Italian Mafia in Spain

Italian Mafia in Spain. Twelve capos have been arrested in the past three months, forcing police to admit that the Camorra and N’drangheta from Calabria and the Sicilian Mafia are now a very real presence on the Iberian peninsula.Many come to Spain attracted by the opportunity to deal cocaine or to launder millions of euros through property. Others hope to escape the unwelcome attention of Italian investigators and Carabinieri by blending into the established Italian communities in Spain.A growing awareness among Spanish judicial authorities about the organised criminals has forced police to cooperate with their Italian counterparts.Among those arrested in Spain are Francesco Simeoli, Patrizio Bosti, Raffaele Laurenti, Mario Santafede, Marco Assegnati, and one of the Camorra “soldiers”, Paolo Pesce.General Gaetano Maruccia, the head of the Neapolitan Carabinieri, said: “There are many camorristas in Spain. Some deal in drugs, others are fugitives. They know the terrain, they invest in construction and have highly efficient companies which allow them to launder money from extortion and drugs.” Barcelona, with its large Italian population, has proved popular with Mafia bosses who want to disappear. Salvatore Zazo, 52, was arrested near La Sagrada Familia, Antoni GaudÍ’s unfinished Modernist church, earlier this month.Zazo was the boss of the Mazzarella clan within the Camorra and was wanted for trafficking cocaine between Colombia and Naples. Within the Camorra there are up to 80 clans; Zazo negotiated drug deals between three of them, authorities said.A source at the Catalan regional police told The Times: “These capos are coming to Barcelona because there is a large Italian population and they can disappear easily or they can operate more easily. It is also quite close to Italy – and the weather is quite nice, which is important.” Roberto Saviano, the Italian journalist behind the bestselling book and film Gomorrah, about the Neapolitan Mafia, said that Spain has long been regarded by the Camorra as a crucial part of its criminal empire.

more than a million flats for sale currently in Spain, forecast is they will take three years to sell at a 30% discount

Price of housing in Spain has to fall a further 30% for the market to adjust as needed, according to a study by the Confederation of Spanish Savings Banks, FUNCAS. The report defends the lack of credit coming from the banks, describing the closing of the tap as ‘absolutely rational’.The study showed that there are more than a million flats for sale currently across the country, and forecast they will take three years to sell.The study was presented by José García Montalvo, an economics professor at the Pompeu Fabra university in Barcelona, who said that prices had to fall a total of between 40% and 50% since the real estate bubble burst at the end of 2007 and start of 2008. Property prices so far had only fallen between 8% and 10% he said.He also claimed that there were many ‘sub-prime’ clients in Spain, and said he had seen credits awarded to people who had no credit record obtaining 100% mortgages with monthly payments of more than 40% of their income.

Antonio Caiazzo, 50, and Francesco Simeoli, 40, arrested in Spain

Antonio Caiazzo, 50, and Francesco Simeoli, 40, are believed to be heads of a clan in the Naples-area mafia, the Camorra, Naples police said in a statement.Caiazzo has been on the run since March 2007 after being sentenced to 12 years in prison by a Naples court.Simeoli, believed to be his deputy, has been a fugitive since June 2007, when an arrest warrant was issued for him for alleged links to the Camorra.
The arrest warrant also targeted Caiazzo and about 30 others believed to be affiliated with the Vomero clan.Spanish police said in a statement that the clan is known for “a brutal internal Camorra war that culminated in 1997 with the Aranella massacre, in which a woman died in the crossfire between two clans.”
Caiazzo’s clan escaped unscathed, becoming the “uncontested leader,” the statement said.Their capture comes after a series of arrests of suspected Camorra members in recent months in Spain, where the mafia has been accused of working with Colombian drug traffickers.“The Camorra and Colombian cartels work together in Spain” where the Naples mafia manages part of the cocaine trafficking, an Italian police official told the El Pais daily earlier this month — three days after the arrest in Barcelona of another Camorra leader, Salvatore Zazo.

Richard Keogh was gunned down by a hitman who lured him on to the street with a phone call.

Richard Keogh was gunned down by a hitman who lured him on to the street with a phone call.As the 30-year-old man left his bar rendezvous with a South American pal, a car stopped and a hitman emerged. He fired at Keogh, hitting him once in front of his girlfriend, before chasing after his target. He shot the Dubliner a further six times -- including twice in the head. The gunman was driven off in the stolen getaway car, which was recovered nearby with its keys in the ignition. A pair of gloves and a spent handgun magazine were also discovered in the car. All the materials are being examined. The car was found a kilometre away from the scene of the murder, at the Torrequebrada hotel and casino at Benalmadena, southern Spain. The Venezuelan man who had been drinking with Keogh in the minutes before his death was interviewed by police yesterday, but is not a suspect. He was held in custody after police discovered an arrest warrant existed for him in Venezuela. The garda liaison officer, based in Madrid, is now working with Spanish National Police to uncover any links between the murder and a previous attempt on Keogh's life in Ireland 14 months ago. Keogh survived after being struck in the arm, as he carried one of his children out the front door of his home on the Belfry estate in Duleek, Co Louth, in November 2007. He relocated to Spain with his partner and four children shortly afterwards. "Keogh knew he was under threat and that the gang who targeted him in Duleek were still out to get him. He had no major falling out with any Costa gangs we known about, so the Dublin connection is a strong line of investigation," said a source. Keogh came to garda attention as a major criminal around five years ago, when then gang boss Marlo Hyland used him as a bagman during drug dealing activities in north Dublin.

Arrests in the Body in the suitcase

25 year old man and a 40 year old woman have been arrested in connection with the death of a man whose body was found last Tuesday inside a suitcase which had been abandoned on waste ground in Benimaclet in Valencia.It seems the two arrested on Friday were romantically involved, and were arrested after the daughter of the woman alerted police to the fact that her boyfriend was missing. His description matched that of the man found in the suitcase. Police think that the arrested man could earlier have also have had a romantic involvement with the daughter. The mother had told her daughter, who is pregnant by the victim, that he had left the area on a business trip.The body in the half-open suitcase, which was found by chance, had six stab wounds and showed signs of torture. The victim and the two arrested are all from Honduras.

Juan Antonio Roca, the ex Municipal Real Estate assessor, has been sentenced

Juan Antonio Roca, the ex Municipal Real Estate assessor, has been sentenced in the fourth section of the Penal Hall of the National Court in Spain to six years ten months in prison. Roca was sentenced to five years in prison for the misuse of public funds, and an additional 22 months for document falsification.
He and two others charged in the Saqueo case also have to pay back 23 million to Marbella Town Hall.José Luis Sierra, the ex judicial advisor to the late Mayor, Jesús Gil, has to serve nine years in prison, seven for the misuse of public funds and two for document falsification.The accountant, Manuel Jorge Castel, has been given six years for the misuse of public funds and two for document falsification.
Another three accused were found not guilty. These are Eduardo Gonzálvez and Francisco Javier Herrera, who were employed by the two municipal companies, Planeamientos 2000, and Contratas 2000, and Purificación Notario, wife of the late manager of Contratas 2000.The case relates to the diversion of public funds into private companies from the Marbella Town Hall between 1991 and 1995. The sentencing has been announced by the magistrate, Juan Francisco Martel, who heard the case between October 10 and November 27 last year. He concluded that the three found guilty created a preconceived plan to divert the public money.

Female Striptease performance at Spanish jail angers guards

A prison guards' union says a female stripper performed at a Spanish jail and authorities did nothing to stop it.The union says the woman took her clothes off before male inmates Jan. 2 and committed several lewd acts at the prison in Picassent in the eastern Valencia region.An official with the Spanish Penitentiary System called it an inappropriate "musical performance" and said an investigation was trying to find out who authorized it.The union called ACAIP reported the event in a complaint filed Jan. 8 with the prison system and reported Thursday in Spanish media.The complaint says a female deputy warden witnessed the striptease in a recreation area and did not stop it. It says several female guards left the room in disgust.

Spain faced a "very high risk" of suffering another Islamist attack

Six people of Pakistani origin were arrested on suspicion of " fraud" Tuesday in Barcelona, northeastern Spain, Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said.Earlier in the day, a source close to the inquiry had said police detained 10 suspected Islamic extremists in raids in Barcelona, Madrid and the Canary Islands in an operation ordered by top antiterrorist judge Baltazar Garzon.Rubalcaba gave no further details as to possible charges, but a judicial source told AFP the six arrested in Barcelona are suspected of financing terrorist activities by carrying out thefts and sending money raised from criminal activities to Pakistan.The six had traveled to Barcelona from different parts of Spain, the source added.Spanish police have carried out several operations against suspected Islamic extremists since the bomb attacks on three packed commuter trains in Madrid on March 11, 2004 which killed 191 people in Europe's worst Islamic-linked terror attack.Islamic extremists claimed responsibility for the attack, which they said they had carried out in the name of al-Qaida in response to the presence of Spanish troops in Iraq at the time.
Police detained 15 suspected Islamic militants, mostly from Pakistan, in January 2008 in Barcelona who the authorities feared were plotting an attack in the city, which has a large population of Pakistani immigrants.Garzon has warned that Spain faced a "very high risk" of suffering another Islamist attack

Banco Santander SA sold Bernard Madoff investments Branch managers channeled customers with money from property sales or inheritances

Banco Santander SA sold Bernard Madoff investments Branch managers channeled customers with money from property sales or inheritances to private banking salespeople, lawyers for the investors said. A retired school teacher put 300,000 euros ($388,000), half her savings, in a structured product linked to Madoff, said Jordi Ruiz de Villa, an attorney at the Barcelona law firm Jausas. The vendor invested 325,000 euros of lottery winnings in a similar product and may have to return to street sales, according to lawyers at Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo in Madrid.
“The fact that someone has a sum of money in the bank doesn’t make him a suitable customer for this type of product,” said Ruiz de Villa, who’s representing about 30 account-holders with potential claims of 10 million euros, including the teacher. “Some retail clients have suffered true
personal catastrophes because of this.” He wouldn’t provide the teacher’s name. Santander, Spain’s biggest lender, may lose customers at the domestic branch network that accounts for a third of profit if it is found to have misled people who trusted their neighborhood bankers, said Peter Hahn, a fellow at Cass Business School in London. The bank, led by Chairman Emilio
Botin, has said clients have 2.33 billion euros invested with Madoff, including 320 million euros from private banking customers in Spain. “The model in Spain where customers just left it to Big
Daddy Botin to take care of things has been broken,” said Fernando Zunzunegui, a Madrid-based lawyer. He said he is taking on Madoff-related claims valued at 8.2 million euros from 20 clients who are “clearly retail.” He declined to provide detailed information about his firm’s clients.
Ruiz de Villa and Zunzunegui said they are signing up clients and reviewing the cases in preparation for filing possible lawsuits against Santander. Javier Cremades, chairman of Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo, said he’ll push for a settlement first. New York-based Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC collapsed last month after Madoff told his sons it was a $50
billion Ponzi scheme, according to a complaint filed by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Worldwide, the victims include banks, charities and investors such as Madrid-based billionaire Alicia Koplowitz and film director Steven Spielberg. Santander, based in the Spanish city of the same name, on Dec. 14 said international private banking clients and institutional investors had 2.01 billion euros of potential losses in Madoff-related funds. The rest of the money is in
investments sold to “qualifying investors” in SpainBranch customers were sold products linked to Madoff through Santander’s Geneva-based Optimal Investment Services hedge-fund arm, said the three lawyers representing the bank’s customers. Investors were asked to sign statements that they understood what they were purchasing and met the criteria for
investing. The bank has said it won’t compensate clients who invested with Madoff because the losses involve fraud. A spokeswoman for Santander said the bank had no further comment on the matter. Selling structured products to wealthy clients has been a popular strategy in Spain and wasn’t in itself wrong, because Santander believed it would yield safe and stable returns, said Fernando Luque, an analyst at Morningstar Inc. in Madrid. “Many of these institutions like Santander are going to be protected by the documentation, but the question is how great is the business damage from all this,” Hahn of Cass Business School said.

alleged Moroccan drug trafficker, who has been arrested in Melilla, has confessed to having carried out several assassinations,

alleged Moroccan drug trafficker, who has been arrested in Melilla, has confessed to having carried out several assassinations, and of hiding the bodies in a well in Murcia. He claimed that another Moroccan and a Spaniard of gypsy origin took part in the killings.
Firemen, the Guardia Civil and some soldiers spent Wednesday searching for the bodies and reports now indicate that at least two have now been found. One of the bodies is thought to have been killed ten years ago, the other five.Work continues at the site of a 30m deep well in an area of Cartagena known as Pozo Estrecho.
The Government delegate for Murcia, Rafael González Tovar, has said that the police and judicial action in the case is now under reporting restrictions.

Judges in Madrid have voted by a wide majority in support of strike action

Judges in Madrid have voted by a wide majority in support of strike action, voting 103 votes to 19 to take the strike action which is to start on February 18. The decision in Madrid follows similar decisions to take action in Murcia, Extremadura, Zamora, Málaga and Sevilla on the same day.The judges say they are short-staffed and need more resources so as to carry out their jobs. Despite some concessions from the Ministry, the protests for now remain in place with judges in Barcelona and Asturias also reported to be considering action.
The main judges associations are to meet with the Minister for Justice, Mariano Fernández Bermejo, on Monday.If the protest goes ahead on February 18, it will be the first time that judges have taken strike action in Spain.

Spanish Civil Guards arrested six Pakistani nationals Tuesday

Spanish Civil Guards arrested six Pakistani nationals Tuesday, accused of sales tax fraud, a Civil Guard spokesman in Madrid told CNN.The spokesman declined to confirm Spanish media reports that the suspects may have been involved in financing Islamic extremist activities.But the arrests occurred across Spain in an operation directed by Spain's anti-terrorism National Court.The suspects were detained in Barcelona, the southeast region of Valencia, the northern city of Logrono and in Las Palmas on Spain's Gran Canaria Island in the Atlantic, off the coast of Morocco, said the Civil Guard spokesman, who by custom is not identified.Since the Madrid train bombings in 2004 that killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,800 --- which a court found was due to Islamic terrorists --- Spanish police have arrested numerous suspects for financing Islamic terrorism

Sub-Saharan man has been killed in a street fight

Sub-Saharan man has been killed in a street fight in El Ejido, Almería. The man from Mali is said to have died at 0930 on Tuesday morning after being hit with a stick by a countryman, who has now been arrested.National Police are investigating the reasons for the disturbance.

Case to answer against the mayor of Alhaurin el Grande and his wife .

It seems that more than 150,000 euros entered their bank account from unknown sources and plots of land were acquired without any payment being made . The prosecutor is talking about bribery , money laundering and the planning of crimes .It appears that 23 other people are involved in what has become known as the ” Troya ” corruption case .It all started in 2007 when an investigation discovered that money was exchanging hands with the town hall in return for building licenses .It was also discovered tht an extra charge was being made for every square metre being being built over and above the building license .The mayor and the councillor involved in planning were both arrested and released on 100,000 euro bail .The mayor is still in situ and says that he is not going to move out of office until he is accused and found guilty of the crimes as it is he will go on about his business as usual . He sees the public prosecutor in Malaga as “trying to make a name for himself”

Discount grocer Kwik Save, has been resurrected on the Costa del Sol.

Discount grocer Kwik Save, has been resurrected on the Costa del Sol.
Peter O'Toole, a former director at Irish grocer Musgrave, bought the rights to the name from the administrator and opened a 5,000 sq ft store in Torremuelle late last year.O'Toole said initial reactions to the opening have been positive among the large British ex-pat community. "Most people have been really enthusiastic because there are no real discounters here," he said.He added that sterling's weakness against the euro was making the grocer an attractive proposition. He wants to open at least 10 stores within the next 18 months with franchise partners and is in discussions with Musgrave.Kwik Save stocks about 3,500 products from the UK.

Mayor of La Linea, Juan Carlos Juárez, has been suspended from his post for six months by the Penal Court 2 in Algeciras

Mayor of La Linea, Juan Carlos Juárez, has been suspended from his post for six months by the Penal Court 2 in Algeciras on a charge of obstructing justice.
The ex GIL party member also has to pay 720 € in the so-called Caso Palex.It dates back to 2001 when the La Linea Town Hall was ordered by the Andalucian High Court to pay 1.84 million € to the Palez company which had the job between 1994 and 1998 of supplying hospital dialysis services, but the Town Hall, led by the Mayor, failed to pay all the debt, citing the economic crisis as the reason. Some 900,000 € including interest is reported to be still outstanding.

Nigerians continue to send thousands of false lottery letters from Andalucía and the Mediterranean Coast.

Nigerians continue to send thousands of false lottery letters from Andalucía and the Mediterranean Coast.The Nilo case led to the arrest of 310 people and the searching of 180 different premises, when the Málaga group was sending between 15,000 and 20,000 letters a day. But even now the police say that they are arresting a new group every two or three weeks.The United States Department of Justice estimates that there have been 2.8 million victims in the States who have paid out some 753 million €. Many of the victims pensioners or this disabled, according to the United States Government.In total some 100 million € is defrauded from more than 50 countries every year.This week the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor has called for 168 of those arrested in the Nilo case to be processed, but such a court case would be a complicated one. More than 100 of those arrested have already been expelled from Spain, while the rest are on bail, and for each victim known to the police there are an estimated 100 who are not, all of them living abroad.

Spanish ADSL is the slowest and most expensive in Europe

The Spanish Association of Internet Users has complained about the slowing growth rate of ADSL and cable connections in the country, and called for price reductions. They claim the Spanish ADSL is the slowest and most expensive in Europe.Last November there were 86,404 new ADSL connections, down 40% year on year.The Association says that it wants to see universal access to the web, sustained by public money. In the meantime they are calling for a liberalisation of prices, with the application of a reference maximum price

Dubai the new Costa del Crime

Crime bosses are fleeing to the United Arab Emirates state because there is no extradition treaty with the UK. Dubai has become a paradise for British fugitives on the run.They are also using the property market there as an easy way to launder their millions. Traditionally criminals fled to Spain's Costa del Sol, but because of the success in extraditing gangsters such as road rage killer Kenny Noye it is no longer considered safe.Among those believed to be in Dubai are £53million Securitas robbery suspect Sean Lupton, 48. Armed robber Noel Cunningham, 47, who escaped from a prison van while on the way to court in 2003, is also believed to be in Dubai.
A source at the Serious and Organised Crime Agency said: "Dubai has pretty much everything you could want as a criminal on the run. Apart from the obvious sun and luxury there is no comprehensive extradition treaty."That makes it very difficult for us to get them to send any wanted criminals back to the UK for trial. Dubai has become the bolthole of choice for the criminal underworld."

Spanish Bank guarantees that are in order are not being honoured as the Spanish property market goes into freefall.

Bank guarantees, or Aval Bancario, from developers have been compulsory by law on off-plan purchases in Spain for the past 40 years. They mean that if a developer fails to build on time, or goes into administration and does not build at all, buyers should get most or all of their money returned. Until recently they worked well. As the holiday home market boomed, few developers went bust and buyers would accept minor delays. If a buyer did claim a refund, developers and banks gladly obliged knowing that rising values and strong demand would see any subsequent unsold home snapped up.

But now Spain's property market is in free-fall. At least 15 developers building holiday homes on the Costas filed for bankruptcy last year. Thousands of homes remain part-built and buyers are calling in bank guarantees. But many are discovering they were given faulty documents by developers, or have guarantees with conditions that make them worthless. One major developer in administration, Martinsa-Fadesa, has been accused by the newspaper El Pais of not issuing bank guarantees at all.

"Until recently some developers would regard it as an insult to be asked for them by foreign buyers and just wouldn't issue them. In other cases guarantees exist but may be out of date or worded in a way that make banks feel they need not honour them," says Peter Ebders of the International Law Partnership, a British legal firm.
More ominously, Ebders says even some guarantees that are in order are not being honoured because banks do not want to pay out large sums in the current dire financial situation. Ruth Genda, from Wymondham in Leicestershire, fell foul of a worthless bank guarantee on an apartment in Marbella on the Costa del Sol. The retired educationalist put down a £75,000 deposit in 2003. But construction was delayed and then the flat was declared an "illegal build" for lacking formal planing permission. Genda took Banco Popular Hipotecaria (BPH) to court, which declared her guarantee valid. But BPH appealed and the original result was overturned. A further legal review found in the bank's favour.Genda says the lack of appropriate building consent makes the flat impossible to occupy: "We're not prepared or able to buy an illegal property. It can't be mortgaged and it can't be sold because of its status. Our coffers are drained by legal fees and other costs, and we're likely to lose our deposit." Genda has launched an online petition - gopetition.com/petitions/spanishbankguarantees.html - but is realistic about the slim chances of success. "The guarantees have been given under false pretences, and no one in authority we've approached - MPs, MEPs, ministers, ombudsmen and so on - have been able to help." More than 100 people claiming to have valid guarantees have signed Genda's petition. "The problem is widespread. Lots of Britons are caught up. It's scandalous," says Barcelona-based Mark Stucklin, editor of the website Spanish Property Insight. The Bank of Spain says it has told banks to honour valid guarantees but has no power to enforce the instruction. Lawyer Mark Wilkins of Marbella-based The Rights Group says any prospective buyer, or one in mid-purchase, should instruct a lawyer to check the eligibility of his bank guarantee - even if the developer appears not to be in financial difficulties.