Socialist Mayor of the village of Alcaucín in Málaga is among 13 people arrested in Spain’s latest corruption scandal.

latest corruption case in Spain has broken in the Axarquía area of Málaga province Socialist Mayor of the village of Alcaucín in Málaga is among 13 people arrested in Spain’s latest corruption scandal.José Manuel Martín Alba, a labourer by trade, has been detained as investigations continue into the building and sale of homes on non-buildable land. Searches were carried out on Friday in the homes of the Mayor and members of his family.The...

Special anti-drug unit set up by the Spanish tax administration agency has intercepted a vessel carrying 5 tons of cocaine in the Atlantic,

Special anti-drug unit set up by the Spanish tax administration agency has intercepted a vessel carrying 5 tons of cocaine in the Atlantic, the agency said Friday. The five Venezuelan crew of the 16-metre-long Dona Fortuna were detained in the operation, which took place some 1,500 kilometres off the Canary Islands on Thursday. The cocaine, which was believed...

Robert Orchard, 65,had lived on the ‘Costa Del Crime’ for 13 years but had not been tempted to join the drugs culture until he had a cancer scare.

Cynical Robert Orchard, 65, had not seen daughter Cheyrl and grandson Robert, nine, for five years when he invited her on an all-expenses-paid sunshine trip to Marbella.He planned to drive her back to her home in Stirling aboard a new camper-van he had bought for the trip.What she didn’t know was that Orchard had stashed cannabis resin valued at more than £800,000 underneath the bunk-bed in which herson was sleeping.The van was stopped...

Monzer al-Kassar, 63, described by prosecutors as one of the world's most prolific arms dealers, was convicted in November

Monzer al-Kassar, 63, described by prosecutors as one of the world's most prolific arms dealers, was convicted in November of agreeing to sell weapons to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, to protect a cocaine-trafficking business and attack U.S. interests.U.S. prosecutors asked a judge on Monday to sentence a Syrian arms dealer convicted of...

Removal companies in Malaga on the Costa del Sol are saying that the number of Brits who are returning to the UK is on the increase

Removal companies in Malaga on the Costa del Sol are saying that the number of Brits who are returning to the UK is on the increase and the number who are booking them to move out here is decreasing .A trend of the credit crunch .There are many reasons for doing this and some of them involve walking away from financial committments which they cannot meet .Rents , mortgages , business taxes to name but a few .Pensioners are more pragmatic...

Around 70% of Santander’s retail clients affected by the Madoff scandal have accepted a settlement offered to them by the Spanish bank

Around 70% of Santander’s retail clients affected by the Madoff scandal have accepted a settlement offered to them by the Spanish bank, lawyers told a US court in Miami on Thursday as part of a class action lawsuit. Meanwhile between 7% to 9% have refused the offer and prefer to continue with their legal proceedings.Santander’s retail clients were exposed to the Madoff alleged Ponzi scheme via the Optimal Strategy US Equity fund run by...

Banco Santander has suspended payments in its largest real estate fund

Banco Santander has suspended payments in its largest real estate fund in a decision which has left 43,200 clients with their investment frozen.The fund, Santander Banif Inmoboliario, has assets of 3.2 billion, but those who now ask for their original investment will be paid ten per cent.It comes as the bank finds the fund unable to meet recent requests for withdrawals amounting to 2.617 billion, some 80% of the total.The decision to freeze...

Self-confessed killer of 17 year old Marta del Castillo from Sevilla, 20 year old Miguel Carcaño, and his friend Samuel Benítez

self-confessed killer of 17 year old Marta del Castillo from Sevilla, 20 year old Miguel Carcaño, and his friend Samuel Benítez who helped to throw the body of Marta into the Guadalquivir River, have been ordered to prison in Sevilla today without bail.Dozens of people waited outside the courts before and after the appearance of the two youngsters, shouting...

Miguel Carcaño, the 20 year old who has confessed to the killing of missing 17 year old Marta del Castillo in Sevilla

Miguel Carcaño, the 20 year old who has confessed to the killing of missing 17 year old Marta del Castillo in Sevilla, has been currently going out with a 14 year old girl, Rocio. Miguel Carcaño will appear in court in Sevilla on Monday charged with the murder of 17 year old Marta del Castillo.She has told the press that although she knows that he is the killer, she cannot believe it. She said she knew that he was quite a jealous man, and...

Amer Hady Saed British property developer had suffered a severe blow to the head and cuts as if he had been defending himself against a knife attack

The victim, named in reports as Amer Hady Saed, 68, had suffered a severe blow to the head and cuts as if he had been defending himself against a knife attack, the Spanish newspaper El Pais said. Body of a British property developer has been found at a luxury villa in southern Spain.His body was discovered by workmen renovating a £4.3 million mansion in Marbella,...

Hundreds of Marbella residents affected tens of millions of euros disappeared. A court in San Roque (Cádiz) investigating an alleged scam Lansbanski

Hundreds Marbellas British residents wiped out tens of millions of euros disappeared. A court in San Roque (Cádiz) is investigating an alleged scam perpetrated against foreign residents in Marbella, in an amount that could exceed 40 million euros. In the spotlight is the Icelandic capital Lansbanski bank recently nationalized due to the international financial crisis, and its subsidiary Luxembourg Luxembourg SA Lansbanski, now in liquidation...

Spanish law firm three million people were affected by the Madoff affair

There are up to three million "direct and indirect" victims worldwide of the alleged fraud by US broker Bernard Madoff, a Spanish law firm that has filed a US lawsuit in the name of some of the victims said Tuesday."Our calculations are that at least three million people were affected by the Madoff affair, three million people who could be directly or indirectly affected by the case," Javier Cremades, the president of law firm Cremades...

Ley de Costas, Coastal Law.property can now be bought and sold, and indeed passed in inheritance, provided the building was built legally before 1988.

Spanish Government has added a last minute amendment to the Ley de Costas, Coastal Law. The change comes as an attempt to lessen the barrage of criticism the law has received from Europe, following complaints from the British and German embassies.The law is in fact not a new one, but is now 20 years old, but only recently has the current Minister for the Environment, Carmen Narbona, started to enforce it.The 1988 law declares that the beach...

Recent report from Economic Analysts in Andalucía paints a pretty bleak picture for Andalucía

Recent report from Economic Analysts in Andalucía paints a bleak picture for Andalucía but the province of Malaga the home of Costa del Sol has a much more rosy future than the rest of Andalucía. Malaga with a growth rate of 1.5% last year is the leading province for economic growth whose average growth rate is 1.1%. The gross regional product of Andalucía is expected to fall by 1.1% in 2009 however the least effect of the decline will...