Voodoo curses gang in the southwestern city of Huelva

Ringleaders of a human-trafficking ring that brought Nigerian women to Spain and forced them into prostitution by threatening them with Voodoo curses were brought before a judge on Saturday. Many of the 23 suspects were charged with human trafficking and extortion at the court in the southwestern city of Huelva, police said. The arrests occurred during nationwide raids that began Thursday and were continuing, police said. The crackdown was triggered by a woman who told police in February of the gang’s intimidation tactics. The gang tempted young Nigerian women to travel to Europe with promises of prosperity and later extorted money and controlled them through intimidation, police said in a statement.”

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As Ireland's gang war escalates, the coastal resorts of Spain have become home to dozens of Irish criminals who are on the run

As Ireland's gang war escalates, the coastal resorts of Spain have become home to dozens of Irish criminals who are on the run from Ireland for fear of their lives. Peter 'Fatso' Mitchell and John 'The Coach' Traynor are both living in Spain, and just last month Mitchell was shot outside a pub in what is believed to be a botched execution attempt. He was shot twice in the shoulder in the popular tourist resort of Puerto Banus.
John 'The Mexican' McKeown also set up home in the Spanish resort, but after vanishing in December 2006 he is feared dead. John Gilligan, who is now jailed, also has links to Alicante in Spain, where his daughter had run a pub called The Judge's Chambers. In 2003, Shane Coates and Stephen Sugg, both believed to be Westies thugs, fled to the area following a shoot-out with gardai in Co Cavan.
However, the pair are reported to have fallen out with a rival drug dealer and were executed in January 2004.

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Sir Mark Thatcher, son of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, branded a "dirty player"

"Spain is heavily mentioned by Simon Mann. It was where the plot started and that country has very good intelligence service," he said, adding that a special relationship still existed between the west African nation and its former colonial rulers. "And yet not a hint was given from Spain and we wonder why.
Sir Mark Thatcher, son of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, branded a "dirty player" who hoped to reap huge benefits from the plot and claimed that Ely Calil, the London-based businessman who allegedly financed the project, was planning to "silence" Mann. Mann, a 55-year-old former SAS soldier, faces the death penalty if convicted of leading attempted coup in 2004. Speaking ahead of the trial which opens today in the capital Malabo, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema said he "strongly suspected" that authorities in Britain, Spain and America were fully aware that a coup attempt was being staged and did nothing to stop it or warn him of the danger. He said he found it very hard to believe that three countries which had such powerful intelligence services could have failed to have known about the plot.
"Simon Mann is British and given his reputation as a mercenary his movements would have been monitored all the time by British intelligence," the leader of the oil-rich nation said. "And yet they did nothing."
He said the same was true of Spain where Severo Moto, the opposition leader who was to be installed as the new president following the coup, now lives in exile.
"The US has the greatest involvement in Equatorial Guinea with investments worth $30 billion (£15 billion) that they have a right to protect. For the US to not to have taken notice or claim ignorance of the movements of the plotters is doubtful."
But he admitted that there was little he could do to prove it, saying: "We don't have firm evidence that Western powers were involved, just strong suspicions."
At a press conference in his presidential office, the former governors' house from Spanish colonial times, the president, who wore a diamond-encrusted gold watch, claimed he was aware of Sir Mark Thatcher's role in the alleged plot. "He is known as a dirty player. He spent his life getting involved in all sorts of dubious deals and he jumped quickly into this boat expecting to reap huge financial benefits," the 66-year-old leader said of the former British Prime Minister's son. Equatorial Guinea has said it will issue an international warrant for his arrest and others named by Mann as co-conspirators.
A friend of Sir Mark last night said: "Sir Mark has made it clear he was not involved in the alleged attempted coup and has no further comment to make. "He doesn't know Sir Mark and Sir Mark doesn't know him and I suggest he keeps his opinions to himself." Security on the island had been heightened ahead of the trial amid fears that an assassination attempt would be made on the nation's most famous defendant. "We have precise information about this and have taken measures to ensure his safety," said the president. "This Ely Calil is a man with a lot of money and a lot to lose. He will try his best to kill Simon Mann or kidnap him or any other means of silencing him because he doesn't want Mann to continue revealing information that could be used against him."
Mr Calil, who has denied knowledge of the plot, has previously accused the president of bringing a "malicious prosecution" against him.
Jose Pablo Nvo, the lawyer hired last week to defend Mann, yesterday said his client seemed in good spirits but was understandably nervous about the trial.
"He feels as anyone would feel ahead of such an event," Mr Nvo said. "He is a human being after all and therefore feels nervous. But he seems relaxed and we had a glass of wine together." The president last night assured reporters the trial would meet international standards. "I do believe the trial of Simon Mann will qualify as just and transparent on all levels set by international standards," the president said.
It was hoped that Mann would give evidence from a purpose built bullet proof glass box in the courtroom, the location of which is a closely guarded secret, but it has not been constructed in time for the opening of proceedings this morning.
Instead, authorities have introduced a raft of security measures designed to protect Mann. Those attending court, including journalists, international observers and lawyers, will be forced to leave their shoes outside and don flip flops . Long sleeve shirts, wristwatches and pens have also been banned.
The president denied the measures were extreme. "We are very much aware of sophisticated gadgetry and weaponry that can be used to inflict harm," he said.
If Mann is convicted and avoids the death sentence, it is possible that he may be able to serve at least some of his sentence in a UK prison.
The president said he would not rule out sanctioning such a move if the judges felt he had cooperated fully with authorities. "If they think that the level of cooperation has been good enough there might be some clemency," he said. "It could be that we negotiate with the British government."

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Spanish police have arrested 16 people suspected of being part of a gang that stole hundreds of tons copper for sale in Spain

Spanish police have arrested 16 people, most of them Romanians, suspected of being part of a gang that stole hundreds of tons copper for sale in Spain and abroad, the interior ministry has said.It said the theft of copper rolls from a solar park in the southern region of Albacete led police to a warehouse where the gang had hidden around 1.6 tonnes of copper as well as machines for making fake identity cards.
The ministry said in March that police had detained 77 Romanians suspected of being part of a gang that stole copper to ship to China and Germany.Surging demand on the global market for copper, used in phone lines, power cables, radiators and air conditioners, is driving thefts of the material around the world.

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David Geering computers were traced to an internet cafe in London’s Victoria district, an address in Hertfordshire and a property in Spain.

David Geering, 48, had been a detective with the Metropolitan Police’s Homicide and Serious Crime Command. But all the time he was a child sex pervert trading hundreds of vile images with other sickos. A number of photos featured the most extreme kind of child abuse.Geering was found to have taken indecent photos of two kids himself. He used the false name Nigel Robotham to cover his tracks but was nabbed when he made internet contact with someone he thought was a 12-year-old girl. It was actually a fake identity assumed by officers from the Met Police Paedophile Unit.
Three of his computers were traced to an internet cafe in London’s Victoria district, an address in Hertfordshire and a property in Spain.
Checks with other forces revealed Geering’s evil trade in images of kids. Geering was jailed at London’s Southwark Crown Court on 20 counts of distributing indecent images of children and two counts of taking indecent images of children.
The cop of 27 years was convicted last month. Det Supt Sue Knight of the Met’s Child Abuse Investigation Command said: “It is a reminder to paedophiles that wherever they go and whatever their occupation, the Met will track them down.”

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“We’re waking up from the property dream and finding ourselves in a situation where prices are falling in Spain for the first time,”

“We’re waking up from the property dream and finding ourselves in a situation where prices are falling in Spain for the first time,” said Fernando Encinar, a founder of Idealista.com, a real estate Web site.In Spain, more than four million homes were built in the last decade, more than in Germany, Britain and France combined. Average house prices tripled in parts of the country, as Spain’s torrid economy attracted immigrants and Northern Europeans snapped up holiday homes along the Costa del Sol.
Now, though, thousands of those houses stand empty. The I.M.F. estimates that property is overvalued by more than 15 percent. With mortgages drying up and prices swooning, speculators who once viewed Spanish property as a no-lose proposition are confronting hard reality.In 2005, Julian Felipe Fernandez bought three small apartments, as an investment, in a huge development being built outside Madrid. He paid 100,000 euros as a deposit for the units, and now he is eager to sell them to avoid having to taking on a costly mortgage. But with the market stalled, Mr. Fernandez’s asking price is what he paid for them.“Three years ago, it looked like I would be able to flip them for a nice profit before they were finished,” he said. “I just want to get them off my hands, to get rid of this headache.”If he unloads them, he will be lucky. Enric Bueno, head of marketing for Ibusa, a real estate company in Barcelona, said his firm was closing six or seven sales a month, compared with 40 a month a year ago.“Things are really bad,” Mr. Bueno said. “If this goes on for five years, we won’t make it.”Economists have been busy cutting their growth forecasts for Spain, with a few saying that it may stagnate this summer. BBVA, a leading Spanish bank, forecasts that unemployment will rise to an average of 11 percent this year, from 8.6 percent in 2007.

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Jessica Almada, who has spent the last eighteen months behind bars pending trial, has been cleared on charges of drug-smuggling

Argentinian model Jessica Almada, who has spent the last eighteen months behind bars pending trial, has been cleared on charges of drug-smuggling by a judge in Barcelona. Jessica, who turned 20 during her incarceration, was arrested with fellow model and compatriot, Belén Téllez, who has also been cleared, at Barcelona's El Prat airport after their manager and fellow passenger, Alejandro Jorge Panno, was found to be carrying 16kg of cocaine in four suitcases. Panno, who insisted during his trial that the girls knew nothing about the drugs, was convicted to serve 11 years behind bars and was fined two million euros. Jessica's lawyer revealed yesterday that the girls are planning to claim compensation for the time they spent in jail, but recognised that it is going to be difficult given that it is normal for foreigners awaiting trial to be remanded without bail given the high perceived risk that they would try and flee the country if granted bail.

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Portugal,Spain and the Canary Islands are being linked in child abductions

Jeremy Vargas vanished from his home in Gran Canaria just eight weeks before four-year-old Madeleine went missing in Praia da Luz.The missing seven-year-old boy is being linked it with the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
Detectives hunting for the boy have told his parents they are now working closely with police in Portugal.
This development adds weight to Kate and Gerry McCanns' insistence that their daughter was abducted, and that they were not responsible.
The link between the cases was revealed as dive teams searched a murky reservoir for Madeleine's body.
Jeremy's mother Ithaisa Suarez, 24, told yesterday of the striking similarities between the two cases - and her belief that both children may still be alive.
She said: "The specialist police team from Madrid have told me that they have been in contact with the Portuguese police investigating Madeleine. They are working on the theory that people involved in child trafficking are behind these cases."
Jeremy was playing on wasteground behind his home when he disappeared on March 10 last year.
Ithaisa insists both Jeremy and Madeleine, four, were snatched to order and likely sold on by a ruthless gang.
She was the first mother in similar anguished circumstances to write to the McCanns, both 39, when Madeleine disappeared last May. The two griefstricken families exchanged a series of letters.
Ithaisa wants to meet Kate and Gerry, as well as the parents of missing Mari Luz Cortes from Huelva, Spain, to present a united front in drawing international attention to their plight.
She said: "We need to stick together and make sure people understand we have not given up on our children being found."
Clarence Mitchell, the McCann family spokesman, said: "We are very grateful to the Vargas family for their continued support.
"Kate and Gerry have Jeremy in their thoughts an awful lot of the time."

Yesterday, divers continued to search a reservoir for Madeleine's body following a tip-off from an underworld source to a lawyer.

The search at Barragem do Arade - 40 miles from Praia da Luz - is being funded by Marcos Correia, who claims he was told she was murdered and thrown into a lake last May.

Correia, who would not reveal his source, said: "I am convinced this is the place."

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40,000 Spanish estate agencies have gone bust.

figures released by the Spanish Estate Agents' Commission, around 40,000 Spanish estate agencies - nearly half the total - were forced to close last year, coinciding with a 40% decline in property sales.
As a result, it is estimated that around 100,000 estate agents lost their jobs during 2007.

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Monzer al-Kassar "Prince of Marbella"

Al-Kassar, dubbed the "Prince of Marbella" because of his opulent lifestyle, faces life imprisonment if convicted


Monzer al-Kassar, alleged Syrian arms dealer and co-conspirator with the recently-extradited pair of Luis Felipe Moreno Godoy and Tareq Mousa al Ghazi, is one step closer to being extradited from Spain. Today, a Spanish court authorized al-Kassar’s extradition to the United States to face terror related charges.
As we reported a week ago, Godoy and al Ghazi were extradited from Romania to face charges of supplying missiles, automatic weapons and ammunition to the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Columbia, or FARC, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization. Al-Kassar, who allegedly utilized a criminal arms network he supposedly masterminded in the transaction, faces similar charges.
The decision of by the National Audience, which has jurisdiction over international crimes, is subject to appeal. If confirmed a final decision will fall on the Spanish government. .

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