Three people have been arrested in Almonte, Huelva, for allegedly building on protected land close to the Doñana Nature Park.

Three people have been arrested in Almonte, Huelva, for allegedly building on protected land close to the Doñana Nature Park.The buildings were to have been used for rural tourism, but the German owners of the land, the two German and Austrian promoters of the project in Alto de las Niñas, are now being held. A judicial order has taped up the site and the two buildings, built to host six beds in one and stables for 14 horses in another. A neighbouring villa and warehouse are also considered to have been built illegally.

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Man believed responsible for twelve armed robberies over the last two years that netted around a quarter of a million euros, was arrested in Huelva

Man believed responsible for twelve armed robberies over the last two years that netted around a quarter of a million euros, was arrested in Huelva last Friday. The 67 year old recommenced his activities in April 2006 after escaping from Villabona jail in Asturias, where he was serving time for 11 similar offences. After a lengthy investigation, the suspect was tracked down to a car dealership on the La Paz industrial estate where he had just bought a car using a false identity. A search of the man's home in El Portil (Huelva) yielded a wealth of incriminating evidence including a 32 calibre Taurus handgun, various fake identity documents, a fake Local Police badge, and pepper spray.

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Isabel García, the wife of Santiago del Valle, the man accused of the killing of the five year old girl from Huelva

Isabel García, the wife of Santiago del Valle, the man accused of the killing of the five year old girl from Huelva, Mari Luz Cortés, suffered a nervous attack while declaring before Instruction Court 1 in Huelva about the case. The extent of her indisposition was such that the hearing had to be suspended.She arrived at Huelva Provincial Court at 4,45pm yesterday evening and was first subjected to a forensic investigation to determine her mental health. When she was then taken before the judge she suffered the attack and an ambulance had to be called, which finally took her shouting and crying to the hospital at the Sevilla – II jail. She has been held in the psychiatric wing of the prison since the start of April, where she is serving an outstanding 15 month prison sentence for failing to report the sexual abuse her husband carried out on their own five year old daughter.
When and how the case continues is now in the hands of the judge.

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Drug arrests came after two boats ran out of fuel and had to wait in the estuary for a third to bring fresh supplies of gasoline

Eleven people have been arrested in connection with the smuggling of 5,100 kilos of hashish.‘Operación Carabela’ began last December and was an investigation into an international network of drugs smugglers bringing hashish into Spain via the Guadalquivir river and then distributing it throughout Europe.
Sometimes the organisation used fishing boats, other time they used speed boats. The arrests came after two boats ran out of fuel and had to wait in the estuary for a third to bring fresh supplies of gasoline. The Guardia Civil began a chase which led to the arrest of seven of the gang members. Three others, including the head of the organisation were subsequently arrested in Los Barrios, Cádiz and another was detained in Punta Umbria, Huelva.Raids on several houses belonging to the detainees resulted in the seizure of drugs and weapons.

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Mari Luz’s father, Juan José, forced his way into Santiago del Valle’s home, on the same day that Mari Luz disappeared

El Mundo reports that several people from the neighbourhood, including Mari Luz’s father, Juan José, and some of her uncles, forced their way into Santiago del Valle’s home, taking some papers on the same day that the child had vanished, knocking down the door in search of the youngster. This led the man who is now charged with the child’s murder to call the police for help. The police went to the home and initially thought it was a simple case of breaking and entering, deciding to put off making full enquires until the next day. When they returned, Santiago del Valle and his family had gone, and it was only some time later that police joined the dots in the case and realised that they were dealing with a known paedophile with a previous record.


Santiago del Valle García, the man arrested in connection with the death of five year old Mari Luz Cortés from Huelva, has been ordered to prison without bail by the judge in Instruction Court One in Huelva on charges of murder and against sexual freedom. The judge also told him that he must also serve the two years and nine month sentence handed down against him in 2006 by Penal Court One in Sevilla for abusing his own daughter.The judge also ordered prison without bail for Rosa del Valle, his sister who had also been arrested along with his wife and a brother. The wife, Isabel García, was released with charges after making her statement to the Instruction judge and is now reported to be staying outside Huelva province. Santiago and Rosa left the Huelva Provincial Court at a quarter to one this morning, bound for the jail in Huelva.Meanwhile the General Council for Judicial Power (CGPJ), the body which oversees the judiciary in Spain has opened an investigation as to why the alleged killer of Mari Luz had not served a single day in jail, despite two prison sentences against him. The latest was the firm 2 year 9 month sentence handed down against him by Penal Court One in Sevilla for the sexual abuse of his own five year old daughter. There was a second earlier sentence also, for two years in jail, handed down for the sexual abuse of a nine year old girl who he surprised on the stairs of her home, which he also somehow escaped serving.
It appears the official reason was that he was ‘whereabouts unknown' and had also appealed against the second sentence which had allowed him to avoid being placed inside. He had claimed that it was a gymnastics teacher who had abused his daughter, and not him, presenting a fake medical report at the time to support his case.

The court documents from Sevilla at the time make dramatic reading. Público quotes them as saying ‘On several occasions the accused, dropping his trousers, would make his daughter touch his member with her hands, and on other occasions he would masturbate while he touched her genital region. The mother was often present while this took place, and despite the opposition of the child who complained to her father that it hurt, never did anything to stop it taking place’. The court documents note that the mother, Isabel García, has an I.Q. of only 47, and she was clearly under the manipulative influence of her husband. The Sevilla court documents also indicate that Santiago del Valle suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, but also that the judge considered that when he abused his daughter he knew exactly what he was doing. The couple’s two daughters, now aged 9 and 15, are in the care of foster families. There is also a third case of a 13 year old girl in Gijón, against whom he was handed down a distancing order after he had been chatting to her on the internet and proposed sexual relations. The girl’s mother discovered the plan and informed the police in that case.The Government Delegate for Andalucía, Juan José López Garzón, commented that it was not for the police or the government to comment on the situation, and he was not going to make a judgement. He called for calm from the local population. However López Garzón did not deny that there was a search and capture order in place against Santiago del Valle since 2006. It appears that the Police investigators into the Mari Luz case knew nothing of this however, and were unaware that he lived less than 100 metres away from where she disappeared. However the local residents of this tight-knit community did know about Santiago del Valle’s past, and a few hours after Mari Luz vanished they had informed the missing girl’s parents.

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The parents of Mari Luz suspected this man from the first moment. Juan José Cortés, said this morning: “We know that it is him, we are sure, and this

The parents of Mari Luz suspected this man from the first moment. Juan José Cortés, said this morning: “We know that it is him, we are sure, and this is no surprise to me”One of the suspects of the death of Mari Luz confessed today to the Spanish police that the girl died in an accident, falling down the stairs. Santiago del Valle García also said that the girl went with him to his house willingly. The man is one of three neighbours of the Cortés family detained yesterday in the afternoon by the Spanish police and he had already a previous record as a paedophile.His wife, Isabel García, has also been arrested, although initially there is no suspicion that she has intervened in the actions, but only to interrogate her. This man was the number one suspect of the homicide since the first moment, mainly because the little girl was last seen alive while walking in front of his house, in the same neighbourhood, El Torrejon, where she resided with her family. Mari Luz disappeared on January 13, when she went to buy sweets at a kiosk. The sister of the suspect was freed meantime. The couple keeps on being questioned.
The principal suspect of the death of Mari Luz lived a few meters away from the Cortés family. The man went away from the district the following day after the disappearance of the child, with fear of retaliations. The Police, later on, found and questioned Santiago in Granada. He was detained some days later after the arrest, but was released at that time since there was no sufficient proof to indict him.
The police arrested him again yesterday in Pajaroncillo, a village of 100 inhabitants in the hills of Cuenca, hundreds of kilometres away of Huelva, together with his wife, Isabel, and sister. This arrest was done as a result of new evidence arising from the autopsy carried out on Mari Luz Cortés. He had travelled there, to receive his monthly pension, according to police sources. After his initial statement, during which he confessed to the crime, he now assures that the child "fell" and accidentally died. Frightened and with fear of being incriminated, he launched Mari Luz body to the river Huelva.
The 52-year-old man, Santiago del Valle García, had already been arrested for paedophilia and sexual abuses, including to one of his daughters, which was the motive why a judge had issued an order to keep the child at a distance from her father, to prevent him from harassing her again, according to police sources. The Spanish authorities suspect that the cause of the crime has a sexual nature. In 2002, Santiago was convicted by a court in Sevilla of continued sexual abuse against his own daughter, he tried to accuse the gymnastics teacher of abusing his 5 year old daughter and claimed compensations of 60.100 euros.He was condemned to 2 years and 9 months of imprisonment. In a later audience in the year of 2006, a judge considered that Santiago suffered 75% of paranoid schizophrenia and that his wife, Isabel suffered 65%. They children, a girl who has now 15 and a 9 year old boy, were taken from their custody and were sent to a 'foster' care family.

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Mari Luz Cortés family they have received a ransom demand for two million Euros.

The family of the missing five year old girl, Mari Luz Cortés, who vanished from Huelva in the middle of January, says they have received a ransom demand for two million Euros.
They say they received a phone call from an individual yesterday, who demanded two million € to release the child. But at a press conference held today in the Plaza Rosa del Torrejón, in Huelva, the missing child’s uncle, Diego Cortés, lamented the call which he described as ‘upsetting and senseless’, as it was believed the call is a hoax. He said that the family ‘was prepared to negotiate’ in the case of serious calls, adding that if the family would go personally to rescue Mari Luz if necessary. He said there was no chance of the family raising a sum of two million €, but that 300,000€ was possible.

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Seven people who were being held hostage in Lepe

A group of seven people who were being held hostage in Lepe and Cartaya, Huelva province, were freed this weekend, in a Civil Guard operation which took the seven kidnappers into custody. EFE says two of the kidnappers lived in Cartaya, itself, three others from elsewhere in Huelva province, another in Madrid and the seventh in Holland. Two of them have Moroccan nationality.
Four of the hostages were found under guard in two vehicles parked near the Marina Ocio shopping centre in Lepe following a report to Lepe local police from the son of one of those who were being held. He said his parent was being held by kidnappers in the area after being missing from home for two days.
The kidnappers were nearby and were arrested as they tried to escape.
The remaining three hostages were found near a chalet in Cartaya, four kilometres outside Lepe, after managing to escape when the kidnappers left. All seven were previously held captive in the property.
There was no indication in the report if the kidnappers had made any demands for a ransom.

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