out in Spain.
The bar owner’s wife, originally from Great Barr, spoke out about the cowardly attack.
“We couldn’t believe it,” said the 55 year-old, who asked not to be named.
“We read about Jonathon Lejman in a Spanish newspaper and my husband said: ‘That’s the man who beat me up!’

sentenced to 11 years in Spain in 2001 for the murder of an associate who he had stabbed 14 times while under the influence of drink and drugs.

convicted killer who carried out a ferocious attack on a Nutfield woman, stabbing her to death, has been jailed for life for her murder.

David Baxendale, 40, subjected 38-year-old mother-of-three Sarah Thomas to a “sustained and savage attack” in her flat just hours after meeting her.

She suffered multiple injuries, including a fatal knife wound to the neck, in the brutal assault in May last year.

Baxendale then fled the country on a ferry and travelled to southern Spain where he had been jailed for a previous murder in 2001.

The murder hunt launched by Surrey Police's Major Crime Investigation Team pinpointed Baxendale as the prime suspect, and detectives tracked his movements through Europe.

He was caught in Spain when a holidaymaker recognised him from a media appeal.

He was arrested by local police and extradited back to Britain to face justice.

Baxendale, who has a history of violence dating back 20 years, was found guilty of murder by a jury at Guildford Crown Court following a three-week trial, and was sentenced to a whole-life term.

The court heard that at the time of her death, Miss Thomas was living in a flat at The Spinning Wheel building in Nutfield, and was known to keep company with a number of people who had alcohol-related or other anti-social problems.

On the afternoon of May 10 last year, she met Baxendale at a friend's flat in Redhill and the pair caught a taxi back to her flat at around 5pm.

Miss Thomas' boyfriend David Bowden tried to call her as he was worried for her safety, but by the time he got to the flat, he found her lying on the living room floor covered in blood.

Although the emergency services arrived shortly after, they were unable to revive her and she died at the scene.

Baxendale, who had been drinking during the day, was spotted running from the building and witnesses saw him in the Nutfield area over the next 90 minutes.

A knife, which was found to have both his and Miss Thomas' blood on it, was later found near a tree, and a plastic bag containing his blood-stained jacket was found under a bench in a garden.

Baxendale ran through fields and paths before eventually catching a taxi to Walton-on-the-Hill, where his mother lived.

A bag, hidden in a hedge in a nearby lane, was discovered later, containing a T-shirt and jeans with the defendant's DNA on them, and a pair of trainers stained with Miss Thomas' blood.

Baxendale's fingerprints were also found in his victim's blood by the window of her flat and on the neck of a Bacardi bottle.

The day after the murder, he made his way to Portsmouth, where he was seen shaving his head in the public toilets of a local shopping centre.

He later used his brother's passport to book a one-way ticket to St Malo in France, leaving on a ferry that evening.

He gradually made his way to Fuengirola near Marbella in Spain, where he was arrested on June 21 after a member of the public recognised him as a man he had met in a bar while on holiday.

Baxendale was flown back to Heathrow accompanied by Surrey officers, and declined to be interviewed.

The court heard he had a number of previous convictions for violence involving knives, and was sentenced to 11 years in Spain in 2001 for the murder of an associate who he had stabbed 14 times while under the influence of drink and drugs.

He was deported back to the UK in June 2008 and released from prison in September 2009 to be placed under the care of Surrey Probation Service.

Just five days before Sarah Thomas' murder, Baxendale threatened to kill another woman who he had met while attending Probation, and who had stopped returning his calls.

Detective Chief Inspector Steve Hayes, who led the investigation, said: "This was a truly tragic case.”

Det Chief Insp Hayes said: “Sarah Thomas was the victim of a sustained and savage attack in her own home at the hands of a man she had only just met that afternoon.

"The number of injuries she suffered and the ferocity used was truly shocking.”

He continued: "David Baxendale already had a history of offences involving knives spanning the last 20 years, including a previous conviction for murder.

"He is clearly an extremely dangerous and callous individual whose propensity for violence knows no bounds.

"He has not shown a shred of remorse for this horrific crime and instead tried to flee the country in a bid to evade capture.”

what ­happened to a Briton who was shot and wounded by a lone gunman on Spain’s Costa del Sol.

POLICE were yesterday trying to find out

The incident was ­witnessed by several people at Nueva Andalucia, near Puerto Banus.

The victim was hit in the leg when a man on a motor scooter fired two shots ­before driving off.

The Brit did not wait for an ­ambulance but was ­driven away at speed by ­another man.

A police spokesman said: “The incident bore all the hallmarks of a settling of scores between

Armed police swooped on Stephen Devalda, 28, while he was checking out of a hotel with friends in Marbella.

Armed police swooped on Stephen Devalda, 28, while he was checking out of a hotel with friends in Marbella.

Devalda failed to attend his Burnley Crown Court trial for the 2005 robbery of a Royal Mail van at the Asda store, in Corporation Street, Colne.

He was accused of holding a gun to a security guard’s head and beating him with a machete while forcing him to hand over £25,000.

Detectives now say the net is closing in on his accomplice, Andrew Moran, also 28, who fled from the dock, at the same trial, after being convicted over the Pendle raid.

Earlier this year detectives also apprehended Devalda’s brother, 24-year-old Sean Devalda, in Amsterdam, who was on the run in relation to an armed attack on a Group 5 cash van in Agecroft, Salford, in February 2007.

Detectives had tracked Stephen Devalda to Thailand, from the Spanish resort, after his brother’s dramatic arrest.

But he later returned, on a false passport, and was detained at a Marbella hotel by armed officers, working with Spanish police, just after 5.45pm, local time, on Monday.

The brothers were targeted as part of a joint operation, codenamed Operation Gulf, conducted by the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) and Greater Manchester Police.

Stephen Devalda is now being held in Spanish custody and is awaiting extradition proceedings back to the UK.

Matt Burton, SOCA spokesman, said: “The excellent co-operation of the Spanish police has led to the capture of Stephen Devalda.

“Now we have Andrew Moran in our sights.

“I am confident the net is closing in on him.”

Det Insp Simon Cheyte, of Lancashire Police, said: “Stephen Devalda has been wanted by Lancashire Constabulary since he failed to appear at Burnley Crown Court in 2007 having been charged with conspiracy to commit robbery.

"We have worked incredibly hard, not only here in Lancashire, but with our colleagues across the globe in order to trace him.”

BRITISH man has been injured in yet another shooting incident in Nueva Andalucía, Marbella.

BRITISH man has been injured in yet another shooting incident in Nueva Andalucía, Marbella. 
It happened on Thursday afternoon at 3,15pm in Calle Califa in the centre of the urbanisation.

Several witnesses reported that a person riding a motorbike with his face covered, approached the victim, who was an English speaker and who is thought to be British, and fired two gunshots.

The first shot missed because the victim ducked, and ended up in the wall of a local shop. The second bullet however hit the victim in the leg.

The National Police were called to the scene but on their arrival the victim had vanished. Witnesses told the police that another man had picked him up in a four wheel drive vehicle.
Police say that it appears that the injured man has not asked for treatment at any local hospital.

The shooting took place in Nueva Andalucía where there have been several shootings over recent years, usually with drug trafficking as a backdrop. One of the most serious was in December 2009 when a British man was shot three times, once in the head.

Calpe couple sent an electricity bill for 6,400 €

The power company had not made a real reading of their meter for three yearsA client looks at her electricity bill - EFE


Francisco de la Fuente and his wife Lidia, a pensioner couple from Calpe have received an electricity bill for 6,400 € and have had to ask for a bank loan to pay it.

The bill corresponds to a real meter reading and comes given the circumstance that the power company had not made a real reading on the property since 2007, consistently estimating below the real consumption.

El Mundo reports that the couple have been paying the bills sent to them over the past three years.

Lidia said, ‘My husband, who is ordered ad nauseam, has saved all the facturas. Some have been for 20 € others nearly 100 €, until they called us from the bank last October to tells us that they wanted 6,400 €’.

The couple has been in touch with the Consumers’ Office and has also established contact with Iberdrola for an explanation, but have heard nothing.
‘They tell they are very sorry, but we can’t do anything except pay up’.

British man who caused a fire in the Sierra Nevada Nature Park

British man who caused a fire in the Sierra Nevada Nature Park on September 22 2005, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison and fined 10.6 million €.

The Penal Court 4 in Granada also found 65 year old Michael R.H. guilty of the crime of reckless fire starting and handed down another 1,800 € fine.

Michelle M.N.S. a French woman who was with the Briton at the time of the incident was found not guilty.

The judge explained the ten million € fine corresponds to the concept of compensation in civil responsibility, and that the Briton has to make the payment to the Andalucía regional government.

The court heard how Michael and Michelle, who were spending their holidays in the Granada village of Acequias, had gone for a walk with the intention of reaching Lanjarón. As dusk fell they thought they were lost and made a call to the emergency number 112. They found a ruin, and ‘with the intention of being seen’ Michael lit a fire using tree branches and dry leaves which he put inside a circle of stones.

Michelle supplied the matches even though Michael was judged not to have properly cleared the area to stop the propagation of the fire. As soon as it was lit it was clear the fire was out of control, and the couple made another call to 112 to say they could not put out the blaze.

The couple where found at 10,30pm that night, but work to extinguish the fire took eight days and covered an area of 3,354 hectares of farming and forestry land, 2,102 of which was inside the Sierra Nevada National Park.

Englishman who spent ten years on the run

Englishman who spent ten years on the run after failing to appear at a Glasgow court on serious drugs charges has been tracked down to Manchester.

Andrew Spooner, 41, from Leicester, was one of ten men on a ‘most wanted’ list who were thought to be hiding out in Spain.

Spooner, from Leicester, was arrested by officers from the Serious Organized Crime Agency at around 6.30pm on Thursday in Salford, Greater Manchester. He had failed to appear at the High Court in Glasgow in 2001, a year after he was arrested in Edinburgh.

Spooner is the third man to be rounded up in the past month as part of a large-scale police investigation dubbed Operation Captura.

Since being launched in October 2006 in the Costa del Sol region of Spain, the inquiry has snared 41 out of the 60 names on its list.

Dave Cording, Director of Operations at Crimestoppers, said: "This is an incredible achievement and I would like to thank the public for contacting us with information. I would like to take this opportunity to appeal to public to take a look at the remaining 19 wanted individuals and call us and tell us what you know, not who you are.

"I would also like to send out a message to the remaining wanted individuals that you can run but you can’t hide forever because someone, somewhere, will recognise you.

"If you have any information on the remaining appeals remember you can contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or through our website crimestoppers-uk.org"

Two Scots still on the run are 31-year-old William Paterson, who is wanted in connection with the murder of Glasgow gangland figure Kevin ‘Gerbil’ Carroll, and 47-year-old Derek McGraw Ferguson, who is wanted over the murder of Thomas Cameron at the Auchinairn Tavern in Auchinairn on June 28, 2007.

Tráfico Guardia Civil is reported to only be issuing speeding tickets for drivers who go over 132km/hr.

Tráfico Guardia Civil is reported to only be issuing speeding tickets for drivers who go over 132km/hr.

The Union of Civil Guard Officials, UOGC, say that they have only received verbal orders since the change in the maximum speed on Spanish motorways was reduced from 120km/hr to 110, and that speed trap radars are continuing to operate on the parameters which were set before.

The UOGC says the only written instructions that they know about on the matter were issued in 2006, and that the change in the speed limit imposed by the Government is generating confusion ‘not only among the citizens, but also among the traffic agents’.

The Government has meanwhile said the 110km/hr limit will save 1.4 billion € in petrol imports, money which Industry Minister, Miguel Sebastián, said would be converted into an increase in the national income and in employment