20 pure breed horses were left to die from hunger in stables in Ulea

20 pure breed horses were left to die from hunger in stables in Ulea, Murcia, and their current condition is reported to be critical in some cases.The animals belonged to some Colombian drug traffickers who were arrested and simply left the animals abandoned afterwards. The whole matter has now been denounced by ecologist and animal rights organisations who...

Spanish lawyer G.J.S., admitted that Malaga public auctions are controlled by ‘mafia-type’ criminal rings

Spanish lawyer admitted that public auctions conducted throughout the Province of Malaga, Spain are controlled by ‘mafia-type’ criminal rings. The grip on the so-called ‘public’ auction of properties is such that no outsiders, whether in business or as individuals can get near the gavel’s fall. This allegation comes after many attacks on the various Spanish systems. Almost unilaterally, they fail to live up to the expectations of their...

Courts in Málaga are taking as long as four years to hear cases

Courts in Málaga are taking as long as four years to hear the most simple of cases, according to a report in the Diario Sur newspaper today. The number is noted by the General Council for Judicial Power, the body which oversees the judiciary in Spain, which notes that things are particularly bad in Estepona, Marbella and Fuengirola.The other side of the coin is in Antequera where cases are generally completed in some eight to ten months.The...

Double whammy due to hit Costa del Sol

Families planning a summer holiday abroad face paying up to a fifth more than they did last year.Researchers from price comparison website Travelsupermarket.com compared popular packages for 2008 with similar ones from last year.They found that a two-week self-catering break for a family of four (two adults and two children) in Benalmadena on the Costa Del Sol has risen by £246 to £1,504.The rise is blamed on the double whammy of rocketing...

Mediterráneo Casino in La Vila Joiosa in tax fraud

Mediterráneo Casino in La Vila Joiosa has been declaring five fewer tables to the authorities than it has actually be running since 1999. The allowed the company to escape and estimated 1.1 million € in municipal taxes.The casino is one of the largest in Spain and has been paying taxes on 15 tables instead of 20. Director, Antonio Baraja Mayordomo, told El País that he had no idea how many tables were in use, but claimed all was legal....

Legal action started against the promoter, Ellamare Holdings S.L. which now faces a fine as large as 100,000 €.

Manilva Town Hall has ordered the immediate halt to building on the front line of the beach in an area of land not suitable for building because it is catalogued as being of environmental interest in the province’s protection plan.The land concerned is known as Punta Chullera, and the local environment councillor, Emilio López, has also ordered water and power supply companies to stop servicing the area.Legal action will now be started...

Benalmadena coach crash that killed nine tourists from Finland drunk driver was travelling at 155km an hour

Jesús GR, the driver responsible for a coach crash on the A-7 motorway near Benalmadena on April 19th that killed nine tourists from Finland and left 42 others injured, was travelling at 155km an hour, according to the conclusions of the Guardia Civil's Accident Reconstruction team. The driver, who was transferred to jail following his eventual release from hospital, tested over the limit for alcohol and initially claimed to have been going...

65 year old man was arrested in Benidorm over the death of his 53 year old wife, who fell from a 12th floor balcony

65 year old man was arrested in Benidorm over the death of his 53 year old wife, who fell from a 12th floor balcony at their home in the Cénit building on the calle La Pipa . It seems that the victim had denounced her partner for domestic violence on a number of previous occasions, but had never applied for a restraining order which meant they still lived together. Autopsy results confirm that the woman died in the fall, but it was impossible...

Philip Michael H ,Darrel Lee A accused of putting their hands up the skirts of three air hostesses several times during a flight from the UK.

According to a report in El Mundo, two British men - Philip Michael H (32) and Darrel Lee A (37) - were arrested by Guardia Civil officers at Son Sant Joan airport in Palma de Mallorca. They are accused of putting their hands up the skirts of three air hostesses several times during a flight from the ...

Yulisa Antonia Pérez from the Dominican Republic, whose corpse was found on a rubbish tip near Arrecife stepfather arrested

stepfather of 18 year old Yulisa Antonia Pérez from the Dominican Republic, whose corpse was found on a rubbish tip near Arrecife (Lanzarote) at the end of last year, five days after she was reported missing, has been re-arrested and charged with her murder. The suspect was first taken into protective custody on the day Yulisa's body was found after being accused of her murder by some within the local Dominican community, who were threatening...

Salamanca matador Javier Valverde is reported to be recovering satisfactorily after being seriously gored at Estepona bullring

Salamanca matador Javier Valverde is reported to be recovering satisfactorily after being seriously gored in the right buttock yesterday by the second bull - his first - of the afternoon at Estepona bullring. The matador underwent emergency surgery at the ringside infirmary, where his team presented him with one of the bull's ears, before being transferred to the Costa del Sol Hospital in Marbella. According to his doctors, Valverde sustained...

Two youths were arrested yesterday after a 37 year old man from Vallmoll was stabbed to death outside a Reus night club

Two youths were arrested yesterday after a 37 year old man from Vallmoll was stabbed to death outside a Reus night club during the early hours of Saturday morning. The arrests were made on the basis of a statement of a third youth, who turned up at Reus police station on Sunday morning after hearing a radio news bulletin, saying that a man had been killed in the town overnight and fearing that one of his two companions may have been responsible....

Helldorado as Costa del Sol's biggest estate agents file for voluntary insolvency

Costa del Sol's biggest estate agents has filed for voluntary insolvency has deepened the gloom over southern Spain's property market. Viva Estates was one of the area's biggest success stories. It was set up ten years ago by an Englishman, Chris McCarthy, using the cricketer Ian Botham to raise its profile and within a few years operated from 15 offices. In the past 12 months, all but one of those offices has closed and more than 100 staff...

Juan Pedro G, former leader of Ojén, is on trial this week charged with crimes against the environment

Former mayor is facing prison for agreeing to the installation of a rubbish dump, which resulted in the pollution of a nearby stream.Juan Pedro G, former leader of Ojén, is on trial this week charged with crimes against the environment. Due to the location of the dump, the mouth of the brook known as El Arroyo Segundo was contaminated.In addition to a custodial sentence, the ex-mayor could also be forced to pay the costs of cleaning up...

1,000-square metre plantation of cannabis sativa (hemp) in Dos Hermanas

Two brothers, M.P.M. and F.P.M. owners of a 1,000-square metre plantation of cannabis sativa (hemp) in Dos Hermanas (Sevilla) claimed in court last week that the bushes, planted in perfectly straight lines and equipped with a drip irrigation system, provided shade for their 80 valuable fighting cocks and chickens. They denied cultivating the hemp for drugs and explained that the plants were both male and female unlike those grown for cannabis,...

Corruption case prosecution will be asking for a six-year jail sentence for Hidalgo and Gibert

The former mayor of Andraitx, Eugenio Hidalgo, together with Jaime Gibert, the former Andraitx planning inspector, Jaime Massot, an ex-Balearic government planning chief, and a former legal advisor, Ignacio Mir, are expected to be present on the first day of the proceedings.The prosecution will be asking for a six-year jail sentence for Hidalgo and Gibert, with two years for Massot and 12 months for Mir.This case came to light 18 months...

400,000 mainly small investors in Spain had put their money in stamps, through programmes marketed by two companies, Afinsa and Forum.

With today being the second anniversary of Spain's biggest stamp scandal, it has emerged that the Spanish authorities have requested the cooperation of Gibraltar, via Interpol, to try and establish a possible Gibraltar link.Over 400,000 mainly small investors in Spain had put their money in stamps, through programmes marketed by two companies, Afinsa and Forum. But, in total, they ended up losing 6 billion euros.Spanish police suspect that...

No help for theSpanish property market as Spain teeters on the brink .

The Spanish Minister for Tax and the Economy, Pedro Solbes, has said that he is against doing anything to halt the adjustment of ‘the excesses’ of the construction industry which had been seen over recent years.Earlier in the week the Minister admitted that the slow-down in the sector had been far quicker than he had expected, but his comments today before the Economy and Tax Commission in Congress show that he thinks the market needs to...

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...

National Police today carried out raids against the Municipal Police force in the Madrid town of Coslada, headed by the Chief of the local police

National Police today carried out raids against the Municipal Police force in the Madrid town of Coslada, headed by the Chief of the local police Ginés Jiménez Buendía. Nearly 30 municipal policemen were arrested in the operation accused of taking part in the extortion of bars, shops and prostitutes in the town. Searches were carried out in both the Coslada police station and the homes of the police chief, and some of the others arrested,...

Arrested Joseph Henry B. member of the crime network involved in the drug shipments

Udyco sources indicate that the hashish was hidden in the bottom of containers in which the man's company, located in an industrial park in Mijas Costa, shipped high-voltage batteries to Great Britain via France. Police first became suspicious of the man's company when they noticed that, although there was little activity in the Mijas warehouse, the company made periodic shipments to France, which were then sent on to Britain through an...

Spanish land prices are falling in response to the downturn in the property market.

price of urban land in Spain fell by a national average of 2.7% to 277 euros/m2 in the last quarter of 2007 compared to the previous year, according to figures from the ministry of housing. On a quarterly basis, land prices fell by 2.8%. Regional variations in falls were substantial, from as little as 1% in some provinces, to 41% in Leon, 33% in Alicante, 25%...

Illegal Hotel in Almeria will have to be torn down.

Spanish supreme court has just ruled that hotel built on the El Algorrobico beach in the Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park in Almeria is illegal. The hotel, promoted by a company called Azata del Sol, was the first stage in a plan to build a massive resort including the obligatory golf course plus residential development. In a natural park and on a protected beach...

Spanish property market is a disaster, with transactions plummeting by more than 40%

Spanish property market is a disaster, with transactions plummeting by more than 40% during February (compared to February 2007) in key regions such as Catalonia. Despite the fact that newly built properties are selling better than resales, developers are also having a terrible time of it, with sales down by around 60% since September 2007, swelling a growing...

Torrevieja Estate agents aren’t selling anything, developers are going bust, retail sales are falling by 10% to 15%, local business are struggling

According to a recent article in the Spanish press the situation in Torrevieja is deteriorating rapidly. Official unemployment has surged from 1,700 in 2005 to more than 5,000 today. Given that the construction sector employs an army of illegal immigrants, who are the first to lose their jobs, real unemployment is likely to be much higher. Estate agents aren’t selling anything, developers are going bust, retail sales are falling by 10%...

Major Alexander Matthew Blake, died on Wednesday when hang gliding in the area of Cenes de la Vega in the Sierra Nevada in Granada

British naval officer, Major Alexander Matthew Blake, died on Wednesday when hang gliding in the area of Cenes de la Vega in the Sierra Nevada in Granada. He was in Andalucía to take part in a military exercise in Málaga, and is said to have lost control during a dangerous aerobatic manoeuvre around 6pm on Wednesday night.EFE news agency reports that the man was attended to by the Guardia Civil and emergency services, but they could do...

Family of a 5-year-old Mari Luz Cortes who was murdered this year have begun a protest trip across Spain to press for life sentences for paedophiles

Family of a 5-year-old Mari Luz Cortes who was murdered this year have begun a protest trip across Spain to press for life sentences for paedophile killers.Mari Luz Cortes vanished on January 13 as she walked home from a sweet shop in Huelva, southern Spain. Her decomposed body, still dressed in the clothes she wore that day, was found on a river-bank near her home two months later.The man suspected of killing Mari Luz, a convicted paedophile,...